Police Reports for June 2020

Traffic Contacts: 110
Parking Contacts: 22
Vehicle Inspections: 11
Vehicle Unlocks: 21
Crash Investigations: 26
Public Assists: 236
Assist other Agency: 108
Crimes Against Persons Report: 13
Crimes Against Property Report: 31
Other Reports: 21
Arrests: 19
Warrants: 4
Alcohol/Narcotics Charges: 8
Crimes Against Persons Charges: 5
Crimes Against Property Charges: 0
Other Charges: 14
Animal Calls: 40
Total Calls for Service: 1633
*Total Calls for Service for the year: 10,098

Training:

• Members completed Implicit Bias online training for 1 hour through the US DOJ COPS office. (24 hours)
• New Employees completed 6 hours of taser training and both volunteered to be tased. (12 hours)
• Systemic Racism in Law Enfrocement presented by Retired Chief Harry Dolan 2 hours online with 6 officers. (12 hours)

Public Relations:

• Several community members and businesses dropped off snacks, donuts, notes/cards, care packages, and food for the officers to show their support. Thank you to Jimmy Johns, HyVee, Mosely’s, Richardson Family, and to all the others that did not leave their name. We really appreciated it.
• Chief spoke at the peaceful protest in Penn Meadows Park.
• Officers provided sidewalk chalk and water for folks during a Chalk the Walk demonstration at our police department.

Equipment:

• Fireballs were ordered and placed in every police vehicle. We will have a couple also placed in the server and mechanical room at the new PD.
• We went in with the Street Department to purchase two speed radar signs that can be deployed in residential neighborhoods to get true speed readings. One is concealed and one is unconcealed.

Enforcement:

• At the request of area law enforcement during the protest and rioting at the mall, officers were called to assist or handle other calls for service in Iowa City, Johnson County, and the Coralville area.
• We also assisted with the protection of the jail and courthouse with our NL members of the Johnson County Tactical team.
• For the first 6 months of 2020, we have seen a 30% decrease in calls for service for the same time frame in 2019. The majority of this is during the COVID shutdown.

Department Admin:

• Liz Monroe started with the police department and will be badge number 24. She will attend the August police academy.
• We currently have two members deployed with the Iowa National Guard. One is helping with COVID testing and the other one is overseas for a 10-month deployment.
• Cade Burma started his online training with the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy. He will travel to the police academy in July for in-person training.
• The chief attended the ILEA Council Meeting, several local police chiefs’ meetings during the protests, and the executive board meeting with the Iowa Police Chief’s Association.
• The Chief also attended a meeting with local law enforcement representatives and members of the NAACP to come up with a game plan for moving forward for any reform measures locally and across Iowa.
• The department reviewed at the request of members of the public several police reform issues to make sure our current policies are the best practices and meeting the expectations of the reform groups. So far, the policy has spelled out the expectations to meet the 8 Can’t-Wait, Campaign Zero, and the PERF 30 guiding principles for law Enforcement on Use of Force.
• We signed a MOU with all local law enforcement agencies for a duty to intercede for an excessive use of force and did not depend on agency, rank or tenure.
• All policies were also updated with the most current legal bias language to include all protected classes. We also made several of the polices public on the police department’s website.
• Records, the Lt, and I have been compiling and updating the stats for race-related traffic stop and arrest for the past three years. We are also looking at searches, use of force, and complaints that we will make public information about what we are legally allowed.
• We opened the front lobby of the police department back up after the COVID shut down on June 8^th.