INSIDE the Lakeland Police Department

Incredible Criminal Excuses

Over on our Twitter side yesterday I retweeted a tweet from Boynton Beach Police Department regarding a news article about a criminal with an outrageous excuse for why he possessed some cocaine powder - he claimed it was flour for his pork chops.

That got me thinking about some of the most incredible excuses I have encountered during my career so far. Two stand out as the best I've heard.

During my time as a vice and narcotics detective many years ago, we would occasionally conduct surveillance in the Munn Park area for lewd activity. This was years before downtown was redeveloped to the wonderful area it is today. One night we observed two subjects engaged in open lewd conduct in the park and moved in to make arrests. Upon getting the subjects separated and up from the ground to handcuff them, one of them commented "Officer, I just want you to know I had nothing to do with this."

Really? Then please tell me who is responsible for what you were just doing on your knees in public view if you had nothing to do with it. He went to jail that night.

The second favorite event was also during my time in vice and narcotics. We were executing a drug search warrant at a residence when a subject came up to the house to buy drugs. We identified ourselves as police officers and upon searching the subject located a small piece of crack cocaine in his pants pocket. The subject uttered, "Officer, these aren't my pants."

Really? I completely understand. I often make the mistake of putting on someone else's clothes in the morning, too. It all makes perfect sense now that you explained the pants thing to me.

That guy went to jail that night, too.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

Managing Emergencies

One of the many things that public safety and really all government agencies in Polk County (and Florida for that matter) do fairly well is work together during emergencies. The collaboration and cooperation during hurricanes, wildfires, floods, or other disasters is a source of pride for us.

Having said that, I participated in today's 2009 Polk County Municipal Liaison meeting hosted by the Polk County Emergency Management Division. Pete McNally and his staff from PCEMD and Jim Bell from the County's Public Safety Department gave presentations on disaster mitigation and preparation efforts currently underway.

It is always good to renew business relationships with peers across the county at these meetings. These get togethers provide us with the opportunity to once again see folks we worked closely with during the storms of 2004 and more recent events.

Government today uses an approach of all-hazards planning and preparation rather than just hurricane planning because public safety and other departments need to be ready to respond to any type of emergency. This change in our approach is the result of lessons learned from past hurricanes and the extensive ICS and NIMS training that followed the attacks of 9-11. We now have an integrated system of federal, state, county, and municipal agencies that are ready to work together regardless of the emergency through a coordinated and well defined incident management system.

It is, of course, our hope that we are never called upon to use this training, but we stand ready nonetheless.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

Budget Humor - Sign of the Times

As a general rule, accountants are sometimes viewed as having no sense of humor. Hours of figuring debits, credits, adding endless columns of numbers, creating spreadsheets, and balancing accounts can get the best of anyone. Add ever changing federal regulations to unanticipated emergency expenses and the job of a government accountant can be stressful.

So it came as a bit of surprise when our Chief Accountant Charlie Dormer finalized the cover of our budget book for the upcoming fiscal year. Charlie usually puts a graphic on the cover page - something like a police officer's badge, a shoulder patch, or a police car.

Not this year though.

In these times of budget cuts, belt tightening, and service reductions, it was a bit of comic relief to see what Charlie put on the cover of this year's budget book.

How appropriate...

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

An Honest Crime Victim

While reviewing crime reports this morning from the previous 24 hours, I noticed an incident summary that really caught my eye. It seems two young men were walking through Washington Park the other morning around 2:30 AM after their car became disabled when they were reportedly robbed at gun point by two subjects.

One of the victims told investigating officers the robbery suspects made off with a quantity of money and a nickel bag of marijuana.

Yep - you read that correctly. Our victim told officers the robbers made of with his money and marijuana.

No further commentary is necessary on my part here, though I will add officers circulating the area after we got the call failed to locate anyone matching the suspects' description. This case remains an open investigation.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

April 2009 UCR Data Released

The UCR data for Apr 2009 has been released, which shows overall crime for the first four months of this year is virtually unchanged from the same period last year. Violent crime is up a bit (10%) and property crime is down (0.5%).

Leading the increase in violent crime is Forcible Sex offenses. Robberies are down this year compared to last. April was a busy month for burglaries as these crimes seemed to explode in our community. Several key arrests since then are expected to lower this number when May's data is tallied.

The department continues our weekly crime meetings to review emerging crime trends and develop strategies to address hot spot areas. We are aggressively putting resources where we see problems developing just as fast as possible. Given the challenges of our current economy and any impact that might have on criminal activity, the numbers are not as bad as we feared they could be.

Our best defense against crime is the continued diligence of the community to report suspicious activity to us immediately. Anyone seeing something out of the ordinary or what you deem to be suspicious should call the Lakeland Police Department immediately at 863-834-6900. You can remain anonymous when reporting suspicious activity.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

Another Stupid Criminal Story

While reviewing the daily crime report this morning, I came across this stupid criminal story that left me shaking my head in amazement.

The suspect approached the victim at the gas pumps and stated "give it up." The suspect then struck the victim with the handgun causing a minor laceration to the victim's left ear. The victim then sprayed the suspect with gasoline causing the suspect to take flight.

Kudos to the victim for quick thinking to repel the attack by spraying the suspect with gasoline. We have a vehicle description - a tan colored Toyota, possibly a Corolla, with tinted windows and a sunroof - that our patrol units are trying to locate.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

Reflecting on Future Leaders

I had the honor of participating in promotional interviews this past week with 10 Sergeants seeking advancement to the rank of Lieutenant. The interviews were the final element of a lengthy and grueling assessment center to update our eligibility list for future Lieutenant vacancies.

I say it was an honor because these interviews were an integral part of deciding who will lead the Lakeland Police Department in the coming years. For all we know, we could be selecting someone who will be a future Chief of Police.

It is no understatement to also say it was a humbling experience to hear the passion and dedication of these exceptional officers as they spoke about their commitment to the vision and mission of our organization and their unwavering desire to serve the community. Too often in our daily grind we focus only on the immediate tasks at hand and rarely get an opportunity to discuss things like values, ethics, and professionalism. It was refreshing and uplifting to address these matters with the Sergeants.

I believe our future lies in very good hands.

- 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

Our Behind the Scenes Heroes

There is a standing joke within our industry the only person who can tell a police officer "where to go" and get away with it is a 911 Dispatcher. There is a lot of truth to this statement.

And so it is fitting at this time for us to give recognition and tribute to our behind the scenes heroes in the 911 dispatch center at the conclusion of National Public Safety Telecommunications Week.

Our 911 Dispatchers are the first contact most people have with the police department when they call for help. Whether the call is an emergency or just someone looking for information, our Communications Center handles nearly 500,000 phone calls on an annual basis.

Our dispatchers take tremendous pride in the services they provide the community and the police officers in the field. Many folks do not know this fact, but 911 Dispatchers also provide dispatching services for the Lakeland Fire Department in addition to handling police calls for service. Their work day is anything but normal, unless you consider high stress and life-or-death decision making a normal work day!

911 Dispatchers may be behind the scenes in our 911 Communications Center, but they are truly on the front lines in our efforts to provide public safety services to the community. Our thanks to all for a job well done.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

Gun Powder in the Morning

To paraphrase a line from the movie Apocalypse Now- "I love the smell of gun powder in the morning!" Such was the case at the LakelandPD Training Center today as the department concluded the current round of semi-annual firearms qualifications.

LPD officers qualify with their assigned firearms twice a year - a daylight qualification in the spring and a low-light qualification later in the fall. CALEA accreditation standards only call for annual firearms testing, but we require a second qualification each year to meet our stringent standards of firearms proficiency. We also conduct several firearms training sessions throughout the year that are not considered to be qualification tests.

Why do we train so much with our firearms?

Years of experience tells us that officers will respond in a crisis situation exactly as they were trained - it should be an automatic reaction to a lethal threat. We are committed to provide the best training we can possibly afford to give our officers the tactical advantage in a life-threatening situation. There are no guarantees in our business, but we want to stack the survival odds in our favor.

After all, we want the good guys to come home to their families and loved ones at the end of every tour of duty.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere