Chief Birbeck: Leave key, codes with OPD dispatch

Olney Police Chief Dan Birbeck urged mobility impaired residents and those with aging relatives to provide the OPD with information that will allow officers to access the homes during welfare checks.

The OPD recently had to force their way into a couple of local homes when elderly residents were not able to open the door to officers, he said.

This resulted in costly and unnecessary damage, he said.

He also encouraged families to replace traditional locks with keypad locks and to provide the combinations to the OPD.

“That way you are not relying on relatives [to open the door],” he said. “A lot of times, law enforcement doesn’t know who has the spare key to the house. It can definitely be a lifesaver for somebody who is down.”

The only time the information could be accessed is during an emergency call, he said.

Residents can fill out a form at the police station to add information to their addresses in the 911 system.

“They put pertinent information on these forms that helps OPD or EMS - it is protected and safe and is not subject to open records act requests.” he said.

“When your address comes up in our 911 system ... we can see notes that are in there that give us a combination to a keypad lock so that we can get into the house to help an elderly relative who may have fallen,” he said. “What happens now is we have to damage the house by breaching the door, trying to get a window open by tearing up a screen ... and it also delays us getting to the person who needs our help.”