Police Blotter
January 6, 2020
Before we get to the blotter, we wanted to share some really cool police work by Detective Figueroa. He is investigating what could turn out to be a pretty serious crime. I know we are being cryptic, but it's necessary to protect the integrity of his investigation. What we wanted to highlight was not the crime, but Detective Figueroa's dedication to his work and the citizens of Jackson. The person who reported this potential crime was only able to provide a vague description to officers, along with only a general time frame. It would have been easy for him to wash his hands of the case and call it unsolvable. Detective Figueroa isn't a quitter though. First, he combed through hours of video until he found images of the person he was looking for. Unfortunately, he couldn’t put a name to the face. That happens quite a bit and generally means the end to the case. But Detective Figueroa wasn't finished yet. He went to the establishment on his day off and waited to see if the person would show up, hoping they were a regular and that he'd be able to identify them from the video. Sounds hopeless, right? Very similar to the bank robbery we had last year with probably the worst picture ever. We solved that robbery by the way and Detective Figueroa knows that even a bad image can be of use. In this case, it was and the person he was looking for walked right in. Detective Figueroa's dedication was able to breathe life in an investigation that would otherwise be dead. He still has some work to do in his efforts to determine if a crime happened and prove it sufficient for prosecution, but at least there is a fighting chance. Excellent work, detective.
20010510: On December 6, 2020, at about 8:22 a.m., Officer Normand responded to a report of Destruction of Property. It looks like a property manager put a tire boot on a vehicle in a private parking lot. Rather than contact the property management, the owner of the vehicle decided to cut the boot off and drive away. The value of the boot was about $100 and the property management wanted to report the incident as a crime. The seems more like a civil problem to us and more appropriate for a small claims court. We provided the property management with as much information about the vehicle owner as we could and will let them hash it out in court.
20010558: On December 6, 2020, at about 12:32 a.m., RO White responded to a report of…a Collision. Not very exciting but at least it's not a Hit & Run. We take a few of these every day and it becomes so routine we can do them in our sleep. It's important for those involved, though. Most insurance companies require some form of documentation to prove an accident occurred. We are mandated in most circumstances to write a ticket to the driver, "At Fault." Why? The simple answer is because it's our job to enforce the law. But it's more than that. The citation assigns blame or responsibility for the collision. Insurance companies will rely heavily on the information contained in the report and on who was ticketed to determine who gets compensation. It can be complicated and if you've ever been involved in a collision where you weren't "At Fault" you're grateful we take that extra step. If you're on the receiving end of the ticket, you're not going to be happy, but hopefully you understand the necessity.
Welcome to Tuesday, Jackson. Have a great day!
