Police Reports for December 2020

Traffic Contacts: 39
Parking Contacts: 26
Vehicle Inspections: 0
Vehicle Unlocks: 24
Crash Investigations: 19
Public Assists: 331
Assist other Agency: 104
Crimes Against Persons Report: 11
Crimes Against Property Report: 13
Other Reports: 21
Arrests: 20
Warrants: 6
Alcohol/Narcotics Charges: 12
Crimes Against Persons Charges: 10
Crimes Against Property Charges: 2
Other Charges: 10
Animal Calls: 38
Total Calls for Service: 1361
* Total Calls for Service for the year: 20,416

Training:

  • Members attended monthly training for canine, tactical team, and dive team.
  • The Chief attended Daigle Law Group (DLG) Use of Force Summit online (36 hours)
  • Officer Monroe completed her training at the police academy and will be beginning her patrol Field Training Officer (FTO) phase.
  • Two officers attended free training through MCTC at Camp Dodge for instruction on writing narcotic search warrants. (40 hours)
  • The bomb squad member attended a free two-week training in Des Moines to meet his FBI certification needs. (80 hours)
  • All officers attended Implicit Bias and De-escalation training at the department. The course was taught by two of our officers who had previously attended instructor training. An invite was extended to the local president of the Iowa City NAACP chapter who attended part of the training. (168 Hours)

Public Relations:

  • The new administrative assistant for the Mount Vernon Police Department sat with records for the day. They went over programs the two departments have in common and answered questions and concerns that have come up over the years in regards to records and customer service.
  • The PD hosted a donation box for the Domestic Violence Intervention Program (DVIP) toy drive hosted by Officer Juan Santiago. Thank you to everyone who donated items. We know that all of the items collected were much appreciated. The department donated their no shave November donations to this worthy cause.
  • Due to COVID, we were unable to hold our Presents with Police program. Instead, a tree was put up in the lobby with ornaments representing an individual from the applications we received from the schools and flyers distributed at the Pantry. The ornaments contained the age of the person, along with their sizes and likes. The police department and some members, City staff, and members of the community quickly snapped up all 33 ornaments and around 100 presents were wrapped by our records department including a $100 gift card to all families. Thanks to the kindness of our staff and community, the holidays for seven families were a little bit brighter.
  • Our training room was used to hand out the end of year awards for all City employees. Five department members were recognized for not using sick leave during the year. They are: Officer Ben Campbell, Sgt Rueben Ross, Alisha Ruffcorn, Officer Bruce Sexton, and Chief Diane Venenga. We also had five members who reached milestone anniversaries.

5 years: Officer Ben Campbell and Lauryn Rich

10 years: Officer Joel Miller and Sgt Chris Shine

15 years: Lt. Tyson Landsgard

  • Officer Jennings was named Officer of the Year. He was nominated for his commitment to solving crimes, willingness to help others, and his positive attitude.
  • During training on the December 15th and 17th, lifesaving awards were given out to five officers for events throughout the year. Officers Helzer and Sexton successfully administered CPR to a subject that was unconscious and not breathing. Sgt Shine and Officer Sammons also performed CPR on an individual who had no pulse when the officers arrived. Officer Tygart performed CPR on an individual who stopped breathing after suffering a seizure. All three of the individuals who received CPR survived the event and were released from the hospital to recover. Officer Sexton also received a lifesaving award for his quick thinking when rescuing a child who was trapped in a flooded creek during a storm. This is Officer Sexton’s third Life Saving award, and Sergeant Shine’s second since joining the department.
  • Officers assisted a mother, a young child and their cat in need for immediate housing. Officers as well as the North Liberty Methodist Church and the North Liberty Baptist Church assisted with financial assistance.
  • The department loaned traffic cones to Grace Community Church for their Drive-Thru Nativity scene.

Equipment:

  • We received a settlement from the insurance company for the totaled patrol car and are in the process of ordering the new equipment that will be put in the vehicle. Keltek is removing what can be operational and will work in the new vehicle.
  • We continue to work on issues with the new construction of the building and getting items installed and agreed upon.
  • Investigative supplies (computer, phone, recorder) were ordered and office equipment installed for the new investigator position starting in January.
  • An IT manager for ICPD got our patrol cars set-up for the GPS integrated system with our mobile data computers and tracking for the data contact cards. We continue to work with our records management software to make sure the data needed is being recorded and easily extracted when it comes time for analysis.

Enforcement/Crime:

  • During the first snowfall of greater than 2 inches or more, officers issued warnings of parked vehicles in the roadway.
  • Officers issued 22 parking tickets during the declared snow emergency on the December 30th.  
  • We have received several crimes against children reports this month resulting in charges and ongoing investigations.
  • 14 vehicle tires were stolen from a trailer on Stoner Court over a weekend earlier in the December.
  • We have handled a few missing juveniles and adults this month. All have been located.
  • Due to COVID there was a 29% decrease in overall Calls for Service from this year (2020) to last year (2019) just for North Liberty. This is a first for North Liberty.

Department Admin:

  • We would like to extend a thank you to South Slope for lining up lunches from Mosley’s for our Implicit Bias training.
  • The department received many goodies from members of the community. Thank you to: Fareway, HyVee, Hodge Construction, Holiday, Dan Ciha, Tom Webber, the Feagin family and the Halfertys. I’m sure there are others that we may have missed and to them, we wish to thank them as well.
  • We would also like to acknowledge the generosity of the Home Repair Team for the $500 holiday donation.
  • We submitted to a judge and was granted an order to destroy narcotics held as evidence or contraband from past cases. These items were purged and incinerated.
  • We got reference letters from two local church groups, city administration, and an endorsement by the local chapter president of the NAACP to apply for the ABLE project grant. This is an online course taught through Georgetown University on the national movement to teach duty to intercede to police officers. We have applied and are awaiting approval to attend the courses coming out early in 2021.
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