Kathryn Nance became the Reno Police Department Chief in February, coming from Stockton, CA. Chief Nance told us that she considers herself middle management because she needs to follow the directives and policies of the City Manager, the City Council, and the citizens of Reno. And as a middle manager she is managing an organization that has almost 450 employees. She talked about a reorganization that is taking place within the RPD.
Like most law enforcement departments, RPD is having difficulty finding and hiring qualified officers. 3% of those who apply to RPD graduate from the academy and start work as a police officer. There is also a need to increase the number of women in the department (currently at 13%) and to address the issue that the current makeup of the department does not represent the ethnic makeup of the Reno community. Towards that end, she shared that RDP has just received a 175,000 grant for recruiting new officers.
Other items that she talked about included the Downtown Reno Partnership's funding of a patrol team, different models of policing, and human trafficking. And a continual theme from Chief Nance was her desire to have transparency.