Staying Alert

By Joelyn Hansen

I'm amazed about the latest technology the IFPD and Bonneville County Sheriff's Office is offering to residents -- AlertID. If you've spoken to me in the last week I'm sure that I've mentioned to program at least once maybe even twice in our conversation. It's a great tool and I'm excited to tell people about it.

AlertID is a free service available online and on mobile applications to help protect your family and community. AlertID uses the most advanced technologies to create two-way communication between citizens and federal, state and local authorities to provide information on crime, sex offenders, terrorism, natural disasters, severe weather and other public safety concerns.

In the last couple of weeks I've spent much time exploring the capabilities of the program and I must say I'm impressed. I think you will be too.

I encourage you to sign-up and then talk to your neighbors about signing up.

I should mention that if you attend the IFPD Open House on March 20th you can learn more about it as I'll be showcasing AlertID.

We're Back!!

By Joelyn Hansen

Many people have asked over the last couple of weeks if the IFPD is going to continue with the blog. The answer is YES!

With the transition of a new chief we've been extremely busy, but now were ready to get back to blogging! I hope that you're excited to have us back because we're excited to be back!

As just a quick update -- for those that don't know -- Mark McBride is our new Chief of Police at the department. He is definitely not new to the department. He has worked for the department for 33 years -- basically working in every division within the department! He's obviously up for the challenge!

As a way for you to get to know Chief McBride the IFPD will host a public open house on March 20th. It's not only a chance for you to meet Mark, but it's an opportunity to find out what is happening within our department and tour our facility.

I hope that you'll come, even if it's just to stopping by to say hello and get a cookie!

It will be from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at our police station, 605 N. Capital Ave.

We're also gearing up to start up the 38th Idaho Falls Police Citizen's Academy on April 10th. We are taking applications NOW! So be sure to apply ASAP! If you haven't heard about this class it's definitely worth your while. You'll get to learn about different aspects of law enforcement through hands-on learning. Plus, it's a great way to get to know some of our officers!

I hope to see many of you at our open house or at the academy!

See you there!

Goodbye and Good Luck

By Joelyn Hansen

Police Chief Wanted: Any man or woman willing to fill these shoes is encouraged to apply.

It’s a complete understatement that Mayor Furhiman has a difficult task ahead of him to replace retiring Police Chief Steve Roos.

Many of those, including myself, that have had the pleasure of working closely with him know that he truly is a man of integrity, honesty , respect, fairness and valor. Most importantly, you quickly come to know that he dedicated himself to serving the people of Idaho Falls for 31 years with honor.

It’s true that there are some that disagreed with how Steve fulfilled his duties as chief. That could be said about anyone in any position as nobody is perfect. And if you consider the responsibilities required of the chief, it’s near impossible to make everyone happy.

However, I would find that many would agree that Steve never wavered from what he believed to be right and when he was wrong, he was the first to admit it.

When I first hired on with the department nearly two years ago, Steve encouraged me to challenge him when I disagreed with any decision he made. At first, I was like, in no way am I going to challenge my boss! Who does that?! And what kind of boss encourages that?!

I quickly learned that he was serious! He truly did listen to reasonable arguments and he wanted people to be involved in the decision-making process. I must say that I’ve learned to love hearing the words, “you’re right Joelyn”, from the chief!

And I quickly learned that if I played my cards right, I could even convince him that wearing women’s shoes was an important part of his duties as chief!

I’m fortunate to have been able to work with Steve, both in the department and as a journalist. It was an honor to work with him, especially in changing the caliber of communication with the public.

Steve, thanks for leaving big shoes to fill. Goodbye and good luck!

Simply the Best of 2012

By Joelyn Hansen

I guess since the Apocalypse didn't happen, you get to read this post highlighting the Idaho Falls Police Department's good news of 2012. Aside from the many arrests and crime fighting, we've done this past year, I thought it would be good for us to remember some of those events that perhaps we've forgotten about. We've given out honors, welcomed new folks to the department and said goodbye to old friends this year.

So, here's the list!

Department Honors:
Commander's Commendations: Sgt. Jeremy Galbreaith, Officer Dax Siddoway, Officer Brandon Storer, Dispatcher Andi Anderson and Dispatcher Treena Strong.
Chief's Commendations: Officer Malin Reynolds and Officer Bart Whiting
Purple Heart: Officer Malin Reynolds
Life-Saving Award: Officer Aaron Murdock, Officer Spencer Steel and Officer Rome Stiffler
Medal of Valor: Capt. Royce Clements, Officer Joel Tisdale and Officer Paul Murray

Outside agencies also recognized our officers and volunteers:

Idaho Medal of Honor given to Officer Malin Reynolds.
Idaho Falls Magazine recognized Officer John Cowley with the "I.F. 50 Ordinary People Living Extraordinary Lives through Service to Others".
"Mae Tomblison Distinguished Service" Award given to the Idaho Falls Citizen's Watch Patrol.

Promotions:
Lt. Royce Clements promoted to Captain in June.
Sgt. Steve Hunt promoted to Lieutenant in July.
Officer Bill Squires promoted to Sergeant in July.

Retirements:
Capt. Ken Brown retired in May after 28 years of service.
Chief Steve Roos announced retirement in October after 31 years of service.

New Hires:
Lori Posey hired as new training coordinator in April.
Officers Eric Rose and Brandon Prince sworn in by Mayor Jared Furhiman in November.

Loss of Old Friend:
Officer Ken Knoelk died of cancer in August. He retired from the department after 30 years in 2011.

Weird or funniest news:
A pound of cocaine was found in the engine of an 82-year-old woman's car. The discovery was made while the car was being serviced and had likely been hidden there 11 years ago prior to the woman purchasing the car from a rental company.

Mass Shootings

As Police Chief, what I’m going to say may sound controversial but here it goes:

1. I don’t like the idea of criminals and the mentally ill having guns, but knowing that the police response will take minutes when seconds count, I do like the idea of responsible citizens having guns – people like school principals.

2. Where you stand philosophically on the 2^nd amendment doesn’t change the reality that there are already millions of guns in America. If there is an effective way to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill, I’m all for it. But the belief that we’ll reduce violence by keeping guns from the general public seems naïve and even counterproductive.

Okay, now for the controversial part:

The whole gun control argument seems to be missing the point. As a society, we’re reaping what we’ve sown. Our moral compass is spinning.

We seem to want personal freedom without the corresponding personal responsibility. We want to enjoy now and pay later, over-eat but not gain weight, have random sex but still experience true love, cheat in school but have a successful career, feed our children violent movies and expect no bullying, abdicate parenting to mindless video games and expect our children to be socially healthy. Then when things go wrong, we hack at the leaves of outward behavior rather than go to the root of the problem – societal moral decay.

Right and wrong really are absolute. While the application of morality can be challenging the underlying principles are not. We should teach that and in my view, the fix is in the family. Children are best taught right and wrong by a loving father and mother. When that ideal cannot be met, extended family, and the community can help.

We should start with ourselves by striving to live a life of honesty, service, and love. We should then accept responsibility for teaching these principles to our children and extended family. Finally, we should reach out to our community, country, and the world as we can.

Immoral behavior can be contagious, but so can virtuous behavior.

In the meantime, as police officers we'll continue to work closely with the schools to make them as safe as we possibly can.

I Love It When a Plan Comes Together

Last night, there was an armed robbery at the Midget Market and with the help of technology and excellent police work; we made an arrest five hours later.

Just before 7:00 p.m. the suspect set a bottle of wine on the counter and pulled out a revolver while demanding cash. He left the wine bottle and sunglasses at the scene.

Oops.

CSI lifted prints, scanned them into our local database and came up with an instant hit. Patrol Officers quickly hunted down the suspect and made the arrest while gathering further evidence at the suspect’s residence. - Excellent teamwork between CSI, Patrol, and Detectives.

Just in case you’re wondering, the photo above shows Detective Josh Deede giving our CSI tech Krissy Gittins the “Detective of the Month” trophy (a refurbished 2^nd place women’s softball trophy). As my old undercover partner used to say, “If we can’t have fun, we won’t play.”

Vehicle Burgs -- Preventable

By Joelyn Hansen

It's that time of year when we see spikes in our vehicle burglaries. Between Nov. 5 and Dec. 2, we had a reported 28 incidents. Some of those incidents involved multiple cars. Since Dec. 2, we've had a few more since the Dec. 2.

In many of the cases, the vehicle door was left unlock leaving it an easy targets to criminals.

Luckily, we've made a couple of arrests, including a 17-year-old runaway that was caught breaking into cars this week in the 800 block of Tiger Ave. Officers linked him to more than a dozen vehicle burglaries in the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th street area.

Residents can really help prevent vehicle burglaries if they just remember 2 things -- one, lock the car door, and two, don't leave any valuables in the car.

It's also important to know that just because your neighborhood doesn't see a lot of crime, doesn't mean nothing will ever happen. Watch this video or click on this link to find out how you can prevent yourself from becoming a victim.

Pages