“If I can handle an issue or an incident without getting the criminal justice system involved successfully, I consider that a win,” Keplinger said.
By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
A recent vandalism case involving young juveniles will be handled outside the courts, according to City of Parsons Police Chief Kevin Keplinger, with the individuals involved pledging to clean up the site and participate in community service.
Keplinger said during a meeting of the Parsons City Council on July 2nd that his office had investigated a minor vandalism complaint that same day. “We had a minor incident of vandalism,” Keplinger said.
According to Keplinger, the individuals involved were juveniles. “When I say young children, young adults, 8,10, 12 year old adults,” Keplinger said.
According to Keplinger, he spoke to the juveniles, their parents and the park board regarding the incident. “So after talking to them, talking to parents and talking to members of the park board, with their approval, their backing, we are going to handle that basically in house.”
Keplinger said that the incident will be concluded with the juveniles committing to cleaning up the vandalized area and completing community service. “They are going to go down and clean up the defaced property that they did and perform community service,” Keplinger said.
Keplinger said that he felt it was important to handle the incident at the lowest level possible. “I think that’s important,” Keplinger said. “I think that’s a proper way to handle that without putting them into the system, without giving them a juvenile record that will continue to follow them. And if the behavior happens again, we’ll deal with it at that point.”
Keplinger said he was much more community oriented then some other police officers. “I’m much more community oriented then some,” Keplinger said. “As far as community oriented policeing, I believe in trying to take care of problems at the lowest possible level.”
Keplinger said he felt if he can conclude a case without the involvement of the criminal justice system, he felt it was a win. “If I can handle an issue or an incident without getting the criminal justice system involved successfully, I consider that a win,” Keplinger said. “I think that that is a win, instead of getting them involved and putting them on probation, putting them into the system, they’re going to work and that is just my philosophy.”