By: Camden Lang
City Hall in Saint Marys holds traffic court Friday morning as Lieutenant Ian Dent parks out front. Dent had to show up early to make sure the court room was situated correctly.
Lieutenant Ian Dent from the Saint Marys Police Department chats with the workers in the room before traffic court. Dent was there representing the police department and swore in citizens in attendance for court.
Dent checks in with the probation officers before letting the offenders in the court room. The first session of today was traffic offenses, followed by probation hearings afterwards.
Dent explains how the process will work while waiting on the judge to enter. This was after using the metal detector on the offenders coming in for court.
Dent swears in the first citizen to be heard from. "I've said that phrase at least a million times in my career, and I still stumble on it every now and again," said Dent.
Dent points-on where to sign for the first guilty plead of the day. This case was for a speeding ticket going 59 in a 45 mph zone.
Dent makes a note regarding one of the cases needing to update contact information. Dent helped this citizen spell "Jefferson" when giving his home address.
Dent listens in as the probation officers relay information on a case. Dent's job at this point was to swear individuals in.
Dent opens access to the department offices. Dent came back to the department for the rest of his shift after court.
Dent logs in to his computer to review reports written by other officers. Dent is the patrol commander for the SMPD.
Dent reviews body camera footage from an arrest last week. "This lady did what we like to call 'talking yourself into jail.' She was cursing and yelling over a failure to maintain lane ticket," said Dent.
Dent grabs patrol car keys from the locker. As the patrol commander, all the squad car's keys are stored in the closet in his office.
Dent takes apart his gun to clean it and make sure it is still functional. He explained some rules they have to follow, like always handling the gun like it's loaded.
Dent looks over a police report. "My job is kind of boring most times, but as patrol commander I'm still able to do stops if I am out on the roads," said Dent.
Dent finishes his last report review for the day. He makes sure the information in the report matches other documents associated with the cases.
Dent enters his squad car to meet with his patrol officers out in the field. Being over the patrol units means lots of radio communication, and sometimes leaving the office to get further back-up.
Dent looks out how he would when sitting on patrol. "All that is missing is a box of donuts," he joked.
The squad car lights up as Dent shows how the lights work. He explained the different settings of the lights and which instances he uses them.
Dent runs into officer Webb before leaving to meet his patrol squad. They were talking about how it was pretty slow for it being a Friday, to then joke about how things will probably pick up once night-time hits.
The front door and label to Dent's office. Dent's day started out at the court house, and ends with him leaving to meet up with his patrol squad, he also shared practices the department does along with the ins-and-outs of their job descriptions.
