Wheeling Police say new UTV has already proven useful | News, Sports, Jobs

Photo by: Eric Ayres

Officer Brandon Hoehn poses next to the Wheeling Police Department's new Utility Terrain Vehicle (UTV), which was purchased with money allocated to the city as part of the West Virginia Opioid Settlement Fund. Police officials said the UTV has proven to be an incredibly useful tool for the department, which can now easily reach remote areas inaccessible to patrol cars.

WHEELING – Wheeling police officers have had the department's new Utility Terrain Vehicle for a month, but it only took a week or two to prove its effectiveness as an extremely useful tool for law enforcement and public service.

The department purchased the UTV and began operating it late last month, just before the Upper Ohio Valley Italian Festival. Officer Brandon Hoehn submitted the UTV application to the city as part of the police department's overall application for a portion of Wheeling's opioid settlement funds from the state of West Virginia.

“Since it's been on the street, we've done several drug pickups off the street on the trail system down by the camp in the East Wheeling area,” Hoehn said. “We did a 5K run with it and even rescued a dog. The dog collapsed and had a medical emergency and we used the UTV to get him out of there.”

Police had originally requested two UTVs, but the city has been publicly criticized by advocates for drug addicts – including homeless people – over its distribution of opioid reimbursement funds.

Some critics claimed the City Council “fast-tracked” the allocation of this money to police and fire departments for first response and law enforcement. Several supporters claimed the money from the opioid case settlement should be used to help victims of West Virginia's opioid crisis by providing them with treatment and other services to help them break the cycle of addiction.

The UTV purchases in particular were described by some as an unnecessary, even militant approach to dealing with the city's drug-addicted and homeless citizens.

The city's initial allocation from the opioid settlement amount was about $726,000, and Wheeling is expected to receive another payout of about the same amount, totaling about $1.4 million. The police department's claims total about $152,438 for various purchases, including the UTV purchases.

However, a majority of city council members reached a compromise in May and approved the police department's funding request, which only included money to purchase one of the UTVs.

Since then, several local service and care facilities have approached the City Council requesting funds from the Opioid Settlement Fund.

Although the Wheeling Police Department's original request could not be fulfilled, Police Chief Shawn Schwertfeter stated that there is every intention to purchase a second UTV as originally planned, especially since the new device has proven itself to be extremely useful so quickly.

“We've used it at a few events already,” Schwertfeger said. “We couldn't get it out in time for the Fourth of July, but it was in use at the Italian Festival. The shifts have been using it. We've parked it either outside at the armory where the fire department is or at the police station. They jump on it when we need to go to the trail. We've done some patrols on the trail.”

Hoehn noted that the UTVs have proven particularly useful in drug-related and other operations, particularly operations and patrols on the Wheeling Heritage Trail and even along the Maintenance Trail near Wheeling Creek, where the temporarily exempted homeless encampment is located.

“We found a stolen side-by-side parked along the trail system and we were just looking for it. Thanks to this device, we were able to go back there and find it,” Hoehn said. “We've responded to a car fire with it, we've responded to overdoses with it. It's proven to be very useful. We can get to places very quickly with it, and we can get to places that aren't accessible by car with it, and that's obviously much faster than walking.”

A primary purpose of the UTV was to monitor sections of the Wheeling Heritage Trail, which some citizens avoid because of repeated reports of illegal drug use in certain areas.

“One of the main purposes is to enforce regulations on the trail because we get a lot of complaints about drugs and safety issues on the trails,” Hoehn said. “It makes us out on the trails a lot more often and tries to curb the thought process that the trails are dangerous or are being used to traffic drugs all over town.”

The UTV is definitely a tool used in response to illegal drug use in the city, Schwertfeger noted.

“We've had a lot of complaints, especially south of Big Wheeling Creek and in South Wheeling,” the police chief said. “People tell us they're hesitant to use the trail in certain areas because they're scared because there's open drug use – people just lying on the side of the trail and things like that.”

He noted that officers had thwarted illegal drug activity while patrolling trails with the UTV.

“We've made some drug arrests on our patrols,” Schwertfeger said. “We rescued the dog during the race – we're just getting started. We're just scratching the surface. There's just a whole range of possible uses. It's just a really great device and I'm going to find another funding avenue to buy the second one that we originally wanted.”

Schwertfeger said the UTV the department now has can continue its patrols and general use around town, while a second UTV can be kept on a trailer and used for emergency operations for quick response anywhere.

“We want to be a leader in the region, so if there's a missing person or something like that in Ohio County or Marshall County, or they need that kind of equipment to handle part of the area they work, we'll be there right away,” the police chief said. “Having equipment like that in the trailer will speed up our response time – we can just rush to where it's needed.”

“With this device we would do the same thing,” he said.

Hoehn noted that the UTV has also proven quite effective in accessing the Maintenance Trail and the homeless encampment, where the vehicle has been used to patrol the area and access the remote encampment to execute warrants.

“The agency is already doing its job when it comes to getting drugs out of circulation – and off the streets,” he said.