INSIDE the Lakeland Police Department

Weekly Crime Map for July 30 - August 12

Here is the weekly crime map of significant events for the period of Crime Map - 07/30 to 08/12.
Our thanks to Chuck at LakelandLocal.com for producing the map.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

Weekly Crime Stats for August 6 - August 12, 2007

Click the below link to view our Weekly Crime Stats August 6 - August 12, 2007.

Download weekly_crime_report_august_6_august_12_2007.pdf

-Faye

Opening Night for Lakeland Citizens Police Academy

The Lakeland Police Department's 2007 Citizens Police Academy got underway Wednesday evening with the first class of this year's academy being held at the police station. This marks the 22nd year the Lakeland Police Department has hosted a citizens academy. Over 60 community members were accepted into this year's class making it as one of the largest academies ever for the police department.

Chief of Police Roger Boatner (pictured above) hosted the first session's presentation as he thanked the participants for dedicating their time to learn more about the police department. His senior staff members were introduced to the class and gave a preview of their upcoming presentations, which will give a complete overview of how the police department is organized and operates.

Over the next three months, class members will get the opportunity to learn about the duties and responsibilities of every bureau and division within the agency. A day at the shooting range is scheduled for one Saturday as well as various department tours around the station.

Thanks go to the CPA Alumni Association for preparing a welcoming dinner for tonight's class.

In closing, we invite any of the current class members to add their comments about what they learned tonight.

-Asst Chief Bill LePere

Lakeland Police Aviation Unit to Stay Airborne

Lakeland City Commissioners met Tuesday morning for a budget workshop to consider several ways to deal with a loss of income from property tax reform. Finding new sources of revenue or cutting services were two ways the budget could be balanced to offset revenue reductions.

Two police programs being considered for elimination, the Aviation Unit and the DARE program for students, received support from the Commissioners and will remain part of our operations. Diane Lacey Allen from The Ledger covers this story on her blog.

We believe having the helicopter overhead while conducing aerial patrols is an important part of the public safety services we provide to the community. It is part of how we fight crime in our community. Our DARE program continues to provide a strong drug education message to local students. Comments from the public during two recent workshops at City Hall suggest community members feel the same way. We appreciate the support from the community as well as from the Commissioners.

As City Manager Doug Thomas reminded the audience at Monday's workshop, these difficult decisions are just the first round of property tax reform. Chuck Welch over at Lakeland Local  commented on Monday's workshop.

We are grateful for the community support we received for keeping these two programs.  It reminds us the importance, however, of providing exceptional service and value to our community with the funds we are given. That is a huge responsibility that we take seriously. In the mean time, we remain understaffed and will work through those personnel shortages until additional funding can be found to increase the number of police officers on the streets.

Our thanks to those who came out to the workshops and voiced their concerns about what losing the helicopter and DARE would mean to Lakeland. We are equally grateful to those who took the time to contact Commissioners to voice their belief that cuts need to be made. Residents who participate in the debate over critical public issues like property tax reform are part of what makes Lakeland a great community.

As always, we are interested in hearing your comments. Please drop us a note.

-Asst Chief Bill LePere

Public Workshops on FY 08 Budget Continue

A second workshop for public input regarding the FY 2008 Budget is scheduled for Monday, August 13, 2007 at 7:00 PM in the City Commission Chamber. The purpose of the workshop is to provide an update on the development of the FY 2008 Annual Budget in response to property tax reform measures that were recently adopted by the State of Florida. Information regarding various proposed strategies in response to reduced ad valorem and other revenue sources will be presented. Public input regarding revenue options and potential program reductions currently under consideration will be sought as well. Police programs being considered for reduction in funding or complete elimination include DARE, PAL, and the Aviation Unit.

This is the second such workshop for the City Commission. We mentioned the previous one a couple of weeks ago. The public is once again encouraged to attend.

Also, a workshop for the City Commission to discuss input from public meetings on July 25th and August 13th is scheduled for Tuesday, August 14, 2007 at 10:00 AM in the City Commission Conference Room. The public is invited to attend this meeting as well.

-Asst Chief Bill LePere

Traffic Safety: Something's Working in Lakeland

One of the more difficult aspects of measuring police performance is to determine if what you are doing is really working in the field. We refer to this as measuring outcomes versus outputs.

Unlike a sterile science lab, cops are often unable to use the basic scientific method of measuring conditions before hand, applying some type of intervention, and then measuring things afterward do determine if what you did made a difference. And because we try so many things at once, it is difficult to say which strategy (if any) changed things or if chance simply occurred. (Apologies to all of my former science teachers and statistics professors for simplifying this explanation.)

Take traffic safety for instance...

We rely on the Three Es - Education, Engineering, and Enforcement - to improve traffic safety in Lakeland. One of the ways we determine our success is the by the number traffic crashes reported to the police. The theory goes something like this; you educate drivers, you design safety roadway systems, and you give tickets to traffic violators. In the end we hope to have less crashes today than yesterday.

Something is working in Lakeland...

According to data from our CAD system, our Planning and Research Section reports traffic crashes of all types (from the least serious to the most serious) are down 4.6% for the first seven months of 2007 as compared to the same period last year. P&R examined data from the City of Lakeland's Traffic Operations for the more serious crashes that result in a report being written during the first six months of the year. That analysis found the more serious crashes in 2007 were down 17% from 2006 and estimated amount of property damage down 9%.

Think about it - more drivers on the roads and less crashes. Whether it's education, engineering, or enforcement, something is working in Lakeland.

-Asst Chief Bill LePere

Technical Problems: We Apologize for the Delay

Our posts have been less frequent the past few weeks due to some technical problems we are having with the City's computer system. Our IT folks are great at protecting the City's computers from all the bad stuff that can infiltrate a system. Because of the extreme security in place to keep hackers and viruses out, we have somehow been blocked from accessing the blog to add new posts.

That means we are trying to keep you informed from home at night and during weekends during our free time - a precious commodity for sure. Be patient with us while we work through this little problem. We remain committed to keeping INSIDELakelandPD current with events around the police department, even it means posting from the house.

-Asst Chief Bill LePere

Weekly Crime Map for July 16 - 22, 2007

Here is the weekly crime map of significant events for the period of Crime Map - 07/16 to 07/22.
Our thanks to Chuck at LakelandLocal.com for producing the map.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere