HEWITT, Texas (KXXV) — The Hewitt Police Department recently added a second assistant chief of police to their team, and this is important because the decision to reorganize was made to spread out responsibility within the department.
“There were too many people reporting to one assistant chief. This reorganization will kind of streamline the responsibility and accountability up through the organization,” Hewitt Police’s Chief John McGrath said.
The change splits up field operation and support organizations, making it easier for each assistant chief to manage.
“It is going to make our department much more efficient, which is going to result in more efficiency for our service to the public,” McGrath said.
Joe Chavez is the Assistant Police Chief for Field Operations, including patrol officers, sergeants and lieutenants.
“It creates a span of control over the two assistant chiefs, to be able to get more work done,” Chavez said.
“It allows that assistant chief to really focus on patrol calls for service, what's happening out on the street, how our officers are responding to our citizens and their calls for service,” McGrath said.
The department got rid of one of the lieutenant positions too. Now, there are three lieutenants — two on patrol and one on support.
Police say this increases accountability and helps chain of command, without adding more work.
“It gives us the ability to really focus our attention in much more detail on that side of the operation,” McGrath said.
Police say that they have seen improvements in their response times since the reorganization.
He says they can expect to have more programs and growth within their departments, too.
