Show I I t 4 10 By ny Jock Jones Vernal City Police Chief The relationship p between a community and its it's Police Pollee Department is one of mutual dependency The community depends upon the professional expertise of the Police Department to lo Insure the safety of its it's inhabitants while the professional expertise of the Police Department is directly related to the amount of cooperation and support which the community ty gives FOR EXAMPLE If a small child were struck down in the street streel by a drunk driver and no noone noone noone one phoned the police to inform them of the accident they could not perform their duty of administering first aid directing traffic around the scene conducting an investigation to lo determine the existence and type lype of criminal negligence or any of the other duties which the situation may dictate The same is true of a theft a burglary a fight or a robbery If no one informs the local police of the of such crimes the efforts of the police policeto to curtail crime are severely hampered HOW CAN the police know what crimes are being committed in what areas of town at what time of the day and by whom if the citizens of the community are unconcerned unconcerned un un- un- un concerned about such things A total of eight juveniles were arrested and referred to lo Juvenile Court last week for such serious crimes as DS burglary till-tapping till theft shoplifting prowling car-prowling and criminal trespassing All of ofes these es arrests were the direct result of the alertness and concern of several citizens who made the call which alerted usand us usand usand and enabled us to lo do our job A CERTAIN group of these juveniles after their arrests discussed at length how they had been committing serious crimes for the past several months But only about half of these crimes were ever reported Maybe just maybe if the victims of these crimes had called the police at the time of their these kids could have been stopped in time timeto to change their lives As it is isnow isnow isnow now I have serious doubts that some of their lives can be changed |