Police Report for September 2021

Traffic Contacts: 377
Parking Contacts: 31
Vehicle Inspections: 20
Vehicle Unlocks: 23
Crash Investigations: 28
Public Assists: 411
Assist other Agency: 126
Crimes Against Persons Report: 7
Crimes Against Property Report: 24
Other Reports: 27
Arrests: 40
Warrants: 2
Alcohol/Narcotics Charges: 17
Crimes Against Persons Charges: 9
Crimes Against Property Charges: 16
Other Charges: 21
Animal Calls: 69
Total Calls for Service: 2102
Total Calls for Service for the year: 16,483

Training:

• Members attended monthly training for canine, bomb squad, tactical team, and dive team. (88 hours).
• Our Bomb Team member attended three days of training to operate a new bomb robot (24 hours)
• An Officer was invited by ICCSD to attend a Threat Assessment Training hosted by the district (3 hours).
• Officer Justin Jacobi continues his training at ILEA. He will graduate in December.
• Our Defensive Tactics Instructor attended recertification training at ILEA. (8 hours)
• Our Radar/Lidar Instructor attended the recertification course at ILEA (8 hours).
• The Lt and an Officer attended a one-day course on Tactical Medical Care for Law Enforcement in Illinois. (16 hours). We are members of an Illinois Training center in Moline that offers several training options for Law Enforcement.  We pay $85 per officer/ annually and we can attend any course for a year for free. This provides high quality training at a reduced cost since it is shared amongst all members. The center also sends out recommendations for training needs for members. The short travel distance and the selection of training has been a benefit for NLPD. We have been members for 4 years now. (https://mttuiv.org)
• An Investigator and a newer Officer attended interview and interrogations training at MTTUIV in Moline. (48 hours)
• All Officers completed an online visual observer course for night operations and being an extra set of eyes for the drone pilots. By completing this course, we do not have to have two drone pilots tied up on the drone operation. (6 hours)
• The Chief and a Sgt attended an online webinar on internal audits. (8 hours)
• Our Evidence Supervisor and technician attended a 2-day training course on Evidence Storage and property management at Camp Dodge. (32 hours)
• The Lieutenant attended 4 hours of training on the Aurora Colorado Theater Shooting Action De-Debriefing and lessons learned. (4 hours)

Public Relations:

• Several officers were requested to work Liberty High Football games. The city is reimbursed by the High School.
• Officers along with the Street Department also coordinated the Liberty HS Homecoming parade. One officer led the parade.
• Several officers worked the U of I home football games. The city is reimbursed by the University.
• Officers attended neighborhood block parties through the city.
• Had an officer be part of the Welcoming Committee for a group from the Iowa League of Cities bike tour.
• We had a request to talk to our Latino officers about their experience in Johnson County and as being police officers for the Clear Creek Amanda School District Group Better Way Forward Monthly Real Talk session. Officer Santiago and Officer Vazquez officers participated in the Zoom meeting.
• We hosted a tour of the Police Station with the Neighborhood Ambassadors group.
• 3 Child Safety seat inspections were completed for the month.
• Officer Rick Vazquez volunteered to participate in a 9/11 tribute with CRFD. He climbed 110 flights in uniform with CR Fire at the Double Tree in in Cedar Rapids in honor of the New York fallen heroes.

Equipment:

• Officers who requested, received the load bearing external vest carriers.
• Flash drivers were purchased to download large media files from businesses and for sharing evidence with the prosecuting attorney’s office.

Enforcement/Crime:

• Several Officers worked traffic enforcement through the GTSB Grant. The grant expired in September and we were awarded a new grant for the next year.  This grant pays for a radar unit, partial cost to attend the national traffic safety conference and for the overtime for officer to work traffic specifically.
• Mitch Seymour was requested and agreed to be a part of a Restorative Justice Mediation with a defendant for charges filed in 2020. If the defendant meets the conditions of the agreed upon requirements, then the charges will be resolved.
• A late-night officer discovered a group of teens and a vehicle in a neighborhood in the early morning hours. Several items were discovered that was determined from vehicle burglaries. A stolen motor vehicle was also located.  Multiple reports were taken the following day from addresses on Alydar, Kansas, Penn Ct, Andrews Ct, Fairview Lane and Mary Lane.
• 4 cars were broken into while parked near Penn Meadows Park during a ball tournament. Follow-up is being completed on bank and credit card transactions in Black Hawk County.
• We also had a significant increase in the number of animal calls/complaints for this month. At least 20 additional calls over last month.

Department Admin:

• University of Iowa College Student, Aubri Turnage continues with her paid internship. She is completing office work as well as a ride along.
• Our Bomb team member went to Louisiana with another member, to drop off the old bomb robot and to pick up a new robot that was awarded to the joint team through the FBI. This included three days of training on how to operate the new robot.
• We are researching and applying for a technology grant to help manage, store, retain and duplicate records for digital technology from drug related and child pornography cases.
• Records continues to work with the State and our Records Management Software provider to import and update how our Uniform Crime Reports will be reported to the State and the FBI.
• Started the budget process and an internal audit of the reoccurring expenses for FY 2023, including our record management software, cell phones, utilities, rented copiers, training, and scheduling software expenses.
• Started Union negotiations with the Officers and Sergeants.
• Chief attended a Zoom meeting for the ILEA Council on suggestions for Administrative Rule Code changes.
• We updated several department policies to reflect the changes from the recent legislative session, including the language in the Back the Blue legislation. Policies updated included Personnel Complaints, Personnel Records and Records Release.
• We had a glitch in the system for reporting our Incident Reports to the Community Crime Map. It has been repaired by our software provider and we are back in business. LexisNexis® Community Crime Map is the website, and if you select North Liberty, you can view the type and location of incident reports.  The data is exported every 15 minutes.
• We continue to work with the contractor to try to finish up the last-minute punch list items for the police department.