Police Blotter

Captain Joe Engler’s Message
Residents, merchants, and visitors

Thank you. Every person reading this message needs to know that all of our
safety is dependent on each and every one of us taking personal responsibility
for sheltering in place, maintaining a social distance of 6 feet from one another
and developing personal strategies to maintain a healthy survival mindset.
The police officers of Northern Police Station have risen to the call. Not one
police officer assigned to your district has shrunken away from their duties
during this public health crisis. Most officers have children and/or parents in the
age group most vulnerable should they be exposed to the COVID-19 virus.
Officers are taking great care to constantly wash their hands, clean their work
spaces with sanitary wipes, launder their uniforms daily and limit their public
contact as the job allows. While the unpredictable nature of police work
requires officers to touch, restrain and at times, administer first aid to arrested
and sick persons, officers are exercising as much caution as possible while in the
field. Our station’s civilian staff, namely Amy our Janitor, Lyndon our facility
manager and Cecil our vehicle maintenance officer, are working extra hard to
support your police officers by keeping the station and vehicles sanitized and
have organized protective equipment to keep the patrol force safe.
My priority is to protect you, the residents and merchants of the district, by
doing everything possible to support our dedicated and loyal members of
Northern Police Station. That means carefully monitoring officers for exposures
and illness, maintaining constant communication to ensure our officers families
are safe and protected while they are at work and ensuring that everyone is
well-informed and prepared for the coming days and weeks as this pandemic
further presents itself to our community.
As far as crime goes, we are seeing our community at it’s best with reported
crime – vehicle burglary, robberies and other types of thefts, greatly reduced.
With non-essential businesses now closed, we are deploying our officers to
maintain order around our district’s stores and pharmacies which help to sustain
our community’s needs.
It is extremely important that everyone continue to exercise caution and abide
by the Department of Public Health declaration for shelter in place. The time
off from school for the district’s children should not be treated as “snow days”
where we allow the kids a day off to play with their friends and the parents
host a backyard BBQ. The biggest concern I have heard from the streets is that
some people are just not appreciating the gravity of the situation and are
being reckless in their social contacts.
Please do your part. I have shared with you how seriously your local officers
are approaching the crisis as a call for everyone to their obligation.

http://polkstreetgazette.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/newsletter0921181.pdf