O’Brien County, Iowa — O’Brien County’s law enforcement and other first responders were kept busy in 2016, with the County Communications Center handling an average of more than 20 calls for service each day throughout the year.
According to figures from the O’Brien County Sheriff’s Office, their communications center handled 7,567 separate calls during the year. Included in those numbers was the largest single item, 1,921 traffic stops. Of those traffic stops, Sheldon Police Chief Lyle Bolkema says his officers made 561 of them.
Ambulances around the county were dispatched 828 times during 2016. Of those ambulance calls, 444 went to the Sheldon Community Ambulance Team. SCAT EMT/Paramedic Coordinator Kevin Miller tells KIWA that Sheldon’s ambulances were called out on 290 occasions for in-town calls, and completed 154 transfers during 2016. Miller says SCAT answered 96 trauma calls, and 184 medical calls. He said that neither reflects the number of times SCAT was called to a fire scene and didn’t treat or transport anyone.
621 of the calls for service on the list from the O’Brien County Sheriff’s Office are listed as “Miscellaneous”. 281 of those miscellaneous calls were for the Sheldon Police Department. Chief Bolkema says this category is used when no other category “seems to fit”.
Law enforcement and other first responders were dispatched to 316 traffic crashes in the county last year, with 111 of the calls being handled by the Sheldon Police Department. Those accidents fell into three categories: PD (Property Damage only) totaled 268 countywide, 102 of which were in Sheldon; PI (Personal Injury accidents) totaled 45 across the county, 9 of which were in Sheldon; and F (Fatal crashes) totaled 3, with none dispatched to Sheldon officers.
Bolkema says his officers investigated 112 of the 226 thefts reported in O’Brien County last year, and the only item categorized as “Robbery” in O’Brien County for 2016 was handled by the Sheldon Police Department.
Chief Bolkema noted that there are many things his officers do that never show up on the reports. For instance, he says they don’t make reports on funeral escorts, or parking tickets. And he says they don’t make calls for service on scams unless someone actually gave out their personal information to a scammer. Bolkema also said that many times his officers deal with multiple crimes associated with the same incident, but only one of them is counted in the call for service total. As a result, Bolkema says, while the numbers show that officers were kept busy last year, they don’t always accurately reflect just HOW busy his officers were.
The complete lists of Calls For Service for the O’Brien County Communications Center, Sheldon Police Department, and Sheldon Community Ambulance Team can be accessed below.
