Police Blotter
July 23, 2020
Blather of the day:
Do police need to carry guns? There is some discussion going on about whether armed police officers should be responding to calls for service that don’t require those weapons. Do we need guns for VIN inspections, barking dog calls, traffic collisions, parking complaints or even your run of the mill, low risk traffic stop? How about for a welfare check, noise disturbance or someone who is having a mental crisis? For nearly all of these calls, a firearm is not needed. If you ask your average police officer how many times they’ve actually had to fire their weapon outside a training environment, most would say rarely or never. Does that mean they shouldn’t have it with them?
In a perfect world, we could predict that an armed police officer would only be needed for violent crimes, such as murder, robbery, aggravated assault, or forcible rape. If we could predict the future, we would only have that weapon with us in situations which called for it. We know not everyone is comfortable with weapons. We get it, but we’re trying to be prepared for the unexpected, which is the nature of our job. We never know what the next call is going to be or who we will come in contact with. Seemingly innocuous events can quickly become life-threatening; the routine can become deadly. For example, according to the FBI, 6 police officers were killed during traffic stops last year, 4 investigating crimes, 1 investigating a suspicious person, 5 in unprovoked attacks, 1 serving court papers and a number of others in various categories that can be found on the FBI website here for a total of 48: https://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/fbi-releases-2019-statistics-on-law-enforcement-officers-killed-in-the-line-of-duty. These are all circumstances that wouldn’t normally require a gun and yet the officer was killed, even while carrying their weapon. Again, we are preparing for the unexpected. One minute we could be doing a VIN inspection and the next, responding to an active shooter at the school, park, or town square.
But this is Jackson, right? This is a safe place where we don’t lock our cars or houses. Yes, it’s Jackson. Yes, it’s a pretty safe place to be, but we host people from across the United States and the rest of the world. They come from all backgrounds and walks of life. Most are just here on vacation, but some come with criminal intent or find themselves in a moment of alcohol induced stupidity. If you read our blotter on a regular basis, you understand what we are talking about. At the risk of jinxing our record, there has never been an incident of a Jackson Police Officer shooting anyone or even firing a shot at anyone. There have been quite of few instances where we could have, and nearly did, but chose not to. That speaks to the outstanding individuals the Town of Jackson hires as police officers and the quality training we provide them.
We will continue to provide the Town of Jackson, its residents and visitors, with exceptional public safety. Our mission is to provide you with professional police services by preserving life, protecting property and maintaining the peace through a responsible application of the law. We hope that never involves using our weapons, but we’re prepared for the worst if it does.
On to the blotter.
20073507: On July 23, 2020, at 8:16 a.m., Officer White responded to a report of Destruction of Property. Initially, the reporting person thought the damage was the result of a Hit & Run Collision, but upon closer inspection it looks like it was more than that. If that is the case, that is just not very nice. Why would someone do that to another person’s property? Officer White doesn’t have any suspects at this time, but if we do, we’re going to be writing at least one ticket.
20073559: On July 23, 2020, at 1:00 p.m., Officer White took a report who report that, about two weeks ago, an intoxicated man came into her home and refused to leave after asking him several times. This kind of thing happens on a regular basis in Jackson. We continue to encourage people to lock their doors to prevent this kind of thing from happening. If it does, call us when it happens. We’ll arrest the person if we must, or just get them to the right place.
20073641: On July 23, 2020, at 8:20 p.m., RO (Recruit Officer) Swicegood responded to a report of a dog attacking a rabbit. Yes, you heard that right. No problem is too small and we’re happy to respond to do what we can. RO Swicegood learned the rabbit was playing in the front yard of its home. The owner of the rabbit claimed the neighbor’s dog attacked and injured it. The owner of the dog claimed the dog did not hurt the rabbit, just go really close and that the rabbit injured itself as it panicked in fear. RO Swicegood could not determine that a crime had been committed, mediated the dispute, and cleared the call without taking any enforcement action.
20073674: On July 23, 2020, at 11:32 p.m., Officer Raab stopped a vehicle for speeding, 54/30. That’s pretty fast. When he stopped the driver, he could smell the odor of marijuana. The driver said there was only a small "blunt" in in the car and that they had a medical marijuana card. Let us pause here and clarify a few points. First, marijuana is still illegal in Wyoming. It doesn’t look like that’s going to change any time in the near future, so please stop bringing your marijuana in from out of state. Second, your medical marijuana card is not valid in a state where it’s still illegal…like Wyoming. Whether you think it should be legal or not, that is the law for now and we will be enforcing that law until it changes. We would also suggest not speeding when you have it in the car. That just makes sense. Officer Raab found a number of other marijuana items in the car other the "one small blunt" and wrote a citation to the driver and one of the passengers who claimed ownership of these items.
Here is the other stuff we did.
Totals Description
1 Animal Control Animal Attack
1 Animal Control Complaint
1 Bike Traffic
5 Citizen Assist
9 Code Enforcement
1 Collision
1 Collision Hit and Run
1 Collision with Injury
2 Disturbance
1 Driving Complaint
1 False Identification
1 Fight
1 Fire Alarm - Carbon Monoxide Residential
1 Fire Alarm - Residential
1 Found Property
2 Illegal Camping
1 Illegal Passing of School Bus
1 Investigate Fire
4 Medical Assist
1 Medical Transport
1 Motorist Assist
3 Parking Complaint
1 Parking Rounds
1 Parking Violation
1 Report Every Drunk Driver Immediately
1 Suspicious Circumstances
2 Suspicious Person
1 Suspicious Vehicle
1 Traffic Hazard
11 Traffic Stop
3 Vehicle Identification Number Inspection
2 Welfare Check
1 Wildland Fire
66 Totals