Summing up the year for Alpine County law enforcement

Several articles and books have been written with the intention of "summing up" a collection of thoughts or events or both, the most noteworthy being "The Summing Up" by W. Somerset Maugham, published in 1938. This column will attempt to sum up the activities of the Alpine County Sheriff's Department during 2008, but it will be neither as long or as erudite (look it up) as Maugham's.

To find out what Alpine County's small sheriff's department was engaged in during 2008, this columnist visited Sheriff John Crawford and several of his staff in their cramped and nearly subterranean offices in Markleeville. To start with, I was interested in reviewing their uniform crime report for 2008, a report required annually by the State of California in a format established by the FBI. The person who is responsible for collecting, maintaining, and reporting on the several categories of crime in the county is Christine Branscombe, a seventeen year veteran of the department. She's quick and efficient and produced the material I asked for in a jiffy. Of course, not every piece of information is available to the public; and I knew better than to ask.

For example, only a limited amount of information is available about matters under investigation. What I did learn was that the department and Christine in particular are engaged in a surprising variety of activities, pretty much the same range of activities of every sheriff's department plus some.

Christine's duties include being the dispatcher for the 40 hours of her regular shift, plus handling 9-1-1 calls during that period. When she's off shift, she hands those duties off to the Douglas County Sheriff's Office, a reliable cooperator. That means she must be trained for a variety of responses to those 911 calls, including advising on first aid measures, fire hazards, safety and security measures. She dispatches fire departments, EMS personnel, deputies, ambulances or helicopters, if needed. And she needs to know the territory she's dealing with. And of course, she's the voice of home base to the deputies in the field.

She also fingerprints and takes palm prints and DNA samples of suspects arrested for felonies and convicted felons who are arrested for any reason. She also sees that court issued arrest warrants are circulated widely and ensures that summons and subpoenas are put in the hands of the right people for action.

Christine tells me she now has the means to issue emergency calls, such as evacuation orders, simultaneously to all affected parties over the telephone lines on the east side of the county. This is called the Reverse 911 program.

In Bear Valley on the west side of the mountain, Jema Kimmel carries out the same duties as those of Christine's, except for fingerprinting, palm printing, and DNA collecting.

Well, back to the annual uniform crime report, the UCR. Comparing the record for 2008 with those of the last few years, I found there has been almost the very same incidence of crimes in the various reporting categories as there has been for the last four years. In 2008 they included: 26 assaults of which 11 were aggravated assaults and seven were domestic violence cases, some aggravated; two rapes; 14 burglaries of which nine were from residences; 59 cases of larceny; no robberies; and no stolen cars. The value of stolen property was estimated at $54,670; property recovered so far was worth $7,619. The seemingly high incidence of larcenies and assaults were mainly due to the large numbers of visitors at the two ski areas, Bear Valley and Kirkwood. Our neighboring county to the south, Mono County, has a similar situation with Mammoth Mountain ski area serving very large numbers of visitors. Ski and snowboard thefts and sometime out of control tempers at the crowded bars account for most of the reported incidents in the ski areas. There were 17 felony arrests made in 2008, including felony drunk driving and drug arrests, though those latter cases are not included in the UCR.

In the field, besides enforcing the laws, the sheriff and his deputies are the coroners for the county, a task that larger counties handle by separate offices. Similarly, where many counties have animal control officers, this responsibility is handled by the sheriff's office. The deputies are all trained as first responders, knowing at least advanced first aid. All these diverse skills are essential in responding to the wide range of incidents that occur in the county.

They work in close cooperation with all emergency service organizations in the area and when necessary can turn to those cooperators for help in dealing with special problems such as suspected bombs or hazard material spills.

The sheriff's office is also in charge of search and rescue. There were 19 search and rescues conducted in 2008 and one plane crash incident was responded to.

Sheriff Crawford emphasizes the importance of maintaining high visibility of the uniformed officers throughout the county. He believes that doing so reduces the incidence of crime as well as adds to the sense of security that we in Alpine County enjoy.

Another accomplishment indirectly involved in the security of the county is improving the communication systems. Last year the sheriff's office, under the leadership of Undersheriff Rob Levy and in cooperation with the forest service, improved access to Hawkins Peak and is nearly ready to have a new communication system installed there that will replace the current installation on Leviathan Peak. When that project is complete, the forest service and Golden State Cellular will have installations there also. That cellular capability will greatly improve the coverage for Verizon cell phone users.

All the people power and resources of the sheriff's department depend on a well run financial department and that is a department of one, Michelle McLelland. She handles the several accounts that fund the operation of the department.

To sum it up, what you see is not what you get from the sheriff's department. You get more.