Public Safety

Since the first of the year, the Jefferson Police Department has increased its number of citations by over 250 percent and the city’s monthly revenue from JPD fines has tripled.

But city records also show that there were an unusually low number of fines in the first two months of 2011 compared to previous years.

In January and February, the JPD issued 175 citations each month. In July and August, that number had jumped to 443 and 649, respectively.

In January, the city took in $31,866 in fines on 187 cases. February saw $23,545 in fines from 142 cases.

In July, the city garnered $66,039 from 376 cases. In August, the city got $90,462 in fine money from 515 court cases.

The dramatic increase in JPD traffic citations and fines could indicate that the department has become much more aggressive in its traffic enforcement. Critics of the department allege that the JPD was instructed by city officials to increase traffic citations in a bid to raise revenue for the city. But police chief Joe Wirthman denies that.

“Nobody in the city has ever asked me to write more tickets,” he said.
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A Jefferson police officer had to call for backup from other police departments early Sunday morning after he was surrounded by a group of fighting males in the parking lot of a restaurant.

The officer was on foot in the parking lot of Harry and Fernando’s restaurant, the old “Bruce’s” on Hwy. 129 in Jefferson, when he was surrounded by 60 or more people with several men fighting.

The officer attempted to break up the fight and ended up “in the middle of these males fighting with me and each other.” He unholstered his service weapon and yelled for the crowd to clear the space around him.

Another officer from Jefferson was called to the scene and reported 250 people being in the parking lot. Back up officers from Commerce and Braselton police departments and Jackson County Sheriff’s Office were also called to help control the crowd. It took officers 20 minutes to clear the scene.

After the fight was cleared, officers were called to Scad Oaks Apartments in reference to men, possible the same ones from the business, fighting. When officers arrived at the apartment, many of the men ran from the scene. The property owner also arrived and assisted police in asking residents of the apartments to go inside their homes and others to leave the property.

No one was arrested in either incident, and no injuries were reported.

SIXTEEN PEOPLE were sentenced in recent Superior Court proceedings in Jackson County, including the following: [Full Story »] 

A man was shot and killed by Jackson County Sheriff’s Office deputies early Sunday after he threw a burning can of gas at the officers.

The incident happened around 2:30 a.m. on Lewis Sailors Road after a woman called for help. The woman told officials the man, identified as Kenneth Dwayne Martin, 50, had doused her and the home with gas and was threatening to set her on fire along with the house.

After deputies arrived, the woman was able to escape the house uninjured, officials said.

Deputies subsequently entered the house where they found Martin in a closet pointing a weapon at officers, which later turned out to be a BB gun. Deputies couldn’t Taser the man because of the gas in the room, so they used pepper spray on the suspect.

Martin then lit a can of gas and threw the burning can toward deputies, who at that point fired several shots, killing the suspect. Although part of one deputy's polyester pants melted in the fiery melee, officials said the officers were not injured.

Fire department officials along with the deputies extinguished the fire from the incident.

Martin's body has been taken to the GBI crime lab. He was on probation for a previous aggravated assault charge against the same victim in 2007.

Following the department's protocol, the officers involved are on administrative leave pending review of the shooting.

PIPE BOMB

In an unrelated incident, deputies and the UGA Bomb Squad responded Saturday to a call where a man had found a pipe bomb in his yard while mowing. The man reportedly had kept the bomb in his house for several days before calling authorities.

The bomb squad detonated the device, which officials believe had been designed to throw into a pond to kill fish. Nobody was injured in the incident.

THIRTY-THREE people were sentenced in recent State Court proceedings in Jackson County, including the following: [Full Story »]