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Buce appreciative of local support
By Michael Butler
Todd Buce spent 20 years with the Montgomery Police Department before making the move to Tallassee. He now has two years under his belt as chief of the Tallassee Police Department.
Buce is happy to now call Tallassee home.
"I was there from 1995 to 2015," Buce said of his time in the Capital City, which has recently seen a hike in serious crimes. "Among their issues is the backing of the judicial system and city leaders. That is so important. We're lucky here in Tallassee. The mayor and council have our back."
Buce added that praise is common in Tallassee, although elsewhere it is not necessarily the case.
"We're not getting negative feedback," he said. "We get everything that we currently need. And, we're fully staffed."
Some might call comparing Tallassee to a Montgomery, apples to oranges. Tallassee has a population of 4,763. Montgomery has a population of 200,603. Tallassee has 23 officers. Montgomery has 260. However, the number of sworn officers in Montgomery has dropped by 45 percent from four years ago, while Tallassee has remained steady.
"There (are) guidelines on how many officers you have per capita," Buce continued. "Montgomery and Tallassee are alike in (how) people travel in and out of our cities. We have about 5,000 people, but during the day we have about 25,000 to 30,000 that come through Tallassee."
Still, Buce would not trade his small-town 'problems' for those being dealt with in larger communities.
"They wish they had our problems - keeping the speed down and keeping everybody safe. We've had a number of bad accidents with serious injuries. We make traffic stops to keep those from continuing." |
