Law enforcement to be stepped up around St. Patrick’s Day

By Thomas Nelson, tnelson@charlescitypress.com

The Floyd County Sheriff and Charles City Police Department will be stepping up their presence and enforcement from Wednesday, March 15 to early morning Sunday, March 19.

This is all due to STEP offered by the state of Iowa to help fund additional over time hours for law enforcement during holidays.

STEP stands for Special Traffic Enforcement Program, and it is a grant through the governor’s Transportation Safety Bureau.

“There’s so much money we’re allotted during those program times so the deputy can sign up and get paid for heading out above and beyond their normal duty,” Floyd County Sheriff Jeff Crooks said.

Deputies and police officers working during this time aren’t being scheduled to work, they are volunteering their time to help step up enforcement.

Law enforcement agencies usually can use STEP six times a year during holidays, Crooks said.

“It’s a yearly thing the state of Iowa does,” Crooks said.

The grant depends on the size of an agency so larger communities get larger grants, Crooks said.

“We have ten deputies and usually all ten deputies will take advantage and get at least two or three (overtime) hours in,” Crooks said.

The sheriff’s office has no intention of going from bar to bar looking for anyone intoxicated, Crooks said. They’ll be on the road and patrolling.

“When you’re out there on the STEP program, you’re don’t take any calls from dispatch, your specifically out there looking for traffic violations,” Crooks said. “We’re just out on the road ways trying to step our enforcement.”

If someone is out and intoxicated on St. Patrick’s Day, and they ask a deputy for a ride home, they could expect to get home.

“We’re a smaller community, we don’t have very many officers that are out there at one time,” Crooks said. “If we’re approached by somebody that says ‘I need ride home, I’m afraid I might have had a little too much to drink,’ we’re humans beings too. We’re definitely doing to get that person home, and get them home safely.”

On March 18 Charles City will have its St. Patrick’s Day parade, no one from the Sheriff’s office will be participating. Following the parade will be a bar crawl.

“Usually in Floyd County we have a lot of responsible people,” Crooks said. “We have a good community and you’ll see most people plan in advance.”

During the pub crawl, shuttles will be running to get people home safely if they’ve had too much to drink.

“Fortunately we work for a good community with Charles City and Floyd County,” Crooks said.