Alex cops

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Thursday

• November 5, 2015

www.magicvalley.com •

$1.50

5 New Reasons to Play at Auger Falls • B5

Twin Falls Taps Top Nampa Cop as Final Police Chief Candidate ALEX RIGGINS ariggins@magicvalley.com‌

‌ WIN FALLS • City officials have T named Nampa Police Chief Craig Kingsbury the final candidate in the search for a new chief of police, and he will be hired pending the successful completion of a background check.‌ The city narrowed the search from 15 applicants to seven candidates late last month, but after a

round of Skype interviews, Brian Pike, now the depcity officials chose to skip uty city manager of pubover a step that would have lic safety, will conduct a background check Friday seen finalists interview that is expected to include with a community board. an interview with Nampa “It was apparent that Craig was the right choice,” Mayor Bob Henry as well as City Manager Travis Roth- Kingsbury other Nampa city officials. weiler said. “He’s a chief in Kingsbury has been chief an organization larger than ours of police in Nampa since he was and he embodies the same phi- sworn in Jan. 7, 2013, where he losophies we value here.” heads a department of 165 employFormer Twin Falls police chief ees. The Twin Falls department

has about 100 employees. He has been part of the Nampa Police Department for more than 24 years. He also worked three years for the Canyon County Sheriff’s Office, according to the Idaho Press-Tribune. This is the second search for a new chief this year. In March, the city announced it would start the search over after the two leading candidates withdrew. The department has been led

Cops in Schools

by interim Chief Bryan Krear since Jan. 1. The city advertised the chief job early this year and narrowed it down to four candidates, but two of the leading candidates withdrew and two weren’t the right fit for the job. By mid-March city officials said they would have to start the search again. The job was advertised with a salary range of between $85,500 and $123,000. Please see KINGSBURY, A4

Twin Falls Council Shakeup: Now What? NATHAN BROWN nbrown@magicvalley.com‌

STEPHEN REISS, TIMES-NEWS‌PHOTOS

Canyon Ridge High School Resource Officer Matt Triner talks to senior Austyn Galbreath in a school hallway Wednesday in Twin Falls.

Beyond Keeping the Peace

‌ WIN FALLS • T Come January, there will be two new faces on the Twin Falls City Council and two old ones returned by the voters.‌ Nikki Boyd won a three-way race with Wayne Bohrn and John Kapeleris for the seat Jim Munn is vacating, and Ruth Pierce was elected to Seat 7, beating incumbent Rebecca Mills Sojka by 92 votes. Chris Talkington beat Neil Christensen by 196 votes, with Larry “House” Houser coming in third, to be re-elected to what he says will be his last term. “I think the closeness of a couple of the races shows that all the candidates who participated put a lot of effort into their campaign and showed they were connecting with voters,” said Shawn Barigar, who was the only one to be re-elected unopposed Tuesday. Even though there are two new members, the current and incoming council members are mostly agreed on the big issues facing the city – the City Hall and public safety complex projects, the Main Avenue redesign, economic development and attracting and keeping a workforce. Please see COUNCIL, A5

ALEX RIGGINS ariggins@magicvalley.com‌

‌ WIN FALLS • T School districts around the country are evaluating the role of campus police officers after a sheriff’s deputy was fired in South Carolina for flipping a high school student backward in her desk and then dragging her across the floor of her classroom.‌ A video of the incident sparked outrage among some and raised a question: What is the role of police officers on school campuses? Twin Falls Police Sgt. Dennis Pullin, who oversees the school resource officers in the Twin Falls School District, said campus officers fulfill three roles. “We do counseling, education and enforcement,” he said. Officer Matt Triner, the school resource officer at Canyon Ridge High and Lincoln Elementary, said his most important role is to provide safety and protection for students and staff, as well as provide counseling and to be a resource to the school in any way he can. The U.S. Justice Department outlines the role of officers in schools as law enforcers, informal counselors, educators and emergency managers. “Our main goal is to make the environment safe for everybody,” Pullin said.

Twin Falls School District

Gene Ritchie, a retired Twin Falls officer, was the first school resource officer in the Twin Falls School District. When he was assigned to the district in the mid-’70s he had an office at Twin Falls High School but covered every school in the district. Now there are five full-time school resources officers in the district who are each responsible for at least two schools.

Officials Lament Low Turnout Voter Turnout 16% in Twin Falls, 19% Countywide NATHAN BROWN nbrown@magicvalley.com‌

“Discipline is handled by teachers and vice principals,” Craner said. Jeremy Belliston, the social studies department chair and student council adviser at Canyon Ridge, said teachers know they can call Triner if a fight breaks out or a situation might turn violent. If a student were to yell at him, or disrupt his class like the girl in the video from South Carolina, Belliston said, his first solution would be to try to escort the student to the office himself.

‌ WIN FALLS • T At the end of Monday’s City Council meeting, Councilman Greg Lanting urged everyone to vote on Tuesday.‌ City Council elections might not be glamorous, but he and his six colleagues have more impact on local residents than any one of the 105 lawmakers in Boise or the 535 in Washington, D.C. “We’re the ones that can actually affect more things within your life than any of those other groups can,” he said. His message largely fell on deaf ears. Although turnout was higher than the past two years, overall turnout in Twin Falls on Tuesday was still lower than the countywide average.

Please see SRO, A5

Please see TURNOUT, A5

Canyon Ridge High School Resource Officer Matt Triner in his office on Wednesday in Twin Falls. Each of the officers are employed by the police department but their salaries are paid half by the department and half by the school district, said district spokeswoman Eva Craner. According to district policy, the job of a school resource officer is “to assist school administration in providing a safe, secure and non-disruptive school environment conducive to the education process where prevention is the main emphasis.” What school resource officers are not asked to do, according to Craner, is to help discipline students.

I‌ f You Do One Thing: “The Art of Teaching” exhibit is on display 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Twin Falls Center for the Arts, 195 River Vista Place. Free.

High

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Partly Cloudy. B4

Comics A6 Markets A2

Crossword C3 Dear Abby C2

Jumble C4 Obituaries A4

Opinion A7 Sudoku C5


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