 Mayor, City Council, Mr. Bates,
Department Heads, members of the Media, and Citizens of Lincoln:
Since last May, when I presented my year-end report, Lincoln Police
Department continues to work for the citizens in reducing crime in
the community. The recently released Uniform Crime Report from the
Illinois State Police revealed the following statistics derived
between the years of 2006 and 2007:
|
Total Crime Index |
-8.6% |
|
Criminal Sexual Assaults |
-11.8% |
|
Robbery |
-9.1% |
|
Aggravated Assault/Battery |
-10.2% |
|
Burglary |
-20% |
|
Theft |
-5% |
|
Motor Vehicle Theft |
-15.4% |
|
Arson |
+400% |
While I am very proud of the officers for this past year's
reductions, we can not stand on our laurels. There will be no
celebration or complacency. Every officer knows that every day they
will come to work to answer countless calls for service. Every
officer knows that when they walk through the door, they must be
ready to react to a multitude of citizen's requests for service.
Traffic accidents, family disputes, alarms, fire and medical calls,
orders of protection, thefts, burglaries, criminal damage to
property, property disputes, bar fights, loud parties, illegally
parked vehicles, crimes in progress, armed robberies, shots fired,
mentally ill subjects, custody stand-bys, barking dogs, loud music,
illegal drugs, harassment calls, barricaded suicidal subjects and
fights in progress are just a few examples of the calls to which LPD
officers respond.
Calls for service statistics May through November 2008:
|
Dispatched calls and Traffic Stops: 8,864 |
Average: 1,266/month |
|
Criminal arrests: 544 |
Average: 78/month |
|
Traffic crashes: 339 |
Average: 48/month |
|
Traffic citations: 913 |
Average: 130/month |
|
Written warnings: 953 |
Average: 136/month |
I am proud to report that the September and October Monthly
Officer Activity Reports indicate that every officer met or exceeded
the minimum performance standards established when I became the
Chief. The officers are on the street making traffic stops, which
often result in detecting other criminal activity.
Over the spring and summer months, LPD officers voluntarily
agreed to work 8 hour shifts to get the agency through what I would
describe as the greatest staffing crunch ever experienced by LPD.
After losing four officers to retirement, three new officers were
graduating from PTI and placed on their Field Training program, one
officer was preparing for deployment to Afghanistan, one officer was
on light duty, and summer vacations, LPD would not have been able to
staff the summer months. In a departmental meeting, I took the issue
to the officers who voted to make the change. As agreed, I
re-instituted the 9-hour shift in September. I did change the shift
times to provide a 3-hour overlap between the afternoon and night
shifts. This overlap provides a double shift complement during our
peak hours.
Training continues to be the
benchmark for our operations. In the past 18 months, LPD officers
have attended 51 different law enforcement courses. Every officer in
the agency has attended a minimum of two courses while others have
attended several. LPD has placed 119 officer slots in the 51
courses. The most recent courses include:
Kinesic Interview/Interrogation
Effective Supervision
Illinois Public Risk Fund
Legal
Review
Driving Simulator Training
Basic
Sex Crimes
Assessing Threats of School Violence
K-9
Search and Seizure
Twilight Murders "Too Old To Die"
Electric and Gas Safety
K-9
State Certification
Beslan
School Incident-Lessons Learned
Basic/Advanced Rapid Deployment
Basic
Firearms Instructor
Introduction I.D. Theft/Assistance to Victims
AR-15/M-16 Armorer School
Technical Patrol Rifle
Basic
Juvenile Certification
Violent Mind/New Millennium
Beslan
School Siege
Shot's
Fired When Lightening Strikes
Crime
Scene Technician
Gang
Crime Dynamics
Bullet
Proof Mind
[to top of second column] |
When I started there was one Chief, one Assistant Chief, 7 Sergeants
and 4 Corporals, for a total of 13 command officers. Our current
Table of Organization includes Deputy Chief Mike Geriets, Sergeants
Dave Sielaff, Ken Greenslate, Tim Kerns, and Paul Adams. I moved
Sergeant Greenslate from the full-time DARE Officer position to the
morning Shift Sergeant, while continuing as the DARE Officer.
Sergeants Kerns and Sielaff are the Shift Sergeants on the afternoon
and night shifts, with Sergeant Kerns assisting with some
investigative assignments. Our Corporals are Corporal Jim Rehmann
(currently attached to the Illinois National Guard), Corporal Dave
Oltmanns, Corporal Kevin Lynn (canine officer), and Corporal Rob
Sherren (drug enforcement). I have also assigned Officer Matt
Vlahovich as an Acting Supervisor. The command staff now total 10,
with 1 acting supervisor.
The idea of having 7 Sergeants and 4 Corporals did not compute
very well with me. It seems to me that there should be more
corporals than sergeants. The agency was top-heavy and I have fixed
that. I will, in the very near future, come to the council asking to
change the city ordinance regarding supervisory positions that will
allow it to function more efficiently.
The agency was proactive in apprehending two Lincoln residents
for a rash of car and residential burglaries in which the offenders
were entering occupied homes to steal property of the victims. LPD
put a number of officers on the street in plain clothes and plain
vehicles, working from 11 p.m. to 3 or 4 a.m. on a number of nights.
These efforts, along with the excellent work of our detectives were
instrumental in making the culprits guests of the Illinois
Department of Corrections.
After publishing photographs of a suspect vehicle and an artist's
drawing of the suspect, a citizen from a near-by city contacted LPD.
LPD officers then identified a suspect and made an arrest in the
Attempted Aggravated Kidnapping of a Lincoln woman. This past
Saturday night, officers arrested a Lincoln man for attempted
murder. Two other Lincoln men were charged with attempted murder in
an October incident in which a Lincoln man was beaten severely and
left for dead.
Earlier in this report I told you about the numerous types of
calls that LPD officers handle. It troubles me greatly to tell you
that the violence that officers must meet is also on the increase.
It is common for officers to endure extreme verbal abuse. The
troubling part is when juveniles engage in such diatribes in the
presence and support of their parents who do the same. In a recent
incident the verbal abuse turned violent when a citizen blind-sided
an officer, smacking them in the face with their fist. The officers
present responded by sub-doing (subduing) the individual with the
least amount of force necessary to affect the arrest. Over the past
two years there have been numerous officer involved shootings,
including the attempted murder and murder of central Illinois police
officers.
In the near future, I will bring to the council, a proposal to
impose a $500.00 Lincoln Police Department Administrative Fee for
the release of any vehicle towed by the agency for the offenses of
Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol/Drugs, Driving with a
Suspended/Revoked Drivers License, Unlawful Use of Weapons, and
other criminal offenses involving the use of a motor vehicle. This
type of Administrative Fee has been implemented by other
municipalities in the area with astounding results. The purpose of
the fee is to reduce the number of DUI/Drug arrests and to provide a
new revenue stream for the police department that may allow the city
to hire more officers.
I close this report by telling you that Corporal Jim Rehmann is
scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan this week. I ask each of you to
keep Corporal Rehmann and all of our service men and women in your
prayers as they continue to fight the War on Terrorism.
Respectfully submitted,
Stuart R. Erlenbush
Chief of Police
[Text copied from file received] |
