IFPD Officer Scott Ockerman poses for a picture with a delighted student from Tokai-Mura during her visit to the Idaho Falls Police Department on Friday. CSI Technician Krissy Gittens uses a black-light to demonstrate how certain types of chemicals and materials can be used to find evidence at crime scenes. IFPD Detective Rome Stiffler helps a student try on SWAT gear during their visit to

Excellent investigative work by Idaho Falls Police and the Bonneville County Sheriff's Office led to the arrest of three juveniles this morning and another just a few minutes ago in connection with the robberies at the Common Cents store on West Broadway and Los Albertos Restaurant on East 17th Street as well as the Gun Shop burglary on North Holmes. The crime spree started

Most people understand that texting and driving is a bad idea, but some wonder if we should pass an extra law making it illegal.  I say “extra” because we already have inattentive driving laws. The public's wondering may come to fruition as the Idaho Falls City Council is considering an ordinance banning texting while driving.There are a couple advantages to a texting law.  First, officers

The Police Department is not immune from the budget crunch but we’ve found ways to tighten our belt, including filling certain positions with non-sworn officers - a.k.a. civilians. It’s expensive to hire, train, and equip police officers and so by taking advantage of a few recent retirements and replacing them with the non-gun carrying type; we’ve been able to trim $64,000. We’re saving $44K

Most people understand the Walters’ shooting was justified. But, one person recently asked me why we had to go in the house in the first place.  Couldn’t we have just gassed him out like we did Elawadly?Certainly, if we had known Walters was going to grab a gun and shoot us, we would have used other tactics, but based on the information we had at the time, the officer’s tactics were sound.Unlike

This is the second robbery in two days. Help us catch these punks. They pointed a gun in the clerk's face and took cash, beer and cigarettes from a Common Cents store on West Broadway early Wednesday morning. The suspects are described as two Hispanic males. One is about 5 foot 7 inches tall, 160 pounds with short black hair wearing a black t-shirt, black shorts and a dark cloth over his face.

Idaho Falls Police Officer Malin Reynolds' life was saved by this vest after a suspect shot him point-blank in the chest. When Officer Malin Reynolds was shot in the chest last month, I received kudos for having changed the policy to mandatory wear on ballistic vests a few months prior.  Under this policy all officers who are primarily first responders are required to wear a ballistic vest.

No-Left-Turns were installed on Hitt Road south of 17th just before Thanksgiving Black Friday.  We took a quick look and compared the same time periods for the last few years for the specific locations where the barriers were installed.  Impressive results:  11/2007 – 05/2008 3 injury accidents11/2008 – 05/2009 2 injury accidents11/2009 – 05/2010 3 injury accidents11/2010 – 05/2011