MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Representatives on the Morgantown Civilian Police Review and Advisory Board hope that newly appointed hires to city positions will help address struggles to acquire expanded data related to city resident interactions with officers.
Board Vice Chair Rachel Fetty discussed the appointment of new Morgantown City Manager Jamie Martin and new Morgantown Deputy City Clerk Nicole Lauffer during the board’s regular meeting Thursday, where she expressed optimism in the new hires and their potential to assist on board concerns. The appointments were mentioned as part of a conversation related to the request for expanded data related to the Morgantown Police Department and officer interactions with the public.
“I would imagine that once the new city manager is on-boarded, that will add to the capacity of the city’s response to really almost anything,” said Fetty. “Because they’ll be fully staffed and able to address any concerns more fully.”
The discussion of the appointment of Martin as the new Morgantown City Manager and the appointment of Lauffer stemmed from what members of the Morgantown Civilian Police Review and Advisory feel have been inadequate responses by the Morgantown Police Department in regard to details of interactions outside of the standard monthly interaction reports. The desire of the board is to potentially have those statistics expanded to have interaction accounted for based on demographics and wards. The hope is that with new administrators set to be sworn in in the coming months, they could address requests to refine data reported through the Morgantown Police Department’s monthly reports.
“With the reports we wanted, I thought that we were going to start, that we were going to do our own revisions to the reports to send out, based on the information that we get from him (Morgantown Police Chief Eric Powell),” said Board Chair Richard Burks.
Fetty made sure to also point out the history of Lauffer’s work with the city as a major highlight for the appointees. Lauffer has worked with the City of Morgantown since 2023 as a Special Projects Coordinator and has hosted programs such as the Morgantown Citizens Academy and open houses for the Morgantown Police Department. With a new hire immediately familiar with aspects of city operations, there’s a mixed sense of optimism that more progress could be made on having interaction data involving police officers based on racial, gender, and age demographics, as well as ward location of reported crimes.
“It was really great to chat with her on the phone, and she’s super helpful,” said Fetty on her conversations with Lauffer. “It was nice to see a friendly face, and it was nice to see someone who is very familiar, at least, with our processes.”
The Morgantown Police Department Interaction Reports currently consist of the reason for a police response and any follow-up action, along with the location of incidents that have taken place across the city. These reports are distributed on a request basis and are given to community organizations such as the Greenmont Neighborhood Association, the Woodburn Association of Neighbors, and many others. With a hope to potentially have the reports expand to account for demographics, the board is expecting to remain in contact with both the city and the Morgantown Police Department to continue their efforts.
“I want to talk to the deputy chief (Chris Ruehmer) about the monthly report routing,” said Burks. “Maybe just a little conversation about how often these are routed, do they go to all the neighborhood meetings, just how the process works, I guess.”