Haines City has undergone a lot of changes in the last six months.
- Haines City has a new police chief
- Jim Elensky is the city's 3rd police chief in the last year and a half
- He plans on making several changes
It’s has a new city manager. A new fire chief. And on Dec. 6, its former deputy and interim chief became police chief.
Jim Elensky is the city’s third police chief in the last year and a half. This year marks his 27th year in law enforcement.
“I plan on sticking around 10 years,” Elensky said. “So for all of the officers that see this, they know 10 years.”
Elensky was hired in March by former city manager Rick Sloan to become the department’s deputy chief. When former Police Chief Gary Hester quit, Elensky was promoted to interim chief and then chief.
Before Haines City, he took time off to care for a sick relative. Before that, he ran the Criminal Investigations Unit at the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff Gray Judd said during Elensky’s swearing-in ceremony that Elensky was the first to bring the unit to a 100 percent solved homicide rate.
Having retired from the Sheriff’s Office, Elensky said becoming a police chief wasn’t initially the plan.
“It’s something I never expected,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity. And I’m very excited to move Haines City forward and get some changes in place.”
Changes include giving the patrol units a new look. Instead of being white with blue and orange lettering, the new units will be black with gray and white lettering.
“Everybody seems to like it, the public likes it, law enforcement loves it,” Elensky said.
He's also equipping officers on each shift with Narcan, a drug used to prevent heroin and opioid overdose deaths. Elensky said he changed his mind about getting the drug for the department after seeing an uptick in overdoses over the summer.
“There is a need to have it and if it saves one life it’s worth it,” he said. “We got a grant for it so there’s no cost to the taxpayers.”
Elensky is also upping the ante on firearms training.
“We’re going to have a 25-round qualification course. It’s faster, it’s certainly doable because that’s what they have at the Sheriff’s Office and that’s what I did for all of my years. But it makes you very familiar with your firearm,” Elensky said.
He said all of his officers would have to pass the course annually.
When it comes to enhancing relationships with the community, the new chief is also expanding the department’s presence on social media. The chief has already created his own twitter handle, @JimElenskyHCPD, and is looking for more followers.
He also plans to add a dedicated crime analyst, bring back the citizen’s police academy and have officers embrace more of the community-policing model.