by Rachel Hunter
Village of Gouverneur Chief of Police Laurina Greenhill provided the following report to the Village of Gouverneur Board of Trustees ahead of its meeting on Tuesday, August 17 in the municipal courtroom.
The notable activities since the last board meeting (July 20, 2021) are as follows:
On July 22, 2021, Chief Greenhill and Officer Nathan Sheen spent about an hour meeting the youth attending the Gouverneur Rec program at the Gouverneur Recreation Park to talk about what police do and answer questions about law enforcement.
On July 26 and 27, 2021, Officers Alex Daggett and Jesse Sheen attended and successfully passed ARIDE training held at Potsdam Police Department. The Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement (ARIDE) course was developed to train law enforcement officers to observe, identify and articulate the signs of impairment related to drugs, alcohol, or combination of both, in order to reduce the number of impaired driving incidents as well as crashes which result in serious injuries and fatalities.
Many law enforcement officers are trained in Standardized Field Sobriety Testing (SFST) and the skill gained in the course as part of their overall enforcement of driving while impaired (DWI) laws. Additionally, some officers complete more advanced training through the Drug Evaluation and Classification (DEC) program and become Drug Recognition Experts (DRE). This course is intended to bridge the gap between the SFST and DRE courses and provide the participants with an awareness of drug impairment in the context of traffic safety.
As of July 31, 2021, Police Officer Hunter Birchenough has satisfactorily completed field training.
Chief Greenhill also extended gratitude to DPW Superintendent TJ Simmons and the rest of the DPW crew along with the NYSDOT for supplying barrels and assisting in setting them up to mark off no parking on N. Gordon St. for the week of the 2021 Gouverneur and St. Lawrence County Fair. The purpose was to keep that street open for emergency vehicles.
On August 11, 2021, Chief Greenhill attended the monthly Enhanced Elder Abuse Multidisciplinary Team meeting held via zoom for the purpose of updates and case consult and review.
On August 13, 2021, Chief Greenhill attended the monthly Child Advocacy Center Multi-disciplinary meeting via zoom to participate in case reviews.
For the month of July 2021, the Gouverneur Police Department received 379 calls for service and made 22 arrests with a total of 28 charges. The breakdown of the charges is as follows: Felony- 1, Misdemeanors- 9, Violations- 2, Infractions- 8, Bench/ Arrest Warrants- 4. There were also four mental health arrests (2 by police observation/investigation and 2 by pick up order from another authorized agent).