In December I attended a meeting of the Joint Public Safety Board which is a group formed by boards of several other public safety organizations to discuss legislative lobbying for all public safety for the coming legislative session. I attended as a board member of the Iowa Police Officers Association.
In the same vain, I was appointed to the Criminal Justice Advisory Board for the Criminal Justice program at Southwestern Community College. That board had its first meeting in December.
Officers assisted with a successful Holiday Brilliance Parade. To do this requires me to provide six officers. We are happy to do it!
We also participated in the second annual Shop-With-A-Cop program. Nearly everyone participates and has a great time with the kids. This year we had 40 kids in the program.
At the end of the month we had D.A.R.E. graduation. This was the culmination of a 10 week series of classes presented to the sixth grade class. Officer Tyson Rumley is our D.A.R.E. Officer and master of ceremonies. Approximately 105 kids graduated. After that we had a pizza party and played several games with the students. Something new this year was the rental of inflatables. CCDC provided a $500 grant to help defray the costs.
We experienced a house fire, executed several search warrants, both narcotic and burglary related, recovered a stolen car from Des Moines and suffered through a complete radio failure on the Sheriff’s Office side. Fortunately, Robin Duffuswas able to dispatch from her desk so we took over until their system was repaired. We experienced a person who barricaded themselves in their apartment. We resolved that without injury to him or us.
Statistically, officers responded to 520 calls for service in December. This is a slight decrease from November.
Officers investigated 10 accidents, gave 59 warnings and 53 citations and arrested 22 people.
