INSIDE the Lakeland Police Department

Lock It or Lose It - Cases from the Weekend

In our efforts to get the word out to folks just how important it is to lock our vehicles and secure valuables left inside the passenger compartment, I thought I might summarize the "Lock It or Lose It" cases from this past weekend.

"The victim stated she parked her car in front of a business in the 800 block of N. Massachusetts Avenue between 1530 and 1600 hours, leaving the vehicle's windows down and her purse sitting on the front passenger side floor board. The vehicle was left unlocked and unsecured. The victim returned to her vehicle and discovered her purse was missing."

Hmmm, wonder why that happened...

"At approximately 1038 hours on Sunday morning, the victim left her vehicle running while she ran into a residence in the 100 block of W. Hancock Street for a moment. When she returned to the vehicle, the victim's purse was gone."

She's lucky the car wasn't stolen as well as her purse...

"The victim advised that between 1920 hours and 1940 hours, her vehicle's driver's side window was shattered and her purse was taken from the passenger side seat."

As in, left in plain view rather than secured somewhere safe like the trunk...

These are three victims from the weekend's crime report who could have prevented the theft of their purses if they had practiced the concepts of "Lock It or Lose It". Two other car burglaries occurred this weekend to locked vehicles and had car stereos taken. While these types of offenses are difficult to prevent, our other victims had a chance to take some simple precautionary measures that would have minimized their chances of becoming a crime victim.

Remember - "Lock It or Lose It!"

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

"Stop, Drop, and Roll"

For what seems like the umpteenth time this year, I recently reviewed several daily crime reports and noted a series of vehicle burglaries where the victims left purses or cell phones or laptops or other valuable pieces of electronics in plain view. You know the story by now - the victim returns to their vehicle and is shocked to discover their items left carelessly on the seat have been stolen.

We continue to preach the message that everyone needs to lock their vehicles and secure valuables or risk losing them, but I fear the message merely falls on deaf ears for the most part.

And then I got to wondering with the immediacy of social media, is there a way for law enforcement agencies to get the word out so a phrase like "Lock It or Lose It" can become an equivalent to the fire department's infamous phrase "stop, drop, and roll."

It seems like every elementary school student quickly learns the basics of what to do should your clothing catch on fire - you stop running, drop to the ground, and roll over numerous times to put out the flames. Pretty simply stuff.

So why is it so difficult to get people to remember a basic crime prevention strategy?

Any ideas or suggestions as to how we might be able to make "Lock It or Lose It" go viral through today's social media world and maybe prevent some of these vehicle burglaries?

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

Halloween Safety Tips

It's time once again for our Halloween Safety tips. This link takes you to our website where you will find a safety brochure and a link to a safety video file from our School Resource Unit.

We encourage parents to take a moment and review these ideas and safety tips designed to ensure your ghosts and goblins (or super heroes or princesses) have a safe Halloween this year.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

LakelandPD Awarded Florida Crime Prevention Unit of the Year

One of the services we strive to provide our community is the prevention of crime long before it happens. Crime Prevention programs have been around for many years as police departments worked to educate the community on ways to prevent home burglaries, keep our children safe from strangers, or women safe from sexual assault.

And so it is with great pleasure that announce LakelandPD's Community Services Unit was awarded the Crime Prevention Unit of the Year distinction by the Florida Crime Prevention Association.

LPD Community Services Unit 

Our unit's members, including Supervisor Dr. Greg Robinson, Mr. George Butler, Ms. Cynthia Clifford, Ms. Anna Ricks, and Ms. Cindy Sharp, received the award at the Association's annual meeting last week. All of the members are Certified Crime Prevention Practitioners as designated by the Florida Attorney General's Office.

To be recognized by your peers for ongoing excellence in efforts to prevent crime and raise awareness in our community that crime prevention is everyone's responsibility is a tremendous honor. We salute our Community Services Unit for this distinction.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

Promoting Bike Helmet Safety with Amscot Financial

LakelandPD partnered with Amscot Financial and other law enforcement agencies in central Florida last week to distribute free bike helmets to pre-school and elementary school children. The helmets were donated by Amscot as part of their annual corporate program to promote bike safety for children. This was the seventh year for the helmet giveaway.

Officers Wesley and Kendrick and our Crime Prevention Unit joined volunteers from the Citizens Police Academy Alumni Association and Amscot management at their location at 614 East Memorial Boulevard to hand out the free helmets and make sure they fit properly.

Our volunteers tell us seeing the smiles on the children's faces is reward enough for assisting with this program, but we do appreciate their time to make this effort such a success. And thanks to Amscot for continuing their commitment to making sure children have a helmet to ride their bikes safely.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere
 

The Power of a Crime Tip

Over at our media blog, we posted a story yesterday about two subjects being arrested Tuesday on burglary charges. Our subsequent investigation by detectives into a residential burglary on Lake Hollingsworth drive resulted in the recovery of most of the jewelry and guns taken during the crime.

All of this occurred because of a phone call we received from a citizen witness who saw something suspicious and called the police. In this particular case, a witness saw something happening by their business location that looked suspicious and totally out of character for the area. Rather than wonder if they should call the police and possibly delay getting important information to us, they called right away. Our officers were able to locate two vehicles connected with the burglary and distribution of stolen property, as well as arrest suspects wanted for armed robbery out of Volusia county.

It's worth repeating here - all of this occurred because of a phone call we received from a citizen witness who saw something suspicious and called the police. And quite honestly, we may not have been able to solve this crime without getting the phone call like we did.

The truth of the matter is crimes are most often solved due to information we gather from eyewitnesses or someone who hears a suspect discussing something. Very few crimes are solved because of the spectacular CSI syndrome where forensic lab work quickly directs us to a suspect. We rely on tips and information from the public to help us solve crimes.

We are grateful for the eyewitness calling us like they did and want to use this case to encourage everyone who sees something suspicious in their area to call us. We would rather respond to a thousand "suspicious incident" calls that turn out to be nothing than miss the opportunity to solve a crime like we did on Tuesday.

Guess you could say there is a lot of power in a single crime tip.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

The Speed of Rumors

It amazed me just how fast the recent hoax e-mail suggesting gang violence would occur at a local merchant made its way across Florida and Georgia on Wednesday. Talk about speed and efficiency! We were still getting calls about the hoax yesterday.

This whole episode got me wondering...

What would happen if I sent out an e-mail to all my friends (not that I have that many friends to begin with, but I digress) announcing with a high degree of certainty someone's unlocked car would get burglarized today at a local shopping mall, so be sure to lock your vehicle and put your valuables out of sight.

Would panic set in and suddenly people would send the e-mail all over Florida? Would folks start locking their cars and putting purses or cell phones or computers or GPS units in a secure container (say a locked trunk) - and thereby reduce our motor vehicle burglary rate by 50% or so?

Nah - probably not because there is nothing sensational to a car burglary, unless it's your stuff getting stolen and your car getting damaged! But just imagine for a moment how a single e-mail could send a simple message of crime prevention and reduce victimization in our community.

Ah, the speed of rumors...

But if you just happen to remember one thing the next time you park your car -- please lock it or risk losing something valuable from it because I am quite sure a car burglary is going to happen somewhere today. You can count on that e-mail message being factual.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

Heartland Crime Stoppers

At yesterday's monthly meeting of the Polk County Police Chief's Association, Mr. Wayne Cross from Heartland Crime Stoppers paid us a visit and reminded the Chiefs in attendance how Crime Stoppers can be a useful tool in fighting crime. This tool is sometimes overlooked as a way to gather anonymous tips that can be passed along to law enforcement. Here is how the system works:

Callers can use the telephone, cell phone texting, or the web to submit anonymous tips. If your tip leads to an arrest, you can be eligible for cash rewards that are funded through grants, donations, and fines levied against convicted defendants. General Fund tax dollars are not used to pay these rewards.

It was interesting to learn that Heartland Crime Stoppers, serving Polk, Highlands, and Hardee counties, consistently has the highest percentage of arrests based on tips for any other jurisdiction our size - a whopping 21%! That figure is based on 544 arrests made during the last fiscal year, or 1.5 arrests per day from Crime Stopper tips. Rewards during that same period totaled $104,500.

The key to this success is you - the public - who call, text, or via the web submit crime tips to local law enforcement agencies. Thanks for taking the time to submit your tips via Heartland Crime Stoppers. Arrests are being made, cases are being closed, and drugs are being seized in our school and neighborhoods because of your tips.

Well done everyone!

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

Follow Up to our Pill Drop-Off Initiative

It is difficult to quantify a "successful pill drop-off", but we are pleased to let everyone know the following from our recent initiative to collect unwanted prescription medications this past weekend.

Detectives report a total of 199 pounds of unwanted pills collected on Saturday. This quantity compares to 80 pounds collected during the previous pill drop-off.

Is 199 pounds good? That is hard to say, but we think it is great! What we can say for sure is there are 199 pounds less of wanted prescription medications (remember these are controlled substances) just sitting around in medicine cabinets waiting to be taken by mistake (accidental overdoses by adults or children) or ingested by our youth in an effort to get high.

And now what happens to these pills? We make arrangements to incinerate them rather than grind them into a powder and throw them away where they can leach into our water system.

We appreciate everyone's interest in this program and your efforts to bring the pills to the police station. Together we can take small steps to make our community safer.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

The Season for Car Burglaries

While reviewing crime reports from the weekend, it is obvious that car burglaries are going to once again become a major problem during the holiday season. Rather than the usual case of cars getting burglarized in shopping areas, this past weekend saw a significant number of car burglaries in residential areas.

Officers made one arrest early this morning when a victim discovered his vehicle was being burglarized off Lake Hollingsworth around 4:45 AM. The suspect fled on foot, but responding officers setting up a perimeter around the area were able to locate and arrest Casey Lee Swander, W/M, DOB 02/08/1988 after the victim positively identified him as the culprit. Great job by our Charlie Squad this morning!

There were numerous other car burglaries on the south side of town over the weekend. Detectives are investigating these cases to determine if Swander committed those offenses as well.

Vehicles on the north side of town also got hit this weekend. The Lake Deeson Woods neighborhood had a total of five car burglaries between November 21 - 22. No arrests have been made yet in connection with those crimes.

We urge everyone to reduce their chance of becoming a victim of a car burglary by locking their car and removing valuables from the passenger compartment. Thieves are less likely to enter your car when there is nothing inside to steal. And of coure, call us to report any suspicious activity you observe in your neighborhood.

For a complete listing of car burglaries and pin maps showing the locations of these crimes, visit SpotCrime.com.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere