Jasper Police Chief: August was a busy month; heat takes out several patrol vehicles
Jasper Police Chief Chad Dick told the city’s Board of Public Works and Safety on Tuesday that officers handled nearly 1,400 calls for service in August, even as the department dealt with a rash of vehicle breakdowns tied to the summer heat.
Dick said that among the 1,389 calls for service in August, officers worked 42 crashes — 29 property-damage crashes and 13 with personal injuries. They also issued 419 traffic warnings and 64 citations, made 35 arrests, and parking enforcement wrote 55 tickets.
The heat took a toll on the department’s fleet. Dick said one vehicle went down Friday from a battery or alternator problem. Two more broke down over the weekend with air conditioning failures. When an officer switched to a spare car after one of those failures, its cooling fan broke apart and punched through the radiator, taking that vehicle out too. Dick said the department is currently short several patrol cars while repairs are made.
Dick also gave these updates:
- School resource officers logged 247 documented activities in their first month back in session, including a drug and alcohol violation, seven stop-arm violations, one vehicle crash, 21 juvenile complaints, and 13 home visits or student meetings.
- Detectives opened seven new cases, conducted eight interviews, and served three search warrants. One detective was called out to help search for a lost animal using a drone.
- Dispatch handled 1,998 calls in August — about 40% of all calls countywide, according to Chief Dick — and logged 30,156 police and fire radio transmissions for the month. “Our part-time dispatch application process is still open and closes this Friday,” said Chief Dick. “So anyone listening online or anyone here knows of a good candidate, please send them our way.”
- Peer support team: Dick said August included several difficult calls and thanked the team for wellness check-ins and debriefings with officers and dispatchers.
In connection with the fatal crash in Pike County that sent three medical helicopters to Jasper’s Memorial Hospital, Mayor Ryan Craig praised the department’s coordination on road closures for those helicopter landings. Dick said one of his officers was already at the hospital on an earlier call when the crash came in, and a hospital staffer later thanked the department, saying officers “appeared out of nowhere” to help.
A police-department building painting project, budgeted for this year, is underway — crews started on the attached garage interior last week, repairing block damage from a prior roof leak, before moving to exterior painting.
