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Pembroke hires new police chief
Randy Alexander sworn in Monday
Chief Alexander
Randy Alexander is the new chief of the Pembroke Police Department.

Pembroke got a new police chief Monday night when council members appointed former Guyton chief Randy Alexander as the city’s new top cop.
Alexander, 60, is retired Army infantry. He spent the past nine years as Guyton’s police chief after helping form the department. He was sworn in as chief at the beginning of Monday’s council meeting after being introduced by Public Safety Director Bill Collins, and will start at $35,000 annually.
Alexander said the opportunity to lead a bigger department prompted him to apply for the Pembroke job and leave Guyton, which had a full-time roster of four officers, counting Alexander. Pembroke has 10 full-time officers.
Alexander replaces interim chief Stacy Strickland.
It was unclear Monday what Strickland’s status with the department will be, but Alexander said he wants residents to know he wants to work with them.
“I’m a community-oriented police chief,” Alexander said. “I believe in the community helping us serve them. We want people to know we’re here for them, and that we want to serve them, but we need their input.”
Alexander, who said his first impressions of Pembroke have been good ones, said he’ll talk to residents to learn their concerns.
“It takes a lot of communication to find out what different parts of the city need from police,” Alexander said. “Downtown businesses may have certain things they may want us to do, the residential areas may have things they want us to do differently. Every part of a city is a bit different from the other parts.”
Fifteen candidates applied for the job before the city’s police committee narrowed that list down to five. Pembroke Mayor Mary Warnell said Alexander was a clear No. 1, thanks to “his organizational skills, his leadership skills and his desire to achieve more.”
The city in December pur-
chased land for a new public-safety complex and regained an old precinct in October when it re-established a precinct office at Miller Village.
Alexander actually was sworn in as an officer Dec. 31, but his appointment as chief came only after a screening process was complete, according to the city. He also is a certified firefighter, a certified law-enforcement instructor and a firearms instructor.

Benefits, not raises
Pembroke’s 30 employees won’t get raises in 2015, but they won’t face higher deductibles or have to pay a portion of their health insurance, either. City council voted to shell out the additional $100 per month, per person it’ll cost to provide employees with insurance this year rather than give them a raise.
Pembroke pays 100 percent of employees’ health care, city clerk Betty Hill said. With the increase, that averages about $6,000 an employee.

Fire dept. promotions
Pembroke’s Fire Department promoted four volunteer firefighters Monday — Dalton Cook, David Cook and Joseph Walraven were promoted to captain, and Paul Doyle was promoted to lieutenant.
The promotions were based on “each firefighter’s on-the-job performance, their participation in training exercises and their initiative to achieve a higher level of responsibility,” Chief Peter Waters said.
Waters also handed out awards at Monday’s meeting, naming Dalton Cook the department’s officer of the year. Doyle was named firefighter of the year, and Hunter Morrison was named rookie of the year.
The department recently lowered its ISO rating from a 5/9 to a 4/9, “which is a direct reflection on the training, teamwork and leadership in the fire department,” Collins said.

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HPD Reports
crime scene

From Hinesville Police Department reports. Editor’s note: Due to computer issues at the city, reports have been unavailable in recent weeks. They are back. Our thanks to the HPD clerks who provide them. We’re catching up as quickly as possible.

Burglary, etc: A man called 911 on Feb. 27 because he was watching his White Circle home getting burglarized. The man said his alarm system had an app that showed live video on his phone, and he was “viewing three males inside his residence,” as he talked to 911.
Police responded, caught two of them inside the house and found the third guy “hiding behind a tree,” the report said.
Detectives are investigating.

Public indecency: An officer was sent to Lowes around 4:30 p.m. March 12 in reference to a disturbance involving a man and a woman.
The woman, a Lowe’s employee, said she had just got back from her lunch break when she saw the man “looking around at items on a shelf.”
The woman said she asked him if he needed help finding anything and he held up something, then said “I have found everything I need,” the report said. “(he) then placed his arms around (the employee) to hug her and then kissed (her) neck. (She) then moved away from (him) and told him to have a nice day and attempted to walk away from (the man). (He) then began to follow (her), stating ‘I would lick you up and down’ and ‘you better hide in an office.’ (She) then spoke with manager and called 911.’”
The man told police he thought he recognized the woman “and stated to me that he had previously had a relationship with her approximately two years ago. (He) was unable to recall (her) name while on scene.”
The woman told police “she has never seen, nor spoken to (the man) before today.”
The woman was given a case number and told what to do. The man was allowed to leave.

Indecent exposure: A Berkshire Terrace man reported he went outside his house around 6:40 a.m. and “observed a man who appeared to be intoxicated, peeing on his truck and trailer.”
The complainant said the man “fully exposed his penis while he was peeing. When (complainant) asked him to stop the man told him to ‘shut the (bleep) up.’ (Complainant) advised the man he would call police. (Complainant) advised his young son was standing outside during the incident. He said the man got into a 1996 black Buick and drove away, almost hitting cars that were parked in the driveway.”
The complainant said he did not want to press charges, “he said he wanted to report the incident because the man did not stop peeing when he asked him too.”
The complainant said he’d seen the man before “come and go” from a nearby apartment. The officer met with the resident of that apartment, who said the man was a cousin and did not pee on the complainant’s trailer.

Identity theft: A man went to HPD on March 21 to report that when he went to get a driver’s history for a commercial driver’s license, he found several citations on the history that weren’t his. “(He) stated he noticed someone was issued four citations in Arkansas and one citation in Jacksonville, Florida,” and during the time the Arkansas tickets were written he was in locked up in Georgia.
“(He) advised that he was not incarcerated when the citation in Jacksonville, Florida was issued but he was not in Florida at the time. (He) was unable to leave the state of Georgia due to being on felony probation.”
It gets worse.
“(He) told me that he attempted to file his income taxes for the first time ever and he was rejected due to owing the IRS money, $20,000. (He) stated he spoke to a representative for the IRS and he was informed that taxes were filed in his name in 2014 and the return was $1,3000. (He) advised he did not file taxes in 2013 and he was still incarcerated at the time.”
The man then told the officer he thinks his brother “got the citations and filed income taxes using his information. (He) believed his brother obtained his Social Security number and other demographics when he was incarcerated.”
The man said he talked to his brother, who said he paid all the tickets. “(His) brother also told him on a different occasion that he knew his date of birth and (SSN). (He) advised he told his brother that it was not OK to use his name due to him getting his life together and attempting to drive commercial vehicles.”
The guy said he didn’t have his brother’s address. He chose to fill out an identity theft packet.

Simple battery, theft by taking: An officer was sent around 2 a.m. March 20 to the Baymont Inn regarding a disturbance. There, a woman said she was being “grabbed and pulled” by a man when she told him to leave her motel room. She said they began arguing when he accused her of stealing $100.
The man claimed he met the woman on a dating website and when they “started having sex she informed him that it would cost $100.” He told her he wasn’t going to pay her, “got dressed and realized the five $20s in his pants pocket were missing. He accused (her) of stealing his money.”
The officer asked the woman if she stole the man’s money and she replied, “No, I work hard for my money.”
Both were given a case number and told how to get a warrant.

Robbery: A woman called HPD March 15 to report she was home when her estranged husband came to her apartment “and asked her to come outside to talk to him,” a report said.
“She stated that she stepped outside thinking that he was going to be civil, though she recently filed for divorce from him. As she stepped outside, he grabbed her necklace off her neck and then ran down the stairwell and out to the parking lot.”
The woman said he stood by his vehicle a minute, then drove off as police arrived. Officers checked the area but had no luck finding the man.

Burglary: Police were sent to a Malibu Drive address on March 13 regarding missing firearms and ransacked rooms. The homeowners were at work and got home to find handguns and rifles missing, as well as video games.
It appeared the home may have been broken into through the attic. Police found footprints and other evidence, and the case is under investigation.

Recovered stolen trailer: A U-Haul employee was inventorying equipment on March 14 when she discovered a trailer that had been reported stolen in Florida on Dec. 26. “She stated someone had backed the trailer into a parking stall along with the other trailers sometime during the night.”

Theft: In February, the maintenance man at Cypress Bend Mobile Home Park reported that “22 air conditioning unit disconnect boxes were stolen from various lots… He stated he began receiving calls from people that their air conditioning units were not working.”
The boxes contain small pieces of copper. He didn’t know who swiped them, but valued the total at about $341.

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