We're continuing our conversations
with local police departments
on their community involvement
to mark National Police Week.
And this morning, we are joined by
Chief Rex Ingram from the Caldwell
Police Department to learn more about
the department's role in the Caldwell
community and the good things that
are happening with Caldwell PD.
So let's start out Chief with
welcoming you this early.
Thank you for calling. Thank
you so much for having me
here. I sincerely appreciate it.
Well, we're glad you're here.
What does community involvement mean
to the Caldwell Police Department?
You guys do showcase a lot of that.
On your social media and you kind
of get to see how the officers are
getting out and about and involved.
So we have completely rebranded
and reimaged what social media
looks like in community engagement.
And Caldwell, this is nothing new.
Officers are going out there every
day and engaging the community.
But what we're doing now is giving them
a voice and just highlighting all the
hard work that they're doing every day.
And here we see some of those
pictures right there of of all
the stuff your involvement.
Can you talk to?
Us about some of these events
and what it means for you to
get out there and create these
relationships with just folks in the
community. Absolutely.
So one of the main things that
we're doing is really humanizing
law enforcement officers,
especially in Canyon County
where we're historically,
you know, there's been kind of
an us versus them mentality.
So we're getting out there,
we're doing shop with the cop,
we're doing coffee with the cop.
We're doing a lot of proactive
community engagement and actually going
to schools and and really engaging
those community members because.
Law enforcement is predicated and
public safety on the relationship
with our stakeholders and
our community members.
And
when you came here, that was
your goal was to just revamp and
recreate the culture, correct?
Absolutely. And and you know,
part of part of what I try to do
is being visible, approachable,
accessible and responsive 24 hours a day.
So I'll never turned it down.
A community member,
I'm out there with the community.
You know, we were really
advocating for victims rights.
We're advocating for.
You know just voices in the community to
be heard and really that's what it's about.
And the message goes down all the
way through the through the the
rank and file to the lowest level
and we're hiring the best and the
brightest police officers to get
out there and engage the community.
Boy, that is awesome.
You know growing up around here
Caldwell wasn't necessarily a
a destination but it is now.
I mean you just look at downtown,
it's an exciting place to be
a bunch of cool stuff going on
really a a family type community.
Talk about your work as the city
continues to grow and and really blossom,
kind of keeping up with that growth,
not only with hiring officers,
but just to get in that culture.
Yeah, absolutely.
And you know, it's a city leadership
team that really is making this,
this magic happen.
And it's all the appointed officials,
the elected officials and
people do not want to come to
Caldwell unless they feel safe.
And so part of my mission is to ensure
that our officers understand the value.
Of public safety.
Because without them protecting
and serving all day long,
people aren't going to come there
and enjoy the magical things
that are happening in Caldwell.
All the magic,
all the growth at Indian Creek Plaza,
everyone loves it there.
And that has been such an asset to Caldwell.
Let's talk about it's National Police Week.
Obviously that's why you're here
and what's going on today and
tomorrow to commemorate that.
So I took a contingency of 10
officers to Washington DC for
the national police officers.
It was a very sobering
and humbling experience.
Last night was the candlelight vigil at the
Idaho Peace Officer Memorial today at 10:00.
O'clock is the actual service.
Last year we put through 443 police officers
that were killed in the line of duty.
We're putting 2 on the wall today
and then tomorrow at 2:00 PM I
will be speaking with Mr.
Joshua Witt, Senator Lakey and.
Colonel Wills from ISP at the Canyon
County Memorial at 2:00 PM tomorrow.
All right, so that's at 2:00 tomorrow.
Are you guys gonna have
that on your Facebook live,
or how are you gonna are you gonna
broadcast that at all tomorrow?
We will be doing it live. Okay.
Great. That's good to know.
And we'll probably
be there as well.
And there you see it on your screen again.
That's 2:00 PM tomorrow.
Chief, thank you so much.
And talk just a little bit more.
You said you were going to be
talking to the US Attorney.
How critical is that sort of
cooperation between a PCs?
Absolutely.
So as equally important as having
a relationship with our community,
it's having a relationship with our
partners in the industry and the US
Attorney assists us with prosecuting
all of our federal cases and we
have a phenomenal relationship.
With all of our federal partners,
which is kind of unique right now
because historically there's been
kind of a strain between local,
state and federal law enforcement agencies.
But I'm super proud at that
relationship that we have and all
the hard work that our men and women
do every day to protect and serve
well. It's a tough job that you have
and but a lot of good things are
happening in Caldwell right now.
And so that's what we're here to
highlight today, the good that's
happening on the community because yes,
we do have to report on the
bad and what's going on,
but there's a lot of good stuff
happening too, and it's important.
To mention that everyday.
That's why we do the good news segment
here. Well, I appreciate KTVB.
Yeah, highlighting all the good news.
Well, thank you.
We, we want to do that.
We want to do that.
We have to do it.
All right. Absolutely.
Yeah. Appreciate it.