| Sheriff’s View #21 for May 17 to 21, 2010 |
By: Sheriff J.B. King
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Posted: Monday, May 17, 2010 6:41 am
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Sheriff J.B. King
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Welcome aboard for column number 21 for the year 2010. As I get ready to start writing this column on my so-called day off, I hope you all have your boat ready or did remember to purchase your advance ticket from Noah. It appears we may need more vessels soon to be able to roam about the county. At the very least, make sure you have your life vest handy. OK, enough of the weather/rain jokes. We had a busy week in many respects and I will try to cover several topics today.
For the past several columns, I have not included the case number/calls for service count. As of 11 a.m. on May 15, we stood at 3,901 calls. I checked the past history and in 2009 we stood at 3,249 and in 2008 we stood at 3,776 calls for column number 21. Once again, I must hope that the count drops because we really do not need all of these calls for help. We need more free time for the deputies in order to do follow up investigations on old cases.
I watched the jail list this past week and our total daily jail count has been hovering right around 48 inmates per day. I checked with dispatch a few minutes ago and our count on the jail roster this morning stands at 43 inmates. I do not remember which day but I think it was Wednesday when I did a count of the inmates being held in connection with a probation or parole charge. I came up with a figure of 12.5 percent of the list was waiting for action on their P&P status. Between the P&P holds and the inmates serving a sentence, we manage to keep the jail full.
This past week I put out a news release on a slightly successful jail escape attempt. The inmate did get about 20 feet outside the building before being stopped and returned to custody. I have been told the sudden lunge for freedom and the shove to the side that our plumbing expert experienced came as a shock to the man whose mind was on a flooded jail cell. Hopefully I will see him soon and be able to ask for myself.
We also had a series of burglary cases that we cleared up. We arrested one subject on May 12 and cleared two separate burglary cases. On May 13 we had a narcotic operation interrupted when the deputy stopped a vehicle leaving the scene of a burglary and got tied up with that case for many hours, but I guess it worked out just fine since the other officers never did see the car of interest in the narcotic case. A bird in the hand beats one loose in the bushes.
On May 14, we assisted the state troopers with traffic control at a fatal vehicle accident on Highway 133 about two miles north of Richland. The rain was coming down hard and the traffic was backed up for miles, or so it seemed. It took quite some time to get the victims into the ambulance and even longer to get the cars removed. A fatal accident is always a sobering moment and this one seemed even more tragic than most. Our thoughts go out to the family of the victim.
I would like to remind everyone that most of the local school systems are winding down toward the last day of school. When that happens, all of us who drive on the roads and streets here in Pulaski County need to remember that suddenly there will be a lot more kid traffic on or near the roadways. They will be on bikes, skateboards and who knows what else. We all know that kids do not always look for vehicle traffic, so it is our job to avoid them. Stay alert out there!
I have been doing research this past week for a new grant from the feds for assistance with the purchase of bullet resistant vests for the deputies. Since we have had two deputies shot over the past four years this is not a topic to be lightly considered. I have till the end of May to submit the grant and the research has taken up several hours so far and will occupy several more in the near future. The grant will be a 50 percent grant. The feds will pay for 50 percent of the purchase price and we cover the rest. I had just finished the close out paper work a few weeks ago on this same grant that we had obtained back in 2007. As grants go the paper work on this one is reasonable. So I have high hopes that we will once again win this grant.
I have reached the point where once again I have run out of words and it is time to close out this column. Please drive with care we have lost enough of our citizens this week in traffic crashes. Please keep your actions legal and stay out of our jail because we cannot afford to keep you as an inmate. But if you must visit the jail you know the lights work just fine!
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