Chief Harry Snellings has 20 years of law enforcement experience and has been with the Jamestown Police Department for 18 years.  He began his career with the City of Jamestown in 1996 in the patrol division.  His service with the department has included assignments within the patrol, investigative, and administrative sections of the agency.  He has served on the County Dive Team, the police department's Honor Guard and SWAT Team.  He also served in the United States Army as a Military Police Officer, and a Paratrooper.  He served in Operations Desert Shield/Storm and Operation Sea Signal in Guantanamo Bay Cuba.  He served 22 years of active and reserve service.
 
JPD Chief Harry Snellings, President Sharon Hamilton, and Stacey Hannon
 
Chief Snellings began by commenting on a crime that has been at the forefront of news in our community, opiate addiction.   He said that opiate addition is a national issue, not just a local problem and that much of our recent crimes are in some way related to this problem.  There are no socioeconomic boundaries with opiates and some of the problem starts with prescription pain pills which can lead to addiction.  Cocaine and opiate addictions can easily transfer to heroine.  The drugs come out of Mexico into the larger US cities and then filter down into smaller communities such as ours.
 
On a better note, during 2013 crime was actually down in our community.  Statistics for violent crimes, property crimes and domestic violence show improvement.  Although in the case of domestic violence there is always the possibility that fewer of the actual incidences are being reported.  Data for these statistics is collected by IBR (specific) and UCR (general).
 
Jamestown is an IMPACT City which is defined by the Office of Public Safety as:
Operation IMPACT – an initiative of the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services – supports strategic crime-fighting and violence reduction initiatives in the 17 counties outside of New York City that account for 80 percent of the crime upstate and on Long Island. Key principles of Operation IMPACT include: Information sharing and partnerships among law enforcement agencies Intelligence-based policing Timely use of accurate crime data Involvement of community organizations - See more at: http://www.jamestownny.net/index.php/office-of-public-safety/police-department/programs#sthash.TYH6Jgq6.dpuf
 
Operation IMPACT allows for more partnerships between departments such as parole, DA, Sheriff and the ABC Board.  Homeland Security, the IRS, the Marshall Services, Dept. of Taxation and the Border Patrol have also joined.  There is more cooperation among agencies because resources have been reduced.  Some of the services that are now available to JPD, that were not available in the past, are the use of a crime analyst to develop bulletins and briefings on suspects, home visits on parolees and sex offenders, directed patrols for hot spots, warrant sweeps, and sex offender verifications and compliance checks.
 
Chief Snellings also gave us some tips on securing our own property; lock your car, lock your garage, lock your house and take your things out of the car, don’t provide a crime of opportunity.  Keep a list of what you have and the serial numbers.  Know what you own.  Guns are a hot item right now.  Install alarms, get a dog, and watch out for your neighbors.  Call the police immediately if you suspect something is wrong.  There is a tips line and a facebook page as well as the traditional phone lines.
 
Chief Snellings' advice and insight was very helpful and gave the Club an assurance that our police department is working to improve the safety of our  community in the most modern and practical ways possible.  In appreciation for his time the Club will make a donation in his name to the Rotary Foundation PolioPlus Campaign.