Easter fun is here

Make plans to have fun!

2012 Annual Smyrna Fire and Police Department Easter Egg Hunt

Hunters Needed!

It’s Egg Season! Bring the family to Smyrna’s Lee Victory Recreation Park on Saturday March 31st as the Town of Smyrna hosts its 2012 Easter Egg Hunt. Children from one to twelve years old will hunt the eggs, and the kids will be divided into age groups:

1-2; 3-4; 5-8; and 9-12.

Fun and Memories

Make sure the kids bring something to collect their eggs! And bring a camera…The Easter Bunny will make an appearance!

Twenty Prize eggs will be among the hidden treasures. These Prize Eggs will be redeemable for Easter Baskets full of goodies!

The Annual Smyrna Fire and Police Department Easter Egg Hunt is sponsored by the Smyrna Natural Gas Department. In case of inclement weather, the event will be re-scheduled for Saturday, April 7th, at 1pm.

Our town

Here are the basic numbers for December and the year 2011 for police responses.

Suspects at large

click images for larger view
I like how words are used in press releases. "Suspect" and "person of interest" are neutral and lawsuit safe words. Here in Smyrna the police are looking for 2 'suspects' and would like your help.

Fraudulent/Stolen Credit Card

On June 7, 2011, an unidentified black male stole a wallet from a purse inside the Cracker Barrel in Smyrna. Around 6:19 pm on the same date, a heavy set black female used the credit cards from the stolen purse to purchase $636.00 worth of gift cards at the Wal-Mart on Nolensville Road in Nashville. The same woman then attempted to purchase and additional $500.00 worth of gift cards from the same location; this transaction was denied. The female suspect left the store and got into the passenger side of a black SUV, possibly a Chevy Yukon or Denali. The same female went to the K-Mart on Nolensville Road and attempted to purchase $1662.00 worth of gift cards with a stolen credit card but this transaction was denied as well.

Home Burglary Suspect

On May 31, 2011, around 9:26 pm, a white male broke into the garage of an elderly female at 316 Rosemary Street in Smyrna. He left the garage with a Black and Decker drill, a gas powered Black and Decker grass trimmer and a Roto Zip tool. This subject then left on foot in an unknown direction. This incident was captured on the homeowners surveillance camera. Images of the suspect are attached to this email.

If you can help the police in capturing these people please contact Detective Allan Nabours at (615) 459-9742, ext. 5434.

Thanks and have a happy weekend.

Crime in Smyrna

Each month the Smyrna Police Department posts online the folling information on basic crime numbers. I thought you might find them interesting.

These are the monthly and year to date calls for service that officers have responded to at the Smyrna Police Department. This is not the Uniform Crime Report that is submitted to the FBI and TBI.

Smyrna Bank Robbery

Smyrna has had a bank robbery and the police hope you can help.

I hope you can help us out with this one by putting the information out to the public.

Around 9:15 this morning (September 24) the Green Bank off of President's Place in Smyrna was robbed. The suspect, wearing a white hockey mask, presented a large, black framed, semi-automatic handgun at the teller and demanded cash. After receiving the money, the suspect left the bank and fled the scene in a white, early 2000 era Chevrolet Impala.
The suspect appears to be a caucasian male who was wearing long blue-jean shorts, a red t-shirt, green baseball cap and black shoes. If anyone has any information regarding this robbery, they are urged to contact the Smyrna Police Department at (615) 459-6644.

Thank you for any help you may provide,

Sergeant Bobby Gibson
Smyrna Police Department
(615) 459-9742, ext. 2536
bobby.gibson@townofsmyrna.org

Correction:

I need to make a correction about the last email regarding our bank robbery suspect. I listed him as a caucasian male. Witnesses at the scene advise that the suspect is a light - medium toned black male.

Fight back

The Smyrna Police Department is offering self defence classes for women interested in the subject.

RAD stands for Rape Aggression Defense and it is a self-defense program designed for women only. People can go to the website www.rad-systems.com and learn more about the RAD program.

The RAD program consists or a 12 hour course, broken down into 4 separate, 3 hour classes. It teaches women how to not only physically defend themselves if attacked, but also teaches them how to recognize and avoid dangerous situations.

Below is the September and December schedules for the RAD classes. All classes will begin at 6 pm and end at 9 pm. Cost for the class is $25.00. Mother/daughter students are strongly encouraged. The minimum age for taking the class is 12 years old. Anyone interested in taking the class should contact me via email bobby.gibson@townofsmyrna.org or by phone at (615) 459-9742, ext. 2536.

SEPTEMBER
The 20th, 21st, 27th and 28th.
DECEMBER
The 1st, 2nd, 8th and 9th.

If they said it is it true?

The "National Motorists Association's National Speed Trap Exchange" released their list of 'speed trap cities for the Labor Day holiday. Damn nice of them in my view. The Tennessean put the whole list in a nice slide show and for Tennessee the winners are.....drum roll

Nashville (Worst Overall)
Smyrna (Worst under 100k)

Honest.



I might try to do a rebuttal as my column for next week in the Smyrna AM. Like the romour of our high property taxes that was just that...rumors. I might try to disproove this claim also.

Chief

Kevin Arnold recently won an award as the Police Chief of the Year from the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police.

The award is given to a police chief from West, East and Middle Tennessee.
Arnold, who was nominated by another Middle Tennessee chief, received the award on Aug. 13 at a chiefs of police conference in Knoxville.

“I give all the glory to God and these men and women who work here,” said Arnold, who has been Smyrna Chief of Police since March 29, 2007. “It was very nice. It was very unexpected and very humbling.”

Request for your help III

The Smyrna Police department has announced that they have upgraded the status of Chris Bucgong Nachampasak.

He is no longer a "person of interest" and is now considered a "suspect" in the killing of 14 year old Rachan Micky Chantree. Nachampasak is known to go by the name of "Chris" or "Gong." He should be considered armed and dangerous.

We are currently following a variety of leads in this investigation regarding Nachampasak and other potential suspects.

We are also requesting the assistance from all members of the Laotian community to help us locate Nachampasak, their help is greatly needed. Any person with knowledge about the location of Nachampasak or information concerning this murder is urged to contact their local law enforcement agency or the Smyrna Police Department at (615) 459-6644.

If you see him please contact the included number as the family of the victim is hurting today.




Note. A lot of people in the community have thrown the term 'gangs' around a lot. I have not heard anything official about gangs being involved in this so I have not tagged any of these posts with the term 'gangs'. Jumping to conclusions is not a good things when situations like this arise.

Request for your help II

The police announced the following this afternoon.

We have had contact with one of the "persons of interest" in our investigation. "Johnny" Khamla Chomsavanh has been interviewed by our investigators and he is no longer considered a "person of interest" in the investigation. We are still hoping to make contact with the other subject, "Chris" Bucgong Nachampasak, who is still considered a "person of interest" in the investigation. We urge anyone with information about the location of Nachampasak or information about the shooting to contact the Smyrna Police Department at (615) 459-6644.

Thanks for any help you can offer the police in bringing justice to this family and that young boy.

Request for your help

This was just received by 'This is Smyrna' from the Smyrna police department.

On this date, May 16, 2010, a group of teens was having a graduation party at 101 Lakewood Circle in Smyrna. Around 1:50 am, a black, sub-compact passenger vehicle (possibly foreign in make and model) pulled up in front of the residence and 2 - 4 subjects stepped out of the vehicle and began shooting at the people in front of the house. The vehicle then sped away from the scene. As a result of the shooting, one 14 year old male was shot in the head and was laying on the front porch. Police and emergency medical personnel responded to the scene and the shooting victim was initially transported to Stonecrest Hospital but was transferred to Vanderbilt Medical Center shortly after. The victim is currently in critical condition at Vanderbilt Hospital.

Our investigation is on-going and we need your help locating two persons of interest.

1) Johnny Khamla Chomsavanh - Asian male, 5'11" tall, 135 lbs, 21 years of age, goes by name of "Johnny"

2) Chris Bucgong Nachampasak - Asian male, 5'9" tall, 170 lbs, 19 years of age, goes by name of "Chris" or "Gong"

These are persons of interest and anyone with information about the location of either of these men, or any other information relating to this shooting, is requested to please contact the Smyrna Police Department at (615) 459-6644.

This weekend is a time of celebrations and passages in life...not a time of violence. If you can help the police find these two people of interest or have more information on this crime the community would greatly appreciate your making a call to the police. This is where a community should stand up and do something.

update:
The young 14 year old has passed away and they are now upgrading it to a homicide investigation.

ATM robbery in Smyrna

Smyrna has entered the big times with its own ATM robbery last week. I got this video from the SPD and thought you might like to see the ATMs viewpoint of a robbery.

Smyrna youth fire, police academy

From the town website.

The Smyrna Fire Department and the Smyrna Police Department are proud to announce a joint effort for the children of the Town of Smyrna. On the dates June 7 - 11th, a Youth Academy will be held at the Smyrna Fire station #2 located on Fitzhugh Blvd. The sessions are from 9:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M., Monday through Thursday and 8:00 AM. to 12:00 P.M. on Friday. Graduation will be at 11:00 A.M. on Friday. A fee of $30.00 is required and the participants will be provided with lunch Monday through Thursday. Checks can be made out to the Town Of Smyrna. The sessions will be in a summer camp type agenda mixing outside and inside activities. The purpose of the academy is to interact with the children in a positive way and to demonstrate to the children the activities that both departments use on a daily basis. The number one focus, however, is safety in the daily lives of these children in various situations involving both fire and police services. The academy will use the officers and division personnel to incorporate “hands on” of various skills that the participants will find both challenging and fun.

I enjoyed greatly the Smyrna citizens police academy and if this is anything like it then I cannot recommend it enough.

What did he call them?

"Sneaky bastards" seems so harsh a term to be used for the Smyrna police department speed enforcement units.



video 2 and 3 are also fun to watch including him regretting the fact in one of them that he recorded himself breaking a traffic law. Oops!

They did WHAT!!!!

The Smyrna Am has been posting the police reports online for a bit and I will admit a bit of voyeuristic pleasure in reading them.

Sept 18th
An unknown caller at the Shell gas station at the corner of Sam Ridley and StoneCrest parkways called police around 6:30 p.m. Thursday to inform them of an armed person.
According to the caller, two men were inside the vehicle and one had a large handgun with a scope mounted to it. The caller said it was being pointed at an unknown target down the street. No arrests were made.

Sept 17th
A Sam Davis Road resident called police to report a man in a Century Fire Protection truck pointed a gun at her Wednesday evening.
The woman watched from her home as the man approached Smyrna Elementary School before he drove the truck towards Lowry Street around 7 p.m. She told police the man followed her on the road for several minutes before flashing a silver handgun. She was able to give officers a description of the vehicle, which an officer passed en route to the school.
An officer made contact with the driver at the Town Centre and called the company, based in Atlanta, to confirm the man was an employee. The suspect’s supervisor said the man had been in town to pick up some tools the previous day. The man was told not to come back to Smyrna, but was not arrested.

Sept 15th
Two men were arrested Monday afternoon after allegedly robbing a man at gunpoint on North Lowry Street.
Rick Roberts told police he was waiting on a cab at the Keystop Market at North Lowry and Nolan Drive after his car broke down around 1 p.m. Monday. He was approached by two men, one of whom put a silver .38-caliber revolver in his face.
The men, James Stanback and Anthony Milton, were detained at the store shortly after the incident happened. A team of officers searched the area and found the gun and wallet behind Family Cash Advance at 408 North Lowry.
Stanback, 25, was charged with aggravated robbery and taken to the Rutherford County Jail on a $20,000 bond. Miller, 20, was charged with a count of simple possession of a Schedule VI drug. His bond was set at $2,500.

You could easily get the view that Smyrna is not a safe town.

I think these police reports are great to get a feel for a community.

Child safety

From the town website

On August 19th from 3PM to 6PM the Smyrna Police Department will be performing child safety seat checks at the Smyrna Justice Center on Enon Springs Road. The Smyrna Police Department will check to make sure your child safety seat is securely installed in your vehicle. This inspection is free. Help protect the safety of your child by having their safety seat inspected.

Taking back our neighborhood.

As many of our readers know by now, there has been some trouble going on in the older parts of town and as I have talked with my neighbors, they seem to feel the same way as I do. We are not going to let these thugs take over our neighborhoods and let them win. I have talked with the Smyrna police dept and we are going to set up a neighborhood watch. They also informed me that they are patrolling more and will be watching everything that is going on. I feel that if these thugs are caught they should be put in jail and made to learn their lessons. As a first time home buyer I am not going to let someone come and destroy my property. I love my home and I am not going anywhere so don't try to make me move. I will be here much longer than you will be! I do know many of the Police officers that work on different shifts and they assured me that they are going to patrolling the area more. If anyone wants to create a neighborhood watch please call city hall and ask to speak with Sgt Gibson and he will talk with you and tell you what you need to do to get this started. He is one of the best police officers around and he will assure you that we can kick this in the butt! I have enjoyed meeting with neighbors that I haven't met yet by phone. Many in this area have been here and settled and don't want things like to happen. We are in strong numbers and we will overcome this.

Drive-by Incident

There was just a drive-by shooting incident near the old downtown. Two shots were fired out the window of a vehicle before it sped off. No one was hurt. The police were on the scene in record time.

Perhaps it'll be in the news tomorrow. Scary stuff - especially since I heard the shots from my house right next door.

Hope they're caught.

One question puzzled me

When I did the recent police survey so they could get public feedback on their job and our views one question puzzled me. It asked if you knew of certain services and listed a whole slew of them...and one jumped out at me. The Alzheimer's Registration Program was one I had not heard of or could find much information on.

Well my weekly visit to the police website found that they now have this registration open for those who have the need,

The Smyrna Police Department is implementing an Alzheimer's Registration Program for residents who have a family member with this disease.

People with Alzheimer's can wander from a safe environment at any time, or any place and become lost (even in familiar settings). This can become life threatening for that individual.
..............
Anyone wishing to register a loved one who has Alzheimer's may do so by coming to the Smyrna Police Department and completing the Alzheimer's Registration Form. Please bring two (2) different photographs of the individual to be registered. You may also register nationally through the Alzheimer's Association by calling 1-888-572-8566, or on their website at www.alz.org

I'm glad this service is being offered because there really is a need.

Take a survey

The Smyrna Police department would like your feedback on an online survey.

SMYRNA POLICE DEPT. 2008 COMMUNITY SURVEY
Your participation will help us serve you better!
Chief Of Police Kevin Arnold has implemented this survey to gather your valuable input on our Community and our Police Department.

Take a moment and check it out.