Newly minted Gilbert Police Chief Michael Soelberg is no stranger to the East Valley — he’s lived in the town for 21 years and spent his entire career at the neighboring Mesa Police Department.

However, the neighboring locales are very different. Mesa, although still growing, has already persevered through massive expansion. It’s the 36th-largest city in the country and outpaces Kansas City and Atlanta in population.

Working in Gilbert is like “stepping back in time” to what Mesa looked like when Soelberg began with the department in the 1990s, he said. With just more than 230,000 residents, it’s smaller, more “tight-knit” and still growing rapidly, he said.

“And that’s one of the challenges — it still has that small-town feel but it’s a big town,” Soelberg said.

He said he watched Mesa grapple with the same challenge for more than 20 years. 

Gilbert is frequently cited as one of the safest communities in America, but it needs to get ahead of the “growing pains” that are sure to come with the population increases expected in the next 15 years, Soelberg said.

“Quite frankly, we’re a little bit behind. We need to catch up,” he said.

Soelberg said the Gilbert Town Council is fiscally conservative and wants to see proof of need before it commits large dollars for public safety projects. He said he’ll use the coming months in his new role to analyze data and establish a long-term plan for catching up and keeping up with growth.

These are some of the large-scale projects and priorities Soelberg said will need to be addressed in the near future:

Staffing

“The highest priority, the biggest growth issue we’ll have is keeping up with staffing,” Soelberg said. 

He said that doesn’t just mean more officers on the ground, but all the other costs that come along with increasing the force, like purchasing new vehicles, equipment and radios.

The council will add 14 sworn officers and 2.5 civilian positions in the fiscal year that begins July 1.

Training facility

The town does not have a public safety training facility and relies on resources from the state or other cities when it needs to train, which has become increasingly difficult as the force grows, Soelberg said.

“We need not only a location but staffing to accommodate that training as we continue to grow to make sure that our officers, both civilian and sworn, have the proper training to handle that growth, handle that crime that comes up and make sure we’re staying on top of trends,” he said.

The council approved $3.9 million in the coming year’s budget to fund the design of the facility. From there, the council will have to decide if it’s willing to move forward with construction, which is expected to carry a hefty price tag.

Crime lab

Gilbert relies on Mesa’s crime lab to test evidence, but as Gilbert grows, the department will have to decide if that is still the best option or establish its own, Soelberg said.

“As your town grows, even with it being the safest city in the country and the state, we’re going to have crime. So you’re going to be able to accommodate that through investigations, patrol support and the lab,” he said.

Temporary jail

Gilbert and Chandler share a holding facility where offenders are held no more than 24 hours awaiting arraignment.

But as Chandler and Gilbert add to their populations every day, it’s just a matter of time until they outgrow that partnership, Soelberg said.

“We’ve got to look at how long will that last. They’re growing just like we are so eventually between the two of us we’re going to outgrow that facility,” he said.

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