INSIDE the Lakeland Police Department

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
 

Teaching Traffic Safety to Teen Drivers

Traffic crashes continue to be the leading cause of death among 15 - 20 year olds. Teaching traffic safety and the importance of defensive driving is one way we can reduce the chances our teenagers will die in a traffic crash.

The website of Florida's Attorney General announced this week is National Teen Driver Safety Week. I found a comprehensive list of web sites that parents can visit to get more ideas how we can drive home the safety message to teen drivers. It's a important discussion that parents need to begin in the home.

Our Traffic and Crime Prevention Units are available should you want us to visit a youth group at your school, church or other place of worship, or some other youth organization to discuss the dangers of unsafe driving. We welcome the opportunity to partner with the Polk County Sheriff's Office to bring SIDNE (Simulated Impaired Driving Experience) to your youth group as well.

To schedule a presentation, call us at 863-834-6900.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

Update on Seatbelt Enforcement

In case you noticed extra officers along Florida Avenue in the Downtown or Dixieland areas yesterday, you observed our seatbelt enforcement initiative underway. Officers focused their enforcement efforts at Main Street and Florida Avenue from 7:30 - 9:00 AM and at South Florida Avenue and Cresap Street from 11:30 AM - 12:45 PM.

A total of 83 citations were issued during these times. Officers ticketed 68 drivers for not wearing their seatbelt, 5 passengers, and one driver received a citation for failure to have a child properly restrained.

Florida law recently changed permitting seatbelt enforcement to be a primary rather than secondary issue. Officers previously had to observe another violation before being able to stop a driver who was not wearing a seatbelt. Officers may now stop a driver upon observing someone not properly restrained by their seatbelt.

The Lakeland Police Department will continue to aggressively enforce the seatbelt law. We encourage drivers to wear the seatbelts at all times and require all passengers to do so in their car.

We are committed to the concept of "Click It or Ticket".

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

Click It or Ticket

Lakeland Police officers from our Traffic Section conducted enhanced enforcement activity on Memorial Day yesterday as part of the nationwide "Click It or Ticket" campaign. The following results speak for themselves.

• 72 - Seatbelt violations
• 45 - Speeding violations
•  7 - Moving violations
•  6 - Criminal citations
•  4 - Moving violations

We continue to urge drivers and passengers to buckle up, slow down, and quite possibly safe a life.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

Social Media and Traffic Enforcement

I saw a couple of tweets and retweets on Twitter today in which the authors were advising followers where the police were engaged in traffic enforcement. Okay, our use of the term "traffic enforcement" was called "speed traps" or "hidden speed patrol" by others, but you get the picture. Social media was being used to get the word out to drivers to slow down in these areas because police officers were doing their jobs.

We appreciate the help in getting drivers to slow down.

Our goal in conducting speed enforcement or catching drivers running red lights is not to write massive amounts of tickets (really, it's not). We consider it a successful day when everyone driving through the area obeys the speed limit or stops at traffic signals so we cannot write a single ticket. To think that social media might be another tool to reduce speeds, prevent crashes, and save lives is a novel way forTwitter, Facebook, and other forms of social media to help a police department (or other government agency) spread the word and improve the quality of life in our community.

Regretfully, there are still enough non-Twitter users out there that our officers stay fairly busy writing speeding tickets all day long. Maybe one day...

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

LHS Seat Belt Enforcement Update

No one could have predicted the unplanned impact at the start of this morning's seat belt initiative at Lakeland High School. As TV crews were setting up to broadcast live from the scene, a traffic crash occurred on Bartow Hwy at the entrance to LHS. A student coming to school made a left turn in front of oncoming traffic and collided with another car, which had the right of way.

Once things settled down a bit, a total of 34 traffic citations were issued by LPD officers, with 30 of those for seat belt violations.

Now you may ask if 30 seat belt violations is good or bad - and I will tell you it depends. We issued a higher number of citations during some previous initiatives, so perhaps the educational efforts to buckle up are working. On the other hand, even one violation is one too many. Our goal was to write zero citations, but no such luck today.

And the real irony of the day - the young driver who caused this morning's crash...well he wasn't wearing his seat belt at the time either.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

Seat Belt Enforcement at Lakeland High School

In case you missed the announcement yesterday on our media release blog, the Lakeland Police Department is planning a "Seat Belt Initiative" at Lakeland High School on Friday, February 13, 2009, from 6:30 AM - 8:00 AM. The school is located at 726 Lake Hollingsworth Road.

The initiative includes advance educational efforts to inform students of the dangers associated with not wearing a seat belt and the requirement of Florida law for drivers and passengers to be properly restrained. The educational campaign is then followed by an enforcement effort to catch violators who refuse to wear a seat belt. We expect several media outlets will be at the school Friday morning to observe the operation.

Many young lives are lost each year during traffic crashes where drivers and passengers were not wearing proper seat belts. Our goal is to save lives through education first and enforcement second.

Save a life - buckle up every time you drive or ride in a car.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

Knights of Columbus Officer of the Year

The Knights of Columbus sponsored their annual Public Safety Awards dinner this past weekend, giving recognition and honors to law enforcement officers, firefighters, and emergency medical personnel who have performed either heroic acts or exceptional service above the call of duty.

Lakeland Police Officer Sean Finney received the Lakeland Police Officer of the Year Award from the Knights of Columbus for his efforts to make over 1,000 DUI arrests while assigned to the DUI Enforcement Unit.

Officer Finney receiving his award 

While Officer Finney is to be commended for the quality cases he makes, it is worth noting that he goes far beyond the day to day work of arresting impaired drivers. In addition to being a certified Drug Recognition Expert, he is a peer leader in the DUI Unit who serves as a trainer to ensure new DUI officers receiving the initial training required of this difficult and challenging assignment. He continually receives annual recognition by Mothers Against Drunk Driving for his efforts.

We congratulate Officer Finney on receiving this award and thank him for his unwavering commitment to removing impaired drivers from our roadways. It is impossible to calculate how many lives he has saved by his tireless efforts to keep Lakeland safe.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

Cell Phones and Driving

The practice of talking or texting on our cell phones while driving is a common occurrence, though a dangerous one that admittedly nearly everyone with a cell phone does today. I regret to say that I am no different from the masses when it comes to this matter.

The National Safety Council recently called for a nationwide ban on cell phone use while driving. While only a handful of states ban any type of cell phone use by drivers and a few more ban teenagers from talking on cell phones while driving, Florida does not restrict the practice (some may call it an art).

A recent study by the Harvard Center of Risk Analysis estimates using cell phones while driving contributed to 6% of crashes. We do not have specific figures for the Lakeland area. You can learn more about this matter, including a fact sheet, data resources and other relevant information from the NSC website at www.distracteddriving.nsc.org.

The study also found that a significant amount of vehicular cell phone use is business-related and some businesses are now restricting cell phone use while on the job. We currently do not restrict our employees from using cell phones while driving.

I am curious if you believe Florida should implement a statewide ban on cell phone use while driving or if employers should take the lead and restrict their employees from using cell phones while driving on the job. What are your thoughts?

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

Lakeland City Commission Gives Final Approval to Red Light Cameras

The Lakeland City Commission gave final approval today for a contract to proceed with installation of red light cameras (RLC) around the city. The installation should begin around the first of the year and proceed in various phases.

We continue to get occasional letters and e-mails from people who support the RLC concept and from those opposed to these cameras. The reasons for support or opposition remain fairly constant - folks either want to prevent crashes caused by people running red lights or they want to avoid having "big brother" watch them driving around town.

I believe it is worth repeating here - the easiest and most effective way to avoid getting a citation or infraction notice from us is to simply not run red lights. You would think this is easy for drivers to do, but we know different.

Time will tell if the cameras change driver behaviors. We think they will and look forward to working with them once they get installed.

What do you think?

- Asst Chief Bill LePere