The communications center could be compared to McCarran International Airport on any busy holiday weekend. Staffed with one or two employees at any given time, they answered a total of 93,165 telephone calls during 2004. These telephone calls required 24,119 calls for service being dispatched to the police officers, most commonly on patrol. While all this is going on, the communication center staff are talking with citizens who stop at the police department with questions, talking with police officers that have questions about various calls for service and copying reports for officers going to court. While this is an abbreviated list of their tasks, the employees in our communication center do an outstanding job, day in and day out, dealing with everything from suicides, traffic accidents, power outages and the occasional embarrassing situation of couples with locked handcuffs and a lost key.
The officer’s activities also provide interesting information worthy of discussion. Police officers in Boulder City conducted nearly 6,000 traffic stops during 2004 and yielded 4,421 traffic citations. Looking at the top three violations that yielded citations you find speeding, insurance, and registration violations the most common.
All in all, it was a busy year for the men and women of the Boulder City Police Department. The Police Department is currently going through organizational changes to assist in addressing these increased and more serious calls for service, which will be a topic for future discussion. Until next month, stay safe.
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