Families of recent missing persons have been contacted about the human leg pulled out of the Gastineau Channel on May 22, Juneau’s Police Chief Bryce Johnson said Monday on A Juneau’s Afternoon. But tests results on the leg could take as long as a year to be completed.
“We’ve worked back through our missing persons cases … We’ve contacted, I believe, at least the most recent missing person cases – the families,” Johnson said, “To let them know, hey, for example ‘if your missing loved one had a size 5 foot, well, we have a good idea of whether that would match or not.'”
Johnson also addressed a story from the Juneau Empire that he is one of four finalists for a police chief position in Idaho Falls. The possible start date for that position is uncertain.
“I’m assume it’s going to be sometime after late August, but I really don’t know,” Johnson said.
Violent crime rate is down 8 percent in Juneau, however property crimes such as burglaries are still high, he said.
“What we’re really having a problem in town is with property crime, especially burglaries,” he said. “They have been up, I won’t say significantly, they’ve been up in percentages I have not seen before. They have spiked really significantly, but that spike has started to level off.”
Early this year the Juneau Assembly passed the controversial anti-camping ordinance to ban homeless people from sleeping on private property downtown.
“I’m unaware of a ticket being written. We’ve gotten some pretty good voluntary compliance,” Johnson said. “Officers will go out and explain the law and people are pretty good about trying to work with us.”
