Similar to television portrayals of criminal investigations, Athens Police Department is equipped with some of the most advanced policing technology available as the department tries daily to solve serious crimes around Athens.
Unlike the detectives on TV, however, investigators working for the Athens Police aren’t always able to put the bad guys behind bars.
The unit comprises of seven officers: Lt. Jeff McCall, two investigators, a licensed social worker, as well as drug enforcement, D.A.R.E. and Crime Prevention officers.
McCall, the officer in charge, estimates the success rate of the cases handled by the department to be between 60 and 70 percent.
Relying a lot on technological advances that have made police work easier, the department uses the state’s resources when they are applicable to a case.
“Anything the state has, we can draw on as well,” McCall said. “Anything from the Bureau of Investigation and Identification, they can send those resources our way in terms of manpower, in the way of equipment. So we have all these resources.”
License plate readers and phone and computer searching equipment are some of the technologies the department uses, McCall said.
Still, even with all that, the success of the department is directly tied to the information it receives from the public, officials said, and one prime example is a Courtside stabbing earlier this year, which was solved.
“(Solving the Courtside stabbing) took a lot of work in the sense of both technology and footwork, getting out and interviewing people,” McCall said. “A lot of that was done by the initial officer on the scene. He handled a lot of the investigation and we assisted with the things that were not normal such as the search of the cell phone, things of that nature.”
Lt. John Withers, McCall’s predecessor who is now an investigator, said that suspects are typically associated with the victims in some way — often family, a friend or roommate.
In the case of the Courtside stabbing, investigators linked the suspect, Patrick Michael Barry, to an ongoing feud with the victim, Michael Gallas. The two students supposedly knew each other from feuding fraternities, according to a previous Post article.
However, some cases do go cold, like the one involving the armed fugitive who, just by being at-large, prompted Ohio University officials to close university buildings and cancel class.
“Obviously, there is a lot of publicity out there with the university closing,” McCall said. “But it didn’t translate to any tips. If the information is not there, or someone doesn’t come forward, it ties our hands. A lot of times, it’s the public that can help us with solving these cases.”
Other recent cases McCall listed in which there has been limited information the department was able to receive included armed robberies at 65 Stewart St. and 73 Franklin St.
“All of those are hanging out there,” McCall said, but declined to comment further, only adding, “We’ve got information, but it’s an ongoing investigation, so obviously I can’t discuss those.”
In 2011, APD’s investigative unit dealt with 13 aggravated assaults, 81 burglaries, seven motor vehicles thefts and eight rapes.
The unit tends to solve one or two high-profile cases a year, Athens Police Chief Tom Pyle said.
“There was an investigation dealing with a multitude of burglaries; those were able to be solved under Lt. Withers,” Pyle said. “Since Lt. McCall has taken over the investigative unit, I’d say the Speedway robberies that were tied in with the Maplewood bar has been the largest crime that’s been solved. That was a pretty high-profile case.”
On the opposite end of the spectrum, the unsolved 2003 murder of OU student Terris Ross continues to haunt both Withers and McCall.
“That will always haunt me as no closure for the family has been made,” Withers said.
McCall believes the unit needs just slightly more information in order to solve the 10-year old case — which is still open.
“I mean no department likes to go with an unsolved homicide,” McCall said. “But I think if there was just that one little piece of evidence that came forward, we could clear that up.”
as299810@ohiou.edu
@akarl_smith
