Staffing

Staffing is the most important thing this Town has. When you lose a couple of people and its 40%-60% of your staff, staffing becomes critical. The Police Department (NPD) staff is thankful to the Town for recognizing our efforts with the use of the American Rescue funds.

As of January 16, 2022, three of five NPD staff members have Covid, one with significant illness. The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office currently has 19 Deputies out with Covid. The last few weeks of January and probably February will be difficult to stay staffed.

NPD currently has an employment offer to a new cadet. We may have to abandon this offer and look at our second or third choices.

The year in review

I just want to highlight a few things that occurred during 2021.

We joined with the Boulder Sheriff to use their Co-Responders. Boulder County obtained a five-year grant. Most other Boulder County agencies have obtained their own Co-Responder in one form or another. Generally, we are able to get one when we ask. I would estimate we call one every 3 to 4 weeks.

Several times this last year, officers were forced to transport mental health patients to Longmont United, Avista, or Good Samaritans, due to Boulder Community hospital being on psych divert.

I completed a year as a board member with the Colorado Rangers. I will continue to serve them as long as possible. I am honored they offered me their open position.

I spoke with Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) regarding the change in size of the speed limit signs. I was told a complete re-evaluation was done with the Canyon construction. They determined the signs were not sized correctly for the roadway. They also used the excuse of wind loading. At this point they are not willing to change them back to larger signs.

Auto thefts in Nederland are down from 2020. We recovered a stolen vehicle from Commerce City last week. The suspect drove it to Nederland, stole license plates from a plow truck west of town, and was hiding out in town for two days.

Overall, the homeless population traveling through Town is down from historical numbers. The Nederland Food Pantry has stepped up and is our newest resource for those homeless who find themselves in a bind. We appreciate having as many options as possible.

The Michael Czeponis trial has been delayed multiple times. It is currently scheduled for two weeks in mid-March of 2022.

We are still waiting on a trial date or plea bargain for the explosives, and explosive / butane hash oil lab at the end of Alpine Drive. This case started in the summer of 2020.

Nederland Municipal court moved from virtual back to in-person. We may be moving back to virtual based upon the covid spike.

Nederland Police, along with Colorado Parks and Wildlife, hosted a kids’ “fishing is fun” event. I estimate 50 kids showed up and most caught one or more fish. Several fishing poles were given away by Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) officers would like to partner next year as well. I would be glad to volunteer for the event.

NPD will be signing a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with The US Forest Service allowing officers to patrol and take enforcement as necessary within the USFS surrounding area. 2022 will also come with extra duty funding for officers to increase the patrols and earn some extra money.

NPD assisted with the following events in 2021: Nederland High School Homecoming Parade; the Buff Classic; the Ned* Ned; the Gravel Race; 4th of July; Farmers’ Market; Harvest Fest; Halloween; Trunk or Treat; and the largest Wild Bear Enchanted Forest event, drawing over 900 people.

The fall traffic in September was extremely busy. Next year additional officers or contracts will be needed to manage the traffic and pedestrian flow.

The evidence room has been completely purged of closed cases or cases beyond the statute of limitations. In doing so we destroyed approximately 50 guns. All were placed in a junk vehicle and sent through a shredder.

Equipment

New 2020 Tahoe was purchased. It currently has 6,900 miles on it. New police car graphics on three patrol cars; a fourth had a facelift done in-house.

New records management system will be up and running in February. The system was obtained with grant funding.

NPD has adopted the Lexis Nexis and CarFax, an on-line crash report form that is Department of Revenue compliant. Officers can now enter all the information online, upload photos with GPS coordinates, and use drawing tools for the crash diagram. The Department of Revenue has changed the crash reporting format from two pages to five pages. Lexis Nexis is a completely paperless system.

NPD requested money be budgeted in 2021 to start the Taser replacement program. Our Tasers are functional, but Taser is no longer supporting them with batteries and cartridges. They are rarely used other than for annual training. However, they are not a tool we can get rid of. We diverted some of that money into another less lethal option, the Bolawrap. So far, we have not had a reason to deploy it.

We purchased two body cameras and an external hard drive to hold the video. The cameras were used as test models during 2021. At the end of 2021, we signed a contract with Motorola to provide body cameras for the next 4 years. 2022 was paid for out of 2021 funds.

I can see the potential need to hire a part time person, possibly in 2022 or 2023. Demographics reporting has to start in April of 2022, and we have been collecting the required data since the bill was signed into law.

NPD continues to purchase equipment and tools to be more self-sufficient and provide excellent service to the surrounding community.

Juvenile issues

While we have had our fair share of juveniles with life problems, overall, cases are down from 2020.

Training

All officers completed required training and hours to stay POST certified. One of those trainings we attended was a four-hour driver’s training on frozen Georgetown Lake. The vehicles with true snow tires outperformed those with deeper block mud and snow tread.

Officers Gerthe and Niehaus both attended a week-long Crisis Intervention Training (CIT). The class is intense, but provides excellent and realistic training.

Smart911

The program is up and active. The Marshal Fire showed us how important 911 and reverse 911 is.

Several months ago, I reported that Smart911 was coming to Boulder County dispatch center. Smart911 provides a way for everyone with a phone to build a custom profile, when you call 911. Several areas across the nation currently support Smart911.

Public safety officials encourage Boulder County individuals and families to sign up for this free service that provides emergency responders with more information in the event of an emergency. Smart911 allows people to create a Safety Profile for their household at www.smart911.com or on the Smart911 app. This includes any information they want 9-1-1 and first responders to have in the event of an emergency. When a person makes an emergency call, their safety profile is automatically displayed to the 9-1-1 call taker, allowing them to send the right first responders to the right location with the right information.

With Smart911, individuals can link home, vacation homes, and work addresses to mobile phones, which can be passed on to responders in the field for more a detailed, rapid response. Additional information, including pets in the home, vehicle details in the event of an accident, and even emergency contacts, can all be included in a safety profile.

All information is optional, and the citizen has the ability to choose what details they would like to include.

“The benefits of this information on a 9-1-1 call from a cell phone are immeasurable,” said Sheriff Joe Pelle, “Cell phones do not provide an address to the 9-1-1 call taker. The safety profile can speak for you when you might be unable.”

Individuals are encouraged to create their safety profile with Smart911 today to have their information immediately available to 9-1-1. Smart911 is private and secure, is only used for emergency responses, and only made available to the 9-1-1 system in the event of an emergency call.

The Smart911 app provides greater access to the lifesaving benefits of Smart911 and targeted location-based alerts to all individuals. The Smart911 app is available from the Apple Store or Google Play. Signing up and creating an account is easy. If anyone wants or needs assistance NPD would be glad to assist.

Jumping into 2022

So far, we have seen a major increase in mountain lion activity up and down Boulder Canyon and into Nederland. I am sure by now everyone knows a dog was killed on Barker Road. However, I only found out by checking Facebook. NPD has an excellent relationship with our two local CPW officers, and can generally contact them quicker than a private party going through the state channels. We frequently share information regarding migration, sick, injured, or killed wildlife. We ask the public to keep us in the loop with problem wildlife.

NPD wants to thank the citizens of Ned, the BOT and Town Staff for all your support and getting through another year in one piece. Thank You!