Sitka Police Department Monthly Report
October, 2007
Operations Division
The Operations Division is overseen by Lt. Barry Allen and consists of Patrol, Investigations, SEACAD (Southeast Cities Against Drugs) Drug Investigations, the School Resource Officer, the Domestic Violence Unit, the future Canine Unit, and the Marine Unit- Emergency Response Vessel.
Events
Alaska Day was the major event for the month of October and saw a large community parade. There were some minor problems associated with the events, and a couple of minor criminal arrests. The weekend was busy for Patrol. However, a lot of the calls were really not related to Alaska Day as much as other things.
Halloween was another larger holiday. SPD distributed glow necklaces, bracelets, and glow sticks to the elementary schools, STA and BIHA in an effort to try and get the smaller children covered for night safety while out in the neighborhoods trick or treating. Sgt. Green said this went well and the glow items were a hit. No major incidents occurred during Halloween.
Cases
SPD officers put down a bear at the request of Fish and Game after it had been involved in several incidents over the course of a few months to include damaging vehicles, trying to get into one house, repeatedly into trash, and other close encounters with humans.
On top of a couple of sexual abuse cases, there have been a couple of cases of strangulation during domestic incidents. These cases are being charged as felony assaults due to the potential deadliness of the act. Felonies are not necessarily up compared to prior years, but strangulation cases are being charged with more frequency.
Call Trends
Property crimes to include criminal mischief (vandalism), thefts, and burglary resulting in an arrest have been the trend for the month of October.
Stats:
Calls of Service: 1648
Reports Completed: 173
DV Calls: 11
Arrests: 38
DV Related Arrests: 6
VCOR related to DV: 0
Training
Det. Carlton attended Sexual Assault Response Team training in October. This is in anticipation of getting a SART team up and running to assist with sexual assault cases and severe sexual abuse cases. Officer Hunt attended basic training at the Public Safety Academy throughout the month and is doing well.
Domestic Violence Unit
The Victim Services Coordinator has left the DV Unit and SPD for a job with the Office of Child Services. Her last day was November 2nd. This will affect the reporting for the DV Unit and for CID-COPS. It will also limit the services offered by SPD for domestic violence victims and other services normally directed towards families.
The VSC handled 18 clients in October referring all of them to services with other agencies or assisting them in house. Three protective orders were issued in October. All of the statistical data on orders is consistent with 2006.
The Investigator has been involved in DV case follow up and investigation of sexual abuse cases.
All violations listed for the month of October were alcohol related.
The quarterly report indicates that there have been 53 children involved in DV cases so far in 2007. All of 2006 showed 74 children involved in DV cases reported to SPD.
Marine
The ERV was involved in three callouts this month. Training included Dive team training and Coxswain training.
There were some maintenance issues associated with the electronics onboard the ERV that took it out of service temporarily. These seem to be due to electrical maintenance work on the dock. A C-Map SD card replacement solved the problem and upgraded the chart detail as well.
K-9 Team
The K-9 Team has been covering periodic “Power” Shifts with Patrol to involve the dog in as much activity as possible. This involved the dog in three active drug searches that were all positive.
“Justice” was used to search for one fleeing individual in an assault case. The subject was eventually taken into custody near downtown.
Training has been ongoing. More funding from the SEACAD grant was obtained to help maintain the quarterly fitness training and certification of the team.
Staffing Issues
The Investigations Unit is still one officer down. There is still one other position to fill in Patrol. One Patrol officer is still on active reserve for the USCG. A Police Officer application process was held but there none of the applicants passed the first phase of testing. The Department is again taking applications and considering ways to enrich the pool of applicants.
Officer Estes has been released from the Field Training Program and awaits his academy date in February. Officer Hunt graduates on November 15th.
This will ease some of the scheduling problems for the next three months as other officers go in and out of training and vacations are covered for the holidays.
Support Services Division
Lt. Garry McCrary oversees the Support Services Division that includes the Community Jail, Dispatch, Records, Evidence, Traffic, and Animal Control.
Community Jail / Dispatch
SPD submitted a request to the Department of Corrections for capital funds to replace three sets of the old metal bunks in the Female and the Segregation cells. These would be molded fiberglass, which would replace the current metal bunks. The currents bunks have been in the Jail Facility since it opened in 1976. Not only are they getting worn, but they also pose the possibility on an inmate being injured or causing themselves harm. This proposal has to wind its way through the Legislature so it will probably be months before we hear anything on this.
We will try again to get the Animal Shelter addition built this fall/winter. If the bids are lower than they were in the spring we will be able to get this built in the coming year.
We added a new electrical service in the Department. There were no more available circuits, and we needed additional circuits in the Administration end of the Department. A portion of the funding for this came from a grant we received in 2006 from the Department of Corrections.
Live Scan, electronic fingerprinting, training is scheduled next month for the Jail Officers. The two-hour class will be taught by one of the instructors from AFFIS/Latent Print who taught this class in a number of locations in and around the State. This training should help us better utilize the new equipment. It is the Department’s plan to raise the cost of prints to $20.00 plus tax once applicant prints can be processed. It will also cost the applicant more to get their prints processed by the State, but the turn-around time will be significantly reduced. The reduced time is one of the true benefits of the system.
The Department is interested in increasing the fines for parking citations, impound fees, and abandoned vehicles.
Animal Control/Traffic/ Evidence
The costs of a speed-monitoring device are prohibitive at this time. They are just too expensive. We are looking into the possibility of obtaining some grant funding for this purchase. As long as weather permits the Department will continue putting out the speedometer trailer. It was placed for several days in the 5 MPH zone on Back Street.
Traffic Officer Puckett, Jail Officer Miller and Lt McCrary held a bicycle auction on 11/03/2007. The turnout was very light, but we managed to sell about half the bicycles The City general fund made approximately $418.00. There were a number of bicycles that did not sell. We are looking at donating them to Sitka Boys and Girls Club. Lt. Allen is checking on this.
We are trying to dispose of some of the abandoned vehicles in the impound yard. This is a very slow process. We currently have twenty plus vehicles for disposal, which I hope we can dispose of in the coming weeks.
Traffic Officer Puckett is working with Sitka Tribe of Alaska Community Ride Program to add additional stops.