Billman completes police training
Published 4:30 am Wednesday, February 28, 2018
- Chief Joel Fish goes over paperwork with Enterprise Police Officer Cody Billings. Now that Billings has graduated from the police academy, the ranks of Enterprise PD are at full force.
Enterprise Police Officer Cody M. Billman is on the job in Enterprise, having graduated with the 374th Basic Police Class of the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training Feb. 16.
Billman, along with 39 other officers and deputies, entered class last October. The 16-week course includes dozens of training areas, such as survival skills, firearms, emergency vehicle operations, ethics, cultural diversity, problem solving, community policing, elder abuse, drug recognition and dozens of other subjects.
“I’m excited about having Billman,” said Chief Joel Fish. “He knows a lot about law enforcement because he’s been around the jails and the courts. He won’t take as long to go through field training — we’ll probably be able to accelerate that. He already knows a lot of the people we deal with all the time in Union County, knows them by name and face, so he’s kind of got a leg up on that.”
Billman, originally from La Grande Sheriff’s Department, worked for five years in Union County, beginning as a reserve officer and then as a corporal for the Union County Correctional Facility.
Billman replaces Officer Jed Stone who retired.
“I’ve got a lot of learning to do, but I love it. I feel comfortable about it,” said Billman. “I love it (here); people from bigger agencies have not even met their chief. These guys in Enterprise Police Department are all so close. When I come to work, and I’m with these guys, I know who they are, what they do and how they act.”
Billman will be out on patrol on his own hopefully by May, Fish said.
Fish, himself, has completed his police certification for Oregon and is nearly through the state managerial certification.
“We’re doing good in Wallowa County,” Fish said. “I notice a difference. Some of our drug dealers are in prison, some are on probation, some are back in jail because they can’t do their probation. We’re working on it. We had a little bit larger meth problem when I got here than I thought we had, and it’s the exact same people that do the stealing and everything else.”
