Police Blotter
January 10-12, 2020
We had quite a number of report calls over the weekend. Let’s dive right in and see what work your officers did.
20010930: On January 10, 2020, at about 3:15 a.m., Officer C. Smith were out doing winter parking enforcement when they noted a truck idling and the driver passed out at the wheel. Perhaps he was just taking a nap. If he was, good for him for not driving while drowsy. That wasn’t the case, though. He was intoxicated and had passed out at the wheel. Officer C. Smith administered field sobriety testing and the man did poorly. He provided a portable breath test with a result of .222%. Pretty high. Officer C. Smith had to arrest the 39 year old Jackson, WY man for DUI.
20010956: Abandoned vehicle.
20010957: Abandoned bicycle.
20010964: On January 20, 2020, Corporal Andazola did an Outside Agency Assist for another law enforcement agency. This involved doing a forensic interview with a child, so we won’t be saying too much about it. It’s also not our case to comment on, so for that reason we won’t be saying anything either. We will say that interviewing children is a specialized skill that not every officer is trained to do. Corporal Andazola has that training, as do several other members of the Jackson Police Department in the event a child needs interviewed about a crime they’ve seen or been a victim of.
20010978: On January 10, 2020, at about 11:22 a.m., Officer Peery responded to Jackson Elementary School for a report that a parent was violating a protection order. This is involves a juvenile, so we can’t provide too much information, but we will say both the school and Officer Peery take the safety of your children pretty darn serious. Officer Peery investigated the issue and determined the protection order was no longer in effect. Unfortunately for the parent, they had a warrant for their arrest and Officer Peery had to arrest the 35 year old Jackson man and take him to jail.
20010990: On January 10, 2020, at about 1:03 p.m., Officer Raab responded to the TSA screening area where they search your checked baggage. Apparently, TSA found some marijuana in someone’s bag. Oops. Officer Raab contacted the owner of the bag and asked for an explanation. The man was originally from Washington state where the substance is legal and forgot that he had left it in his suitcase. Seems plausible and the quantity was small, so rather than issue a citation, Officer Raab gave him a warning and took the marijuana for destruction.
20011038: On January 10, 2020, at about 11:18 p.m., Officer C. Smith stopped a vehicle because it didn’t have any license plates. When he contacted the driver and passenger, he noticed they were really nervous and that the passenger was chain smoking cigarettes in an attempt to cover the odor of marijuana. We’ve talked before about how strong the odor of marijuana is and attempting to cover it with other smells just doesn’t work. Officer C. Smith smelled it and brought out his K-9 partner, Sully. Sully alerted on the car and it was searched. Officer C. Smith ended up giving a ticket to an 18 year old Riverton, WY man for Possession of a Controlled Substance.
20011045: On January 11, 2020, at about 1:44 a.m., Officer Proctor responded to a reported of Destruction of Property. It looks like a group of juveniles came into a business and broke a mirror in one of the bathrooms. Maybe they missed the video cameras at the door. Detectives will be following up with the business to obtain the video, probably get with the school resource officer and school staff, and then hopefully identify the culprits and hold them accountable. Wouldn’t it be nice if they read this police blotter, felt guilty and just went back and paid for the damage? That’s not likely to happen, so we’ll have to chase them down.
20011046: On January 11, 2020, at about 1:46 a.m., Officer C. Smith stopped a vehicle because the driver was talking on the cell phone. When contacted, the driver assured Officer C. Smith it was the passenger and not him that had been talking on their cell phone. We’re not sure that was the case, but whatever. Officer C. Smith still smelled the odor of marijuana coming from the inside of the car. K-9 Sully also alerted on the car and it was searched. A very small amount of marijuana was found and everyone claimed it belonged to the person they’d just dropped off. Sure it did. Since it was such a small quantity, Officer C. Smith chose not to make an issue of it and took the marijuana for destruction without taking any other enforcement action.
20011107: On January 11, 2020, at about 5:18 p.m., Sgt. Phillips responded to a report of Collision Hit and Run. His investigation revealed the victim’s car had been struck while parked and unoccupied. Sgt. Phillips was able to find the suspect vehicle due to the victim’s car having a video system installed that alerts when involved in a collision. That’s cool. When he contacted the owner of the suspect vehicle, he found the suspect driver had left the scene. He also learned that just prior to the collision, they had been involved in a domestic incident. Sgt. Phillips is still trying to complete his investigation and no citations or arrests have been made at this time.
20011130: On January 11, 2020, at about 10:56 p.m., Officer Lancaster responded to a Domestic Disturbance. When he got there, he contacted the parties involved and began his investigation. One of the first things he would have done, is separate the person’s involved. This serves two purposes. First, Officer Lancaster doesn’t want them yelling at each other while within range to throw punches or anything. Second, he wants to interview each person individually without influence from the other to get a more accurate account of events. In this case, the woman gave a statement, but the husband refused to speak. That’s his right protected under the 5th amendment, so Officer Lancaster had to weigh his choices based on the evidence available to him. In this case, he didn’t feel he had arrived at probable cause, the standard we need to meet before writing citations or making arrests. That being the case, Officer Lancaster separated the couple for the night and referred the woman he believed to be the victim to Victim Services for additional resources if needed. We’ll also do some additional follow-up in the next couple of days to see if we can identify additional evidence.
20011134: On January 12, 2020, at about 1:16 a.m., Sgt. Kellams stopped a vehicle for speeding, 41/25. That’s pretty fast. When he contacted the driver, he found them to be intoxicated, so he administered field sobriety testing. The driver did poorly on those tests and Sgt. Kellams had to arrest the 31 year old Jackson, WY man for DUI.
20011149: On January 12, 2020, at about 9:31 a.m., Cpl. P Smith and RO White responded to a residence to serve an arrest warrant. The person that greeted them at the door, said the person they were looking for wasn’t there. Sure they weren’t, but the officers chose not to make an issue of it and left a business card with a request for the person to give them a call. He did, and told officers he was at the residence the officers had just been at. Cops can smell a lie a mile away. Whether we choose to act on the knowledge is a different matter. They knew the man was there, but kicking down the door and forcing their way in didn’t seem like the best way to handle things. Not when less intrusive means can be used. Cpl. P. Smith and RO White responded back to the location and RO White made her first arrest. Finally, something other than a Collision Hit and Run.
That’s it from the weekend. Have a great week, Jackson.