INSIDE the Lakeland Police Department

Do I Stop or Be Careful and Prudent?

One of the nuances coming out of the new law permitting photo enforcement of red light running violations in Florida is the "careful and prudent" standard for right turns on red. A full stop is not required for photo enforcement activities. Drivers may roll through an intersection, provided they are careful and prudent, and will not receive a Notice of Violation from our red light camera program.

However, drivers need to understand careful and prudent only applies to photo enforcement and not when enforced by an officer on scene.

The statute for right turns on red still requires drivers to come to a full stop at the white stop bar before entering the designated crosswalk or the intersection itself. Careful and prudent is not the standard here - coming to a complete stop remains the standard.

Confused? Join the club.

Here is the bottom line - you are always safe if you come to a complete stop before turning right on red. After all, it is still the law in Florida. We will use the new careful and prudent standard for photo enforcement of red light running violations at the five monitored intersections. Officers working traffic in the field will still use discretion during their enforcement efforts, but an officer observing a driver rolling through an intersection may issue a uniform traffic citation for the offense regardless of whether the driver was careful and prudent.

It's best to stop before turning right on red.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

Another Reason to Lock Your Car

Readers of this blog have repeatedly read my pleas for people to lock their valuables or risk losing them - thus, the catchy phrase Lock It or Lose It. Many will simply look at the victims as being an unfortunate victim of their own laziness thinking anyone who failed to lock their car or left valuables out in plain sight deserved to become a victim. Heck, what concern is it to me? After all, I lock my car all the time.

Well, here's another look at the problem - one that shows it is your concern, and it has to do with guns.

We investigated a vehicle burglary last week in which the victim "thought he locked his vehicle" and left a handgun in the unlocked glove box. Upon returning to his vehicle the next morning, the car door was open and the semi-auto pistol was gone. For the record, there were no signs of forced entry to the vehicle.

Car burglars not only take things like Ipods, GPS units, cell phones, or laptops, they also take guns left in cars. Lawful gun ownership is a good thing, but firearms in the hands of criminals that were obtained via illegal means is not so good.

We can all help to keep our community safe by taking a moment to lock our cars and secure our valuables - including our firearms. Doing so just might keep a weapon out of the hands of a criminal.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

Looking At The Cost of Crime

LakelandPD gave a presentation this morning to the City Commission regarding the cost of crime, specifically the business cost to crime calls and the amount of resources needed to investigate reported crime. Titled "Looking At the Cost of Crime", our message was how we can lower our business costs, particularly in the area of burglaries, if the public would just practice some common sense and basic crime prevention strategies.

You're heard it here before - Lock It or Lose It in other words.

Half of our vehicle burglaries occur to unlocked vehicles and nearly all involve valuables left in plain sight in the passenger compartment. Nearly 500 people could have avoided being a car burglary victim last year if they locked their car and put their valuables in the trunk.

I won't steal the thunder from the presentation that can be downloaded from the link above, including the PowerPoint slides and the prepared commentary for the Commissioners. We are once again asking everyone to remind their family and friends just how important it is to Lock It or Lose It before you become a crime victim and experience the cost of crime from a victim's perspective as well as from a business cost point of view.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

Apply for 2010 Citizens Police Academy

We are now accepting applications for the 2010 Citizens Police Academy that starts on August 19 and graduates November 18. This year's academy will be on Thursday evenings from 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM at the police station. Visit our CPA website for more information.

To apply, complete a 2010 CPA application and mail it to the address listed on the application.

Class size is limited to approximately 50, so we encourage you to apply early.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

And the Winner Is...

LakelandPD celebrated the exceptional service of our members in 2009 during our annual awards presentation last night. Recognized for their actions included members receiving Meritorious Service Awards and Lifesaving Awards, as well as naming the Officer of the Year, Detective of the Year, and Civilian of the Year.

Officer of the Year went to Officer Mark Eby for his courage during an encounter with an armed subject threatening suicide. Officer Eby was forced to give up his location of cover and approach the armed subject on foot who deliberately aimed a shotgun at him. The personal courage required to face such imminent danger is part of what makes Mark such a respected member of our organization. We applaud his willingness to expose himself to a lethal threat in order to keep our community safe.

Detective of the Year went to Detective Jim O'Neill with our Criminal Investigations Section. Det. O'Neill works frauds for us and is known as someone who will take a single case and follow all available leads to the point that he often ends up with multiple new cases that spin off from the original crime. Jim was recognized for a case where the suspect not only defrauded a local bank using a stolen credit card but subsequent investigative efforts revealed the same suspect, originally from California, used the stolen card in Gainesville, Jacksonville, and St. Petersburg. The investigation did not stop there. Additional evidence showed the card was also used in New Hampshire and New York. The total take was estimated to be $37,000. Tenacity and attention to details, including two latent fingerprints lifted from a fraudulent receipt in New York, helped bring this case to a successful conclusion.

Civilian of the Year recognition went to two Crime Prevention Practitioners in our Community Services Unit. CPP Anna Ricks and CPP Cindy Sharp were named Co-Civilians of the Year for their tireless efforts to conduct crime prevention programs throughout the community. In addition to working with local Neighborhood Watch Groups, Ms. Ricks and Ms. Sharp were involved in planning and conducting such events as National Night Out, Citizens Police Academy, Cops for Kids Christmas program, LPD Open House, Back to School Bash, Red Ribbon Week, and the Amscot Bike Helmet giveaway just to name a few. These dedicated professionals work hard to demonstrate that "by working together we can make a difference."

We could not be more proud of our department if we wanted to be. It is indeed an honor to attend these award ceremonies and listen to the cases for which we bestow awards. This is not to suggest that other acts of courage, dedication, and commitment do not occur everyday here, but these are truly the cream of the crop. Our congratulations to the award winners.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

"Don't You Have Something Better To Do?"

I wish I had a dollar for every time someone asked me if I had something better to do than what I was doing at the moment. Such was the situation with a letter we received this week asking if we had better things to do than issue parking tickets at Peterson Park for vehicles parking directly under NO PARKING signs.

Hmmm, let me think about this one for a moment...

As a matter of fact, we do have other things we could be doing. However, none are more important than ticketing lazy drivers who choose to ignore the signs erected to create a safe zone for people to walk on the side of the road.

If you have ever attended a game at Peterson Park and had to park in the farthest lot, you realize there is very limited space to walk up to the fields along the main road into the park. Drivers who choose to ignore the NO PARKING signs and park along the roadway instead of the outer lot end up forcing pedestrians to walk in traffic and dodge cars - not a very safe option.

The signs were installed there for a reason rather than by accident or with the intent to harass people - the signs are there to provide a safe walking path for pedestrians, particularly kids, by keeping them out of the main roadway. We have enforced those no parking restrictions in the past and have every intention of enforcing them this year, too.

In my opinion, this one has an easy fix - help keep our kids safe by obeying the NO PARKING signs. You'll avoid getting a parking ticket and allow us to focus enforcement efforts on other areas that require our attention.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

Working Together to Solve Neighborhood Problems

One of the key elements to our community policing and problem-solving philosophy is to work in a collaborative manner with neighborhoods and other stakeholders to solve issues that give rise to crime and other quality of life concerns. It's all about building partnerships.

We met yesterday with leaders from the Webster Park Neighborhood to develop strategies to address a recurring problem that area experiences every Easter Sunday. Large crowds of young adults (easily 500 or more is common) typically gather there around dusk on Easter (April 4th this year), with a significant number of cars cruising through the neighborhood or parking just about anywhere they decide to stop. These crowds bring with them complaints from the residents that include extremely loud car stereos, impassable streets, illegal drug activity, drinking alcoholic beverages in a city park, fights, and occasional reports of gun shots.

For all practical purposes, residents feel trapped in their homes - unable to get out of their own driveways because cars are parked everywhere creating absolute gridlock. Suffice to say this is not the type of behavior we want in a quiet, neighborhood park like Webster Park.

We discussed several options and strategies that could mitigate the problem on Easter before it has a chance to develop into another a large nuisance. The group agreed the quickest fix will be for the police to deploy barricades that create one way traffic throughout the area and assign officers to the area ahead of the gathering to keep traffic moving rather than try to get cars moved once they get parked. Such an approach is manpower intensive for the police, but we would rather allocate resources there to prevent the problem from occurring instead of trying to move the crowd once they become entrenched within the park.

Our goal - to work together with all stakeholders in this matter between now and Easter to keep a lawful quality of life for anyone wanting to utilize the park on Easter without the disturbances and other unlawful activity that typically fills the Webster Park neighborhood.

It's what partnerships and collaborative problem-solving are all about.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

 

INSIDE LakelandPD - A Top Ten Blog

Our INSIDE LakelandPD blog was recently listed as one of the top ten police blogs by CareersinCriminalJustice.com. While that ranking was partially the result of how our blog comes up during keyword searches, it is nice to receive such recognition from the criminal justice profession for the content, open dialog, and flow of information that is the basis for our entire blogging efforts.

We currently read several of the other top ten blogs on the list because they are (in our opinion) the cream of the crop when it come to police blogs - it's rewarding to be listed with these other superior police department blogs.

And as always, we are grateful for everyone who reads our blog and follows us on Twitter and Facebook.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere 

Tweeting DUI Arrests - Good or Bad Idea?

While reviewing my Google news alerts this morning, I came across a blog posting that reported how DUI arrests in Mongtomery County, Texas will be posted on Twitter during the period between Christmas Eve and New Years Eve. If you are curious like I was and wondered where that county is located in the great state of Texas, think just north of Houston (which is in Harris County) and you are there.

The tweets are reportedly the product of the Montgomery County District Attorney, Brett Ligon, rather than any specific law enforcement agency there. A quick visit to the DA's Twitter page failed to show any arrest pics up to Sunday. At least one agency in the area, Denton PD, has mug shots all of its arrests posted on an "unofficial" Twitter page. The same mug shots are available in our local area as well, so this is really nothing new.

Public figures are used to living their lives in glass bowls and realize publicity will follow if they should get arrested. However, some will argue posting DUI arrests, or any arrest for that matter, is an intentional act of "shaming" with no real societal value if the arrestee is not a public figure. Others are quick to respond that such information is a public record in most areas and thus violates no law of confidentiality. I will leave that debate, as well as the argument of presumed innocent until found guilty, for others to join, but I am curious what you think about the concept of a law enforcement agency tweeting pics of specific arrests or all arrests by the agency.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

Chasing a Laser - Predictive Policing

I am a confirmed cat-lover with three felines currently living in our house. One of the ways I play with them is to take a laser pointer and aim the beam of light on the floor. Watching them eagerly chase after the laser and try to catch the point of light with their paws gives them some exercise after lounging around the house all day (and admittedly is somewhat entertaining to me).

Their futile attempts to capture the disappearing light is also a good analogy to the challenges of chasing crime trends in law enforcement. The cats seemingly always try to catch the light where they last saw it rather than go to where the light will be next. (I know what you're thinking - how is a cat supposed to predict where I will aim the light next, so bear with me here.)

The same concept really applies to crime fighting - we often go to the spot of the most recent crime rather than head to where the next crime is most likely to occur. That is true because predicting crime is a real challenge, but it is an evolving aspect of our profession - something called predictive policing. Chief Casady with the Lincoln (NE) Police Department has written extensively on this subject in his blog.

We continue to look at crime trends on a daily basis, using available technology to identify whatever patterns might exist so as to offer some prediction of where crime may occur next. I offer two recent success stories.

The Winn-Dixie store on Ariana Street was burglarized during the first part of November. We responded to the late night alarm call to investigate further. Our patrol officers and surveillance officers knew of a pattern to these crimes and predicted other Winn Dixie stores were likely to get hit as well that night. Surveillance was established at the store on Lakeland Highlands Road where officers waited in the shadows. The officers patiently watched as the suspects arrived and broke into the store a short time later. Arrests were made at the scene.

Last night our surveillance officers were in a neighborhood where we have been experiencing some home and vehicle burglaries off the North Crystal Lake area. A subject was spotted roaming the area around 1:15 AM this morning, so our officers began covert surveillance. We eventually watched the subject, a juvenile, commit a burglary to an unlocked truck. He was arrested at the scene, and a search following the arrest revealed he was armed with a three-foot long sword, so he was charged with armed burglary.

Now I am not suggesting we are able at this point to accurately predict when and where crime is going to occur, but it is worth mentioning how our use of technology is giving us a real-time ability to analyze crime trends and deploy resources where we think crime is likely to occur.

And as a reminder, anyone can create a crime map of significant events in our community or your neighborhood by going to our online crime mapping data at SpotCrime.com. You can also sign up to receive e-mail crime alerts for what is happening in your neighborhood.

My cats do get tired of chasing but never catching the laser after a while, and our officers get tired of chasing crime as well. Our ability to be where crime is likely to occur and then catch them in the act is very rewarding to our folks. Wonder where the next crime is about to happen?

- Asst Chief Bill LePere