Warrants make community feels safe

The Idaho Falls Police Department is cracking down on crime. In the past week, IFPD served 23 warrants. Drug trafficking, possession of controlled substances, battery; those are just some the warrants IFPD served from May 8-15.

“What we were doing was we were putting together an attempt to just be more proactive,” said Chief Bryce Johnson. “There’s a lot of warrants out there.”

Serving these in a seven day span took some planning on IFPD’s side of things.

“Find a time where we had enough staffing to go out and actively look for folks,” Johnson said. “Normally, were just able to respond to calls, so we did a little pre-planning.”

13 of those 23 warrants were served in one day.

With IFPD keeping crime under control lately, how does the community feel?

“I think that’s why I moved to Idaho Falls,” said Ashley Brown, a citizen of Idaho Falls. “To feel more safe than where I was at before.”

“I feel safe,” said Jennifer Branagan, another citizen of the city. “I actually come out here 3 times a week, just alone and I always just feel safe.”

The news about the warrants kept the community reassured about the police department.

“That they’re actually doing something,” said Kjirstyn Welch, community member of Idaho Falls. “That’s great. Totally support it.”

Police say that although these were a lot of warrants served in short period of time, they are just doing their job.

“We’ve had warrant teams that have served more in a day,” Johnson said. “We’re not trying to set records or anything like that, we’re trying to make the city as safe as we can.”

Police note that patrons play a major role in helping find and identify to serve these arrests.

Two of those arrests also brought new charges, including possession of controlled substances and possession of paraphernalia.