'Compassion for your community'

Like an exposed nerve, the recently unveiled drug issue in Saratoga doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon.

Despite only having three full-time officers, the Saratoga Police Department continues to make drug-related arrests as they search for housing for more officers. K9 Sergeant Justin Brown, attending in place of Police Chief Ken Lehr, provided the Saratoga Town Council with an update at their August 17 meeting.

Drugs and fishing holes

Two weeks prior, during the August 3 meeting of the Saratoga Town Council, Brown informed the governing body “you have all the hard drugs” which ranged from LSD to MDMA and included fentanyl. A synthetic opioid, it is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine and, when used legally, is prescribed to treat patients with severe pain.

“Drugs are still a big deal,” said Brown on August 17. “I came back on Sunday, pulled more drugs. I’ll probably pull more tonight.”

For at least one week of police reports, citations for possession of a controlled substance were absent but, according to Brown, it coincided with his absence while attending training. While, on August 3, the police department reported a number of their drug arrests came from traffic stops, Brown appeared to suggest more recent arrests were due to hot pool checks.

“The hot pool is still an issue for us. It’s a fishing hole for us to try and keep safe for the public. Sergeant Christen’s always there and chief’s there and I’m there,” Brown said. “We’re doing the best we can for what we have.”

From July 26 to August 22, the Saratoga Police Department responded to 411 calls with many of them bar checks and business checks. In that time-frame, the police department had 20 citations or arrests related to possession of a controlled substance. Of those 20 citations, nine of them were felony amounts.

Two of those felony citations were issued on July 30 and August 2 with the remaining seven issued on August 21.

As Brown gave his report, Councilmember Ron Hutchins asked if the police department ever received any information from the courts as to the result of an arrest having gone to trial. The officer replied the department often didn’t get notification from the courts and don’t typically know the result of a case unless they are asked to testify.

“You’re not getting any repeat customers though, right?” asked Hutchins.

“A few,” said Brown. “It’s not like TV where you arrest them, they go to jail, they go to court, then they get put in prison. They get bonded out and the court gets pushed out to whatever time. They have a certain amount of time to get a lawyer and get what they need in line to help them. They might be doing the same thing during that time frame.”

While Brown informed the public and the council on August 3 the department was looking at local individuals, the 20 citations between July 26 to August 22 were issued to non-local individuals.

Housing lacking

Though the Saratoga Police Department is down to three full-time officers, with the recent departure of Kyle Murphy, it isn’t due to lack of interest. The lack of housing which has plagued other businesses throughout the area has also frustrated the department in hiring new officers.

At the August 3 council meeting, Lehr put the blame almost entirely on Brush Creek Ranch stating they were buying up houses and taking up rentals in the area. While an August 5 workshop gave some potential leads for the council and the police department, by August 17 they had appeared to dry up.

“One of the individuals that had a house that just came open, we reached out (and) talked to him. I think the chief talked to him a week later and he’d already rented his place out,” said Mayor Creed James. “The other place that we had a good lead on, I believe the officer from El Paso County had reached out to him and talked to him. Given family circumstances and pets and so forth, we weren’t really able to get anything worked out there.”

Councilmember Jon Nelson, who had not been able to attend the August 5 workshop, asked James what advice Jane France, the town’s legal counsel, had in regards to the municipality entering into a lease on behalf of a potential employee.

According to James, France advised against the Town of Saratoga entering into any long-term lease and subletting to an employee due to liability issues. James added France’s suggestion was that a potential employee try to negotiate a lease with a landlord and “keep the Town out of it”.

Nelson asked, despite the liability, if it would be in the best interest of the Town to “get something locked up” if a rental became available, again. Hutchins agreed.

“If there’s something available that’s a reasonable living arrangement for the time being, I think we need to lock something down as the Town,” said Hutchins. “We may not have anybody in it for two months while the interview process is going on but, if we don’t have anything, we really can’t interview anybody if they can’t move here. So we have to have something for them.”

Hutchins added the Town could avoid the subletting situation by negotiating with the landlord to have the employee take over the lease once they were hired.

“I think we need to do something. It’s untenable,” Hutchins said. “You can’t bring anybody in and expect them to live on (the street) and then you can only camp for 72 hours so we can’t put them in a tent.”

As the discussion drew to an end, Brown made a public plea to Saratoga residents who were property owners, asking they “have some compassion for your community” and not ask for $1,800 to $2,000 a month just because they could get it from other parties.

The next meeting of the Saratoga Town Council will be at 6 p.m. on September 7 at Saratoga Town Hall.