The Chesterton Police Department’s K-9 program—now about a year and a half old—owes a great deal to the community.

It was the outpouring of donations from folks in 2010, spearheaded by Police Chief Dave Cincoski, which succeeded in raising, within only a few months, much of the funding needed to acquire and train two dogs.

Then, late last year, when Officer Erik Herbert’s partner, Jop, had to be medically retired from service, it was the generosity of the Ames family which made it possible for Herbert officially to adopt Jop into his own family.

Now, the Kaminski family—Ken, Sharon, and Roxanne—has made its own contribution to the K-9 program: the purchase of a harness for each of the department’s two K-9 units: Herbert’s new partner, Kahr, and Sgt. Dan Rocha’s partner, Igor.

At the Police Commission’s meeting last week, Kahr modeled the harness: a handsome model with the CPD’s emblem emblazoned on it.

“On behalf of the commission, the Chesterton Police Department, and the entire community, thank you very much,” Member Alex Rodriguez said.

“I’d like to thank you too,” Herbert added. “You’ve always been very supportive.”

In other business, members voted 3-0 to approve a revised set of Rules and Regulations governing the use of officers’ take-home vehicles.

Among the revisions are the following:

•Vehicle inspections will now be conducted on a quarterly rather than a monthly basis.

•Officers are no longer required to call in their mileage when going off duty.

•An outside jurisdiction will now only be asked to investigate an officer-involved accident when total damage exceeds $1,000 or there is an injury or the officer is believed to be at fault.

Meanwhile, the commission thanked residents for two other contributions to the CPD Gift Fund: one from the Chesterton Woman’s Club, in the amount of $140, earmarked for the K-9 program; and one from Jackie Lanter, in the amount of $75.

In June the CPD responded to 2,155 calls (2,303 in May), filed 65 cases (68), filed 12 felony charges and 44 misdemeanor (10 and 30), issued 287 citations and 549 warnings (305 and 578), served 10 warrants (11), and investigated 29 accidents with zero injuries (29 accidents with six injuries).

Information on juvenile activity in June was not available.

Calls for service in June included 39 alarms (50 in May), 21 animal complaints (26), three reports of battery (four), two burglaries (three), three reports of counterfeit bills (zero), 21 disturbances (18), four domestic calls (three), five fireworks complaints (one), seven reports of fraud (four), one report of identity theft (zero), 39 miscellaneous juvenile complaints (23), three missing persons (one), 12 noise complaints (five), seven parking violations (12), four residence checks (zero), three runaways (one), one suicide (one), 66 suspicious circumstances (50), 26 suspicious persons (25), 32 suspicious vehicles (20), 24 thefts (16), 781 traffic stops (913), 12 incidents of vandalism (11), and eight vehicle repossessions (three).

Posted 7/17/2012