TOPPENISH -- A newly retired Toppenish police officer says the most notable change they’ve seen in the 25 years since she’s been on the force is how overwhelmed right now officers are with cases due to staffing shortages

Sandra shah says since she’s been an officer, she’s seen 7 different administrations in the police department and at least 5 in the city hall.

She says since staffing is so low now, they’ve had to find ways to solve crimes with what few officers they have.

“They’ve become creative, you know, and when we have the manpower on things, like sometimes we used to have, depending on what shifts they’re working. If we have an overlap, sometimes we’ve gone out and done like emphasis patrols and stings where we’ve set it up; and it’s fun for the officers too to get those opportunities because we don’t have the different things within Toppenish PD, we don’t have the manpower to have options like gang units or stuff like that,” Shah said.

As for crime, Shah says when she first started there was a lot of bar and gang fights. Now, she says they still deal with gang issues, but not exactly like they had before.

She says a lot of the problems have been replaced with issues like homelessness.

Her last day on the force was over the weekend.

She says it was a day filled with smiles and some tears as she read letters from people in the community that recognized her hard work.

She says she's also grateful for all of the relationships she's made over the 25 years as an officer in Toppenish.