Kyle wants to ensure its public safety department grows with the city

KYLE, Texas (KXAN) – With Kyle’s explosive growth, city officials want to ensure its public safety department grows commensurately.

Recently, consulting company Matrix released a report on Kyle's police operations and gave recommendations on how the department should change to support the growth. 

“We're not just a bedroom community that we were 10 to 15 years ago,” Kyle’s Chief of Police Jeff Barnett said.  

“We're trying to meet the needs of our growing community with our police department, and this [report] is going to help guide us for the next 10 years or so in terms of our staffing and how we should deploy our resources,” he continued. 

Matrix analyzed service data, operational documents, budget data and the police department’s organizational structure. The consulting group gave both short and long-term recommendations on how Kyle PD can support the city amid its growth.

“Internally, we're going to reorganize to better streamline and be more effective for the community,” Barnett said. “It's also going to require some additional staff to continue to meet those needs at a high level.” 

Barnett said the department has already budgeted in 2025 for a dozen more positions – two sworn positions and ten not. 

Still, Barnett wanted people to know that despite being a much larger city than it was a decade ago, it still has a relatively low rate of crime compared to similarly sized cities. 

“I would say we're on the lower end, especially of violent crimes,” Barnett said. “Petty theft crimes occur in the community, but overall, it's a very safe town.”

On Saturday, Kyle PD said it was hosting an open house for residents to discuss the survey. It’ll be at 9 a.m. at the Kyle Public Works Building, located at 520 RM 150.