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Galt Police Department Closure Concerns Residents

GALT (CBS13) - A Facebook post by the Galt Police Department prompted community concerns on Thursday after it announced the police department would be closed for several hours.

The closure was because the chief held a department-wide meeting to discuss its future. The police chief says the last time Galt police held a department-wide meeting was nine years ago.

"We walked in and were like, wait why is it closed? That's odd," said Jazmin Dominguez.

Dominguez and her friend came to the Galt Police Department Thursday morning, hoping to get some help. She says her friend needed to turn in time-sensitive documents but couldn't because the police department was closed.

"We have been having problems recently and we decided we have to go in as soon as possible to turn them in," Dominguez said.

Dominguez says if it weren't for the fliers posted outside the police department's doors, she wouldn't have known about the closure.

"This was an all-hands meeting that the chief called to give an update of the department's activities in the last six months," said Lieutenant Brian Kalinowski.

Kalinowski says during the meeting the chief talked about community outreach, succession planning and his future goals for the police department. Every employee was at Thursday morning's meeting, including all 39 sworn officers; the police department contracted with the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department to have two deputies patrol the city until the meeting ended.

"There were directions for the public to contact the sheriff's department and a deputy would have responded to the lobby and helped them with whatever they needed," Lt. Kalinowski said.

Kalinowski said there are usually between two to three police officers working during each beat, and having the two deputies was a huge help to the department. But Dominguez says she would have appreciated a heads-up on the closure. According to Kalinowski, the department announced it would be closed through a Facebook post and on the city's website.

Lt. Kalinowski says the sheriff's department got five calls on behalf of the police department. He says none were emergencies.

Kalinowski reassures the community that the police department will not hold any department-wide meetings for at least a few years.

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