Police Blotter
August 10-11, 2020
We talked before about how many police officers it takes to police the Town of Jackson 24/7. Have any of you wondered if there isn’t some study or system out there to determine the exact number of cops you should have to protect your town? There is actually; several different models and systems. We underwent such a study about 20 years ago.
As we said, there are a number of different ways to calculate the right number of police for your community. One method is to go by population. The average number of cops per 1000 people is 2.5. With a year-round population of 10,000 that method says we should have 25. If you include our 40,000 daily summer population, that method says we should have 100. You can see the problems with using population to calculate manpower and experts agree it’s a poor standard.
Instead, they point to using Calls For Service as the standard for determining the right number of officers with the goal being to have 50% of officer time committed to those calls and the other 50% committed to proactive enforcement and programs. We’ve been looking at these numbers in the last few weeks to see what our committed time looks like. We’re not experts or paid consultants, but when you combine our time on calls, training, and report writing our committed time is about 68%, leaving us with only 32% of our time to be proactive. We use that time to do a whole laundry list of proactive activities and programs like: TIPS training, alcohol compliance checks, tobacco compliance checks, hunter safety, foot patrol, bike patrol, horse patrol, traffic enforcement, etc., etc. We make pretty good use of our time and accomplish a lot with it. We use that proactive time to help make the Town of Jackson the best resort community in the world. We are committed to our community, to protect life and property and provide you with professional police services.
You’ve got a great team of law enforcement professionals working for your town. Let’s take a look and see what they did for your town in the last couple of days.
On to the blotter!
20081294: Collision Hit & Run.
20081332: Collision: Bicycle vs. Vehicle.
20081361: On August 10, 2020, at 8:24 p.m., we responded to a report of Shoplifting. We learned that a woman entered one of the downtown businesses, loaded up her re-usable shopping bag, but only ended up paying for part of what she took. There was $72.08 in merchandise stolen. We are trying to get the store video, so we’ll see if that helps us identify the suspect. We’ll let you know if we need help.
20081377: On August 10, 2020, at 11:34 p.m., we were notified of a REDDI vehicle. That stands for Report Every Drunk Driver Immediately. It was reported the vehicle was speeding and swerving, coming in from Gros Ventre Junction. We caught the vehicle as it was speeding into town. The driver was intoxicated as had been reported and we administered field sobriety tests. The driver did poorly and provided a portable breath test of .22%. That being the case, we had to arrest the 34 year old Hillsboro, TX man for DUI.
20080613: Found Property
20081379: On August 11, 2020, at 1:05 a.m., we responded to a report of an intoxicated man causing a disturbance. The intoxicated man was passed out on the patio of a cabin that was not his own. Before we got there, he was knocking on random doors trying to find his room. When our officers tried to wake him up (he was snoozing pretty good) he tried to punch the officer. Fortunately, he missed because he was so drunk. When we tried to help him get to his room, he exercised his right to remain silent. That’s okay. We’re not offended, but it limits our ability to help him out and we had to arrest the 25 year old Apollo Beach, FL man for Public Intoxication.
20081518: On August 11, 2020, at 10:02 p.m., we responded to a report of Theft. The woman said she left her phone on a table at the Virginian Saloon. She left the bar and forgot her phone. When she came back her phone and some other items were gone. A couple claiming to be their friends picked up those items. The woman was pretty intoxicated at the time we took the report, so we will re-interview her the next day and then contact the suspects we have on video taking the items if it is still necessary.
Here is the other stuff we did.
Totals Description
2 Abandoned Vehicle
1 Animal Control Dog Bite
1 Animal Control Found
2 Bike Traffic
8 Citizen Assist
5 Code Enforcement
8 Collision
1 Collision Hit and Run
1 Commercial Alarm
2 Disturbance
1 Driving Complaint
3 Fire Alarm - Commercial
4 Follow Up PATROL Investigation
1 Found Property
1 Illegal Camping
9 Medical Assist
2 Motorist Assist
2 Noise Disturbance
9 Parking Complaint
3 Parking Rounds
4 Parking Violation
1 Pedestrian Stop
1 Public Intoxication
1 Public Works/Utilities
1 Residential Alarm
1 Shoplifting
2 Suspicious Circumstances
2 Suspicious Person
1 Theft
7 Traffic Stop
1 Trespass
3 Vehicle Identification Number Inspection
2 Warrant Attempt
1 Wildland Fire
94 Totals
