How many police officers should the city of Senoia employ?

That’s one of the questions the city hopes to learn from a comprehensive assessment of its police department. At a called meeting last Friday, the City Council agreed its time to get an overview of one of the busiest departments in the fast-growing city.

Lt. Bruce Pfahl asked the council to consider an assessment.

“This would give us a true picture of our police department and what we’re doing good and not so good,” he said.

With the growth that is coming to the city and the area, Pfahl said backup from Coweta County now takes between 20 and 25 minutes which can leave officers in an unsafe situation because of lack of staffing.

Pfahl had researched groups that do department assessments and recommended the Chief of Police Association.

“This is the group that does assessments for departments that want to get accredited,” he added.

Councilman Bill Wood went along with Pfahl’s recommendation, but said he wanted to make sure any assessment was neutral.

In other news, the City Council agreed to let attorney Drew Whalen look into the possibility of changing the mayor and City Council terms from two years to four years. Mayor Robert Belisle said the proposal has good and bad points, and just would like further information on the process.