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Q&A with Hagerstown Police Chief Dale Jones

August 07, 1998
(Page 4 of 4)

"I do know there are employees that probably are not comfortable with everything I've done or all the decisions that I've made. But that comes with part of the territory in this job. And that's one of the reasons you don't and can't afford to become extremely close or friendly. You want to be able to try to assure that you're fair and impartial and that you're professional in how you handle people."

Have you had any surprises since you've been in Hagerstown?




"No real significant surprises. Probably the most difficult surprise was in my first year (when) we had seven homicides. I was glad to see then that wasn't the norm and in fact knew it at the time. It would be nice to see us be able to go a number of years without that level of violence."

Where would you like to see the police department in five years?

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"I would like to see us be able to say and clearly recognize that there is a much stronger and tighter relationship between the officers themselves and the community.

"I would like to see us at at least the same level of staffing. I think we're at a point now where we need to test this level for a while and see what we can accomplish once we get these seven new officers trained and on the street.

"We'll be putting in a new radio system (and) a new computer system. I would like to see us at that point still be accredited and then continue to move ahead in terms of the level of equipment and our professionalism and how we deliver services. And most importantly to see that the crime rate has dropped."

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