GULF SHORES, Ala. — Gulf Shores Patrol Officer Neal Gough studied communications during his college days. And his mass media advertising degree was put to good use when the department put together its annual report.

Communicating through its pages, Gough crafted a professional look out of the information and images he received. Community Resource Officer Josh Coleman gathered the information from the different divisions who provided some excellent writing and the pair teamed up to create the 42-page book.

Just don’t ask Gough to communicate about himself. In fact, when asked about his work on the book, he tried to downplay his role.

“All the information came from (Coleman),” Gough said. “I didn’t do anything but put it into a book. I was given all the information on a thumb drive.”

Coleman said he was pleased with the final product, but also noted Gough’s reserve when talking about the work.

“He did not take credit for any of the work he’d done,” Coleman said. “He just likes doing the work, but he’s humble when it comes to the work he does.”

Although during his college days Gough took some design classes, none every involved designing a whole book.

“I’d never done anything like that before,” he said. “I was just kind of shooting in the dark. We had classes on stuff related to it, stuff like print ads, just one page. I’ve never strung this much stuff together so it’s probably not strung together very well.”

Chief Edward Delmore thought it was strung together quite nicely when he presented to the City Council last month.

“I’m thrilled with the document,” Delmore said. “Neal and Josh’s work on this report is a reminder of the people who surround us with these tremendous abilities that are very different than what their day-to-day duties require.”

Delmore said the team of Gough and Coleman is just a small example of the diversity among the officers of his department.

“We have a tremendous amount of law enforcement talent in this organization and we have a tendency to forget that our people have a variety of other skills and talents,” Delmore said. “We have accomplished musicians, singers, mechanics, boat captains, divers, and many with extensive military experience - just to name a few.”

Next year, Gough said, he and Coleman will shoot for better pictures to put in the book.

“Some of the pictures if you look at them seem a little grainy, a little pixelated, they are not real good, but that’s all I had,” he said. “This year (Coleman’s) going to gather more pictures throughout the year so when it comes time to do it next year we have a larger selection. It would look better if we had a larger selection of pictures. He’s taking pictures all throughout the year.”

During his college studies Gough said he realized he wanted to go into law enforcement and not advertising.

“I was probably about half way to that degree when I decided what I wanted to do, but I had put so much time into it I just went ahead and finished,” he said. “It’s better to have a degree in something even if it’s not something you are going to go into.”

He went through the 12-week state certification course in Selma and became a Gulf Shores Police officer on April 25, 2011. Coleman has more than 10 years in law enforcement including time in Sylacauga before coming to Gulf Shores in September of 2007, according to the annual report.

INSIDE THE REPORT:

The report contains a letter from Delmore, a listing of sworn personnel, civilian personal and reports on the Patrol Division, Investigations, K-9 Unit, School Resource Officer, police chaplains and many other special programs.

Also included are reports on a hit-and-run fatality, the Officer of the Year, reorganization of the evidence room, police involvement in the Torch Run for Special Olympics, community relations events like National Night Out and Coffee with a Cop and a disposal site for out of date prescription drugs.

Statistics include everything from traffic accidents to eight major crime areas with the incidents listed from 2010, 2011 and 2012 for comparison. Every call for service from those three years are categorized and listed as well.

The entire report is available at: http://www.gulfshoresal.go v/DocumentCenter/ View/429.