Bulletin Contents

	Guardian Angel Project
	Methamphetamine Facts
	Gun Locks

Guardian Angel Project

The Guardian Angel Project is a crime prevention program aimed at kids who could be labeled as "at risk youth", meaning they are kids who have potential in life but without some intervention and positive influence, they may choose the wrong road leading to a life of criminal activity and despair.

The Keokuk Police Department will be taking kids who have been in trouble with the law for one reason or another and pairing them up with a positive role model such as police officers, teachers, youth ministers, etc. They will become partners on a project which they will work on and complete together. They will meet one night a week for approximately two hours each night for four weeks. They will be making a ceramic guardian angel figurine as pictured here. Once completed everyone involved will travel to the Children's Hospital of Iowa in Iowa City and the kids along with their role model will deliver the guardian angel they have worked on for the previous four weeks to a sick child in the hospital.

Main points of the program:

	Do something creative with their hands.
	Be introduced to, and hopefully build a relationship with, new people who have something positive to offer them even beyond the program.
	Gain satisfaction in having done something good for someone else.

Identify with the child who is in the hospital ill and hopefully come away from the program feeling more fortunate about their own personal situation, realizing that no matter what is troubling them in their life, they are healthy and are capable of doing good.

The Guardian Angel Project will begin on August 26th, 2003.

Back to Top

METHAMPHETAMINE FACTS

The type of labs in Keokuk manufacturing methamphetamine are manufactured from ordinary household items by way of a method developed in WWII by Nazi chemists. This method allows small-time drug dealers to manufacture small amounts by following this recipe. This process combines toxic chemicals which pose an inhalation hazard as well as risk of fire or explosion. Individuals making meth usually discard containers used in this process and the toxic waste byproduct of the lab along roadsides and in some cases in trash cans of city parks where children play.

The following are pictures of items commonly found discarded. If anyone finds these types of items, do not touch them. Immediately call the Keokuk Police Department, 319-524-3131. The appropriate police officials will come remove these items.

Containers such as these may contain hazardous
chemicals, which could be deadly if inhaled.

Chemically stained coffee filters and starter fluid cans with holes
punched in the bottom may be possibly remnants of a meth lab.

SYMPTOMS OF METH USE

Methamphetamine is a central nervous system stimulant, which will cause the following symptoms to it's users;

	anxiety
	irritability/explosive temper
	depression
	sleeplessness - subjects in some cases stay awake for four to five days on end
	loss of appetite
	paranoia - subjects can become delusional, believing in some cases law enforcement are stalking them, planting listening devices in their walls, and being followed by flying hover-crafts, etc.
	loss of teeth - acids in methamphetamine destroy bone tissue and calcium in the body, causing teeth to decay and fall out

SIGNS OF A METHAMPHETAMINE LAB

	Strong chemical smells - ether, ammonia, urine smell.
	Residents not taking out trash, or burning all trash.
	Subjects constantly smoking outside the residence - possibly due to house being filled with hazardous fumes.
	Materials seen around the house consistent with meth manufacturing, such as lantern fuel cans, red or blue chemically stained coffee filters, clear glass jugs, and duct tape.

If you know of any individuals acting in this manner, report it immediately to the Keokuk Police Department, 319-524-3131. For further information about Crime Prevention programs, or more information about these facts, please contact Sergeant Ivan Parrish at keokukcrime@cji.net.

For more information on methamphetamine, please see Crime Prevention Links

GUN LOCKS

The Crime Prevention Unit of the Keokuk Police Department would also like to remind the public to contact Sergeant Ivan Parrish at 524-3131 Extension 4 if they would like to have a free gun lock. These were supplied to the Keokuk residents by the National Shooting Sports Foundation and the U.S. Department of Justice to be distributed by the Keokuk Police Department as part of Project Home Safe.

--- Sergeant Ivan Parrish

Back to Top