SYCAMORE | Steve Watts started a new job, in a new town and he couldn’t be happier.

Watts was appointed to the position of Sycamore Community Service Officer (CSO) just over a month ago. After being a police officer in Schaumburg for 28 years, Watts said this new job was right up his alley.

“Everything I do here is something that I’m totally familiar with and I’ve done before,” Watts said, although this position is a little different from his previous job.

“This consists of handling ordinances to free up time for the other officers,” Watts said. “Like in the summertime, they get a lot of grass complaints. Today I was out handling some abandon autos and some dumping complaints so it frees up the officers from handling complaints like that.”

Sycamore Mayor Ken Mundy said the community service officer, another name for Watts’ position, is very important to the police department.

“Being successful in the position takes a good combination of knowing the rules and being able to convey those tactfully to the customers,” Mundy said. “Some of the things that the CSO gets involved in are neighbor issues about fences, weeds, pets and those kinds of things. It takes a unique combination of qualities to be able to do that job successfully, and Steve Watts has those qualities.”

Mundy said Watts’ position is a service enhancement for the department.

“Because with just one person answering these calls and concerns, response is better and it’s more swift and usually the issue gets resolved quicker when we have one officer paying attention to those things,” Mundy said.

Watts said his job also largely consists of dealing with evidence. This includes keeping the evidence room in order and maintaining accurate records so that all cases are in order.

“I’m the only one that’s allowed in this evidence room other than another sergeant and we’re the ones who maintain proper chain of custody of the evidence,” Watts said. “If the evidence isn’t handled correctly or logged correctly it could blow a whole case.”

A typical day for Watts also includes what he calls the mail run.

“It’s when you take things to the city center, then you might go over to the state’s attorney’s office and then you go over to the courthouse and give stuff to the clerk like any citations from the night before or any arrest records,” Watts said. “The state’s attorney will sometimes request reports from recent arrests.”