Odem (KIII News) — For the first time in almost four decades, The City of Odem has hired a new police chief to lead it's new police department
The city council approved the milestone on September 4th.
Odem has a population of 2,839 people but traffic going through the small city has steadily increased
"This town is a really quiet town but too much traffic," resident Carlos Bargas said.
"We have 27, thousand vehicles that pass through in one day," Martin Huerta, an Odem city councilman, said.
City council members said drivers aren't slowing down because there's not enough police presence to stop them.
"Odem has not had a police department to call our own," Huerta said. "That's a big milestone that we are accomplishing."
Huerta said back in the 1970's they had a city marshall but since then they have either contracted police from The City of Sinton or San Patricio County.
"They can say you know what I need help and they have somebody that can probably react a lot faster on time because they are not tied up somewhere else," Huerta said.
The city's current contract with the county was about to expire.
"We are spending the same amount of money that we a spending to contract the law enforcement from the county right now," Huerta said. "It's gonna cost us the same amount to have our own."
Although the city has not released the new chief's name, city officials said he was working in code enforcement and was hired from within.
"We are gonna start ordering equipment and doing everything now," Huerta said. "But it's not going to be all at once, all $260,000 gone. No it's going to be step by step."
Residents said besides controlling traffic, protecting their children needs to be priority.
"I'm excited because being in a small community there's a lot of kids, a lot of enforcement that needs to be enforced like curfews," Bargas said.
The new department will be located at the city's municipal court building and will consist of a chief, two officers, and a clerk.
Huerta said the Odem Police Chief will start Oct. 1 when he hill begin the process of applying for a license with the state. That license will allow the city to officially establish the department.
City officials believe that process will take three to four months.
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