Police Chief Chat

We had another busy week here at the Rolla Police Department, in that we handled 632 calls for service. Of these calls, there were: 8 accidents, 8 alarms, 45 9-1-1 hang up calls, 17 disturbance calls (domestic or other), 32 traffic complaints, 3 burglaries, 19 assists of other agencies, 4 mental health calls, 142 traffic stops, 12 check well beings, 24 arrests. As you may have noticed, we had (45) 9-1-1 hang up calls! (45)! And that is within one week. Each and every one of these calls requires at least one officer to respond to the location the call originated and investigate to their satisfaction that there was no emergency. In a lot of cases, the calls were made by children, playing with a telephone, or cell phone. Some of the calls are from adults that dialed the number inadvertently, and still others are from callers who may have initially decided they had an emergency, then decided they did not and hung up. Either way, officers are mandated to respond to each of these calls to verify that help is not needed.

As you can imagine, when figured in with all the other calls received, these hang-up calls cost our department a lot of man-hours, we could be using in other areas. I know our Central Dispatch telecommunicators travel to all the public schools each year and teach our children how and when to use 9-1-1. This is a valuable service and we are certain this training has eliminated a lot of our 9-1-1 hang up calls. In an effort to reduce this number, parents please remember that a functioning cell phone still offers the option of calling 9-1-1 even though there is no service to the phone. In a lot of cases discarded cell phones are given to children as a play toy, and then the child ends up dialing 9-1-1. Even if they have received the training in school please re-emphasize the importance of knowing when to call the emergency number. If you have a cell phone you are not using and want to offer it to your child, be sure to remove the battery! A little concentrated effort by all of us will help us reduce these calls for service and allow more time for us to better serve you!

This week’s Volunteers in Police Service (VIPS) volunteer spotlight is Don Reed! Don was born in Kirkwood, Missouri but has lived in Rolla on and off since 1950. Don graduated Rolla High School in 1954 and entered the US Army National Guard where he retired as a 1st Sergeant. Don has been married to his wife Bonnie for 52 years and they have 3 daughters. Don’s hobbies include any type of shooting for pleasure, hunting and fishing! Don says “I have always supported law enforcement and as a VIPS volunteer I have the opportunity to do security patrols, some office work and any other service I can provide to the department.” “This gives our officers more time to devote to doing their job of protecting public welfare.” Thanks Don, for all you do!

This week’s Rolla Police Department Facebook site “Employee of the Week” is none other than Detective Robert Jones. Robert was born in Canton, Ohio and raised in Dover, Ohio. Robert served 21 years in the US Army as a military policeman and assigned in Brunssum, the Netherlands and Wuerzburg, Germany. He was also deployed to Saudi Arabia in support of Operation Southern Watch. Robert is married, has 3 sons and resides in St. James. His hobbies include model railroading, playing chess with his youngest son and antiquing with his wife. Robert joined the Rolla Police Department in 2004 and is currently a detective assigned to our Criminal Investigations Unit. Congratulations on Employee of the Week!

I noticed our Facebook site has really taken off and that the Rolla Police Department fan base is now 1,772 strong! Thank you for subscribing to our site and sharing your thoughts and insight on how the police department can better serve you. We appreciate all your favorable comments and postings and enjoy hearing your stories. As our fan base increases, so does the opportunity to reach more citizens and keep everyone better informed on the day to day events within the community. Please invite your family and friends to join our site and allow them the same interaction we enjoy with you.

In closing, I have learned that 1 of 2 concrete guardian lion statues that was symbolically guarding the entrance to the Rolla Lion’s Club Den has been stolen. This is truly a terrible injustice to bring upon such a fine service organization that has performed countless good deeds for our our community. This incident has been reported and is currently under investigation. If you or anyone you know has any information on the location of this statue, or information leading to the perpetrator(s), please contact the Rolla Police Department at 308-1213!

Have a great week!

Chief Mark Kearse