Police Report for March 2023

Traffic Contacts 399
Parking Contacts 40
Vehicle Inspections 23
Vehicle Unlocks 28
Crash Investigations 20
Public Assists 494
Assist other Agency 128
Crimes Against Persons Report 7
Crimes Against Property Report 15
Other Reports 25
Arrests 23
Warrants 5
Alcohol/Narcotics Charges 8
Crimes Against Persons Charges 5
Crimes Against Property Charges 5
Other Charges 10
Animal Calls 33
Total Calls for Service 2120
*Total Calls for Service for the year 5811

Training:

• Members attended monthly Canine, Bomb Squad, &Tactical Team, (56 hours)
• Our new Drug Task Force Officer attended the annual Iowa Narcotics Officers’ association (INOA) conference in Des Moines. (24 hours)
• All officers completed courses on de-escalation, conflict resolution, and suicide by cop for our monthly online training (46 hours)
• Supervisors completed Reasonable Suspicion testing for drugs and alcohol in the workplace (22 hours)
• Lt completed an online program for Performance Evaluations for Law enforcement and motivation for patrol officers, from Dolan Consulting (6 hours)
• Chief and LT attended a free Lexipol webinar on conflict resolution (2 hours)
• Admin Lt completed a 2-hour ethics for law enforcement course. (2 hours)
• Admin Lt completed an online Internal Affairs investigation course through Daigle Law Firm (35 hours)

Public Relations:

• Officers continue to help with the citizen police academy and hosted one of the training nights at Our station. We held demonstrations on our VR simulator and Canine. We also have had several CPA members come and ride with NLPD.
• We received a “swatting call” which is a false call for threats to our local schools on March 21^st. These threats disrupt emergency services by routing numerous law enforcement and emergency services to a certain location. Several schools across Iowa received the same call. We worked with the district and provided extra patrol to all our schools. We had parents thank us for being diligent and having a visible presence for drop off and pick up at the NL schools.
• The State enacted the Safe and Sound App (or tipline 800-224-6018) that is used to report threats and other suspicious/violent/threatening behavior in our schools. The app was publicly launched on March 21^st as well.
• All patrol shifts were invited for a facility tour at Centro with discussions on response planning for their corporate offices and the plant.
• Officer Scott Sammons raised money for the Special Olympics and participated in the Iowa City + Cedar Rapids Polar Plunge with other area law enforcement.
• Records Supervisor, Alisha Ruffcorn assisted with Johnson County Juvenile Justice Coalition to discuss best practices for handling confidential and public information requests for juvenile records, expungements, and school notification.
• Cybercrimes group met with a Gazette reporter to talk about the work they are doing and the mission of the joint team.
• Iowa Heartlanders invited NLPD officers to the First Responder/Heroes Appreciation Night. Our new community outreach officer represented NLPD at the game.

Equipment:

• We continue to experience problems with our HVAC unit and constantly resetting internal breakers in certain zones to produce heat.
• The air compressor in the sally port went out and was repaired.

Enforcement/Crime:

• We have had several utility boxes graffiti overnight; our new investigator is following up on leads.
• Investigations is following up an a robbery at Kum and Go where money was taken out of the register. They are working several leads to locate the suspects.
• The unpaid parking ticket program is up and running utilizing the city’s collection method through the Iowa State Offset program.  Under this program, the police department refers outstanding parking tickets in excess of $50 that are 90 days overdue to the city, and a notification letter is then sent to the registered owner of the vehicle.  If the balance is not paid within 30 days, the debt is submitted to the state program.  Once entered, the State will deduct the debt amount from the registered owner’s state tax refund or from any state lottery/casino winnings and pay this amount back to the City.
• To review any criminal complaints for the month List of Criminal Complaints | Johnson County Iowa or see North Liberty Calls for service go to Joint Emergency Communications Center (jecc-ema.org)

Department Admin:

• Officer Jeffrey McVey completed his Field Training and is now on solo patrol. He will be assigned to an overnight shift that is currently vacant for an injured officer (not work related).
• We have another new hire, Zachary Jirak. He will start April 3^rd and go to ILEA May 1^st through August 18^th.  This hiring completes our current open positions, and we are now full.
• Interviews were held for our property Crime investigator and Community Outreach position. Officer Jordan Gallagher was selected and has started his new role. The officer who previously held the position went back to patrol operations.
• One officer is out on light duty (not duty related) and is assisting City Hall with scanning records and helping our front desk clerk when the records supervisor was on vacation.
• Kieonna continues to help as the law enforcement mental health liaison and respond calls during the incident as well as the follow-up afterwards to provide services. We had a meeting with CommUnity and how the program is going and meeting her new CommUnity Supervisor.
• We have updated our Missing Person policy, Electronic Mail policy and Evidence Collection/Retention policies.