Edinger speaks at Kiwanis meeting

Sandy Wilhelm introduced Scott Edinger, the new Jamestown chief of police, at the Kiwanis Club’s noon luncheon meeting April 9 at the Lantern Room.

Edinger was born in Bismarck but grew up in Wyoming. He was educated and attended the police academy in Wyoming. He has many relatives in North Dakota. He came to Jamestown in 1984 and became a patrolman. In 1988 he worked with the Drug Task Force. In 2008 he became a regular investigator and was chosen as chief in January 2012.

He said that the police department is a little behind on technology. It doesn’t have connectivity to the Internet in the police cars yet but with grant money, they are planning to update that. They are working on streamlining some work as right now the officers spend more time in the office doing reports than they’d like them to. When they get the cars more efficient, they will do everything from their car and get back out on the streets. In the future they would like a new shooting range, however, that will cost around $1 million. They will also be working on training as there is a lot of turnover. Right now there are 29 sworn officers and five civilians working in the Jamestown Police Department. They get around 17,000 calls a year.

Tim Burchill led the meeting and also collected “Happy Dollars” for pediatric care at Jamestown Regional Medical Center. Wes Hart led the singing. Janna Bergstedt updated everyone on the wine and cheesecake event.

Kent Horton will introduce Scott Larsen from Sanford Health at the noon meeting April 23 at the Lantern Room.

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