The Gilbert Police Department is covered for now when it needs crime lab services for its cases through a partnership with the Mesa Police Department.
But that arrangement is concerning to Gilbert Police Chief Michael Soelberg when he looks at the region’s population growth and the trend of increasing violent crime in the town, even when Gilbert is rated the second safest large city in the country per FBI statistics.
“Mesa does still do a good job, but my concern is as we look at the build-out of Gilbert, we look at our violent crime rate going up, I do not want to be in a situation where we are letting our citizens down,” Soelberg told town council and executive staff at a workshop Dec. 11. “We're not providing the services that they need because we're relying on somebody else plus the dark cloud over us that who knows what the future's going to bring.”
