All Danville City Council members receive COVID-19 vaccine
DANVILLE, Va. โ Danvilleโs city council members put their politics aside on Thursday and united against COVID-19. All of the cityโs council members, including Mayor Alonzo Jones, received the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine together Thursday morning. The idea came from vice mayor Gary Miller, a cardiologist concerned about the spread of the virus. โDo you want a day with a sore arm, or do you want four weeks on the ventilator?โIn addition to city council members, Danville Police Chief Scott Booth also lined up for a vaccination. Depending on where you live, you can call the Danville Health Department at 434-766-9838 or the Pittsylvania County Health Department at 434-432-7232.
Learn and protect: Danville police officers receive de-escalation training
DANVILLE, Va. โ Officers with the Danville Police Department recently relearned how to serve and protect without using deadly force. The department hosted de-escalation training for all of its officers over the past two months, including a session for its Church Patrol Friday morning. The training featured numerous real-world examples of police de-escalation, as well as peaceful procedural guidelines for officers. โAnything that makes our agency better in serving our community, Iโm a huge fan of.โIn addition to the classroom portions of the training, fellow Danville officers re-enacted scenarios where the lessons would come into play. โIf you come in screaming, โDrop the knife, drop the knife,โ and cursing, does that favor de-escalation?โโ said Danville Police Cpl.
โIโm so happy with the Danville communityโ: Police chief praises city for peaceful protests
โMan, Iโm so happy with the Danville community right now,โ said Danville Police Chief Scott Booth. Protesters gathered at the JTI fountain in downtown Danville Tuesday afternoon. (WSLS)Booth did not hesitate Tuesday to thank elected officials, community leaders and protesters for coming together to make the protests peaceful. โI saw (at Mondayโs protest) young men and women that were hurt and wanted to express their hurt. โI just hope that this actually makes a change and reaches out to people that are refusing to stand out," Jones said.
Crime trending down in Danville
DANVILLE, Va. โ 2019 was a banner year for the Danville Police Department. Forcible sex offenses, 44% reduction in those crimes, our robberies at a 62% reduction, and our murders, from 11 to 8, 27%," said Danville Police Chief Scott Booth. Crimes in all five of the FBIโs crime categories, Booth said, were also solved at a rate higher than the national average. โStratified policing is an organizational model that creates a framework and method to infuse evidence-based strategies, things that we know work to reduce crime and policing," Roberto said. โYou see crime reduction across-the-board.
Danville police begin bike patrols
DANVILLE, Va. - Danville Police Department Officer Nick Pickrel is one of about a half-dozen officers currently certified to ride bikes while patrolling Danville's streets. Everybody we see on the street is always hollering out to the bike patrol and waiving at us and stopping us, wanting to talk," Pickrel said. This gives us another delivery method for patrol officers and just a way for us to connect and problem-solve," Danville Police Chief Scott Booth said. There are some areas that might experience some different challenges, so some of those bike officers might be working in our more challenging areas. "They want to talk to you about their problems or things they're seeing in the area, or they just want to ask questions about the bike.
'This is how modern agencies prepare': School shooting drill held in Danville
DANVILLE, Va. - Some local first responders may now be better prepared to respond to an active shooter. An active shooter drill was held at Galileo Magnet High School in Danville on Friday. Students were out of school, but teachers and staff members were used as role players. Some of them have expressed anxiety about us doing this, but I'm here to tell you this is how modern agencies prepare so that we are ready when something bad happens. This was the first time the school district has done a drill like this.
Back to school: Danville police greet kids as they return to class
DANVILLE, Va. - Walking into Forest Hills Elementary School, students may have been expecting to be greeted by teachers and school administrators, but not by police officers. "It's important to us that kids and their families get to know us, number one, and number two, feel safe," Danville Police Chief Scott Booth said. "It's also good for the kids, as well, to be greeted by them, to let them know that they're friendly." This is the second year the police department has sent its men and women in blue to welcome students back to class. "With everything going on in the world, it's good for the kids to know that they can still come to the police for anything," Ham said.