Jasper police chief outlines December police activities

During Tuesday’s board of public works and safety meeting, Jasper Police Chief Chad Dick outlined the department’s activities for December.

He began by noting that December is historically a busy month for responses to domestic disputes. The Jasper Police Department responded to 22 domestic violence calls in December, resulting in six arrests.

“Domestic violence calls are amongst the most unpredictable, dangerous calls we respond to,” Dick said. “A lot of factors go into that, factors like the emotional volatility, presence of weapons, high risk of being ambushed by some people involved in the domestics, other parties want to get involved, …substance abuse, and mental health issues are often added to the level of danger and complexity.”

In one incident outlined by Dick, Jasper officers responded to a domestic altercation between brothers in which one left the residence, making statements about suicide. Officers located the individual, but he fled. They followed him until he stopped, then persuaded him to surrender.

“I’d like to thank the Indiana State Police and the Dubois County Sheriff’s office and all the members of the Jasper Police Department for their swift actions and professionalism throughout that ordeal,” the police chief said. “It was truly a team effort.”

In another domestic case, officers responded to an incident where a male was charged with intimidation with a deadly weapon, criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon, interference with an investigation and false performance after allegedly pointing a loaded firearm at another person. Officers de-escalated the situation and took him into custody without anyone getting hurt.

Patrol units responded to 1,046 calls for service in December, including 329 traffic-related contacts with 57 crashes, 50 property-damage incidents, and four personal-injury crashes. Officers made 44 arrests during the month.

Detectives conducted one forensic interview, served nine search warrants and made two arrests while investigating three new child criminal cases and three general criminal cases. They also completed five investigative interviews and one certified voice stress analysis test.

A major highlight for detectives was an 11-day investigation into a missing runaway juvenile from Jasper. Detectives immediately began monitoring social media platforms and contacting social media companies to obtain information about the juvenile’s location.

“Since most juveniles like to communicate with social media, the detectives immediately started monitoring social media platforms,” according to Dick.

While social media efforts yielded limited results, detectives obtained surveillance footage of the juvenile in the Jasper Public Library and Jasper Riverwalk area. Using this timeframe, they searched other area business surveillance cameras and located a vehicle of interest believed to have picked up the juvenile.

The vehicle was identified using the city’s FLOCK camera systems and on Dec. 23, detectives spoke with the male believed to be involved. He didn’t provide any information about the missing juvenile but abruptly hung up on the police. Then, about 30 minutes after that phone call, the juvenile was dropped off at a police department in Terry Town, New York.

The investigation involved close cooperation with the Washington Police Department, the FBI, the Indiana Intelligence Fusion Center and the Dubois County Juvenile Probation Office. All collected information determined that the juvenile had planned to run away, and there were no concerns of kidnapping or human trafficking.

Dick also reported that Patrolman Logan Jones solved a major retail theft case involving Home Depot stores across multiple states. After receiving a call about tools being sold on social media that appeared to be in a hotel, Jones began canvassing area hotels to match the background of the tools in the photos.

While conducting this search, Jones received a call from Home Depot reporting that the suspected individuals had returned to the store. Jones and other units responded and arrested individuals in possession of approximately $20,000 of stolen property from Home Depot stores in various states.

Jones located an additional $4,000 in the suspect’s vehicle at the time of arrest and obtained search warrants for a hotel room in Jasper, where he found another $15,000 worth of stolen property. The items were primarily power tools, and Home Depot investigators from St. Louis came to Jasper to recover the stolen property.

The tools were stolen from stores in Jasper, Evansville, Bowling Green, Owensboro and Tennessee. Jones also had two other arrests during December, seized three grams of methamphetamine, served four search warrants and attended three court hearings.

School resource officers reported 247 activities in December, despite Christmas break, including one drug- and alcohol-related violation, eight stop-arm violations, three vehicle crashes, nine truancy visits, 18 presentations or training sessions, and 20 juvenile complaints.

The dispatch center handled 581 emergency calls, 1,109 administrative calls, and made 449 administrative calls for a total of 2,139 calls in December.

The importance of having two dispatchers became evident on Dec. 19, when, during the domestic pursuit incident, dispatchers simultaneously handled 25 other calls for service, including 12 calls during the initial domestic incident, three traffic accidents, one vehicle fire, one medical incident and eight additional calls during shift change.

“Despite the heavy radio traffic and the growing call queue that was coming in, they were able to keep control of the situation and managing the additional calls for service,” Dick said.

The department recently swore in Austin Barkley and Andrew Fleck as new officers who will begin the Academy on 19 January 2026. The department also received $2,050 in donations from 11 local businesses since the last board meeting.

The board approved the department’s request to seek sealed bids for three 2026 sport utility vehicles equipped with police pursuit packages, trading in two 2018 Chargers for the new vehicles.