City officials visit Lincoln police station

[August 15, 2013]  Tuesday evening, Lincoln aldermen and city officials took a tour of the Lincoln police station. The purpose of the tour was to give Chief Ken Greenslate and his staff an opportunity to talk about why they need a better space for their department. The group spent a half-hour at the police department and then moved on to the fire department for a similar tour.

Those from the city who attended the tour were Mayor Keith Snyder; Sue McLaughlin, city administrator; Chuck Conzo, city treasurer; Susan Gehlbach, city clerk; Risa Riggs, council secretary; Russell Wright, of the street department, and council members Melody Anderson, Kathy Horn, Marty Neitzel, Tom O'Donohue and Jonie Tibbs.

The Lincoln Police Department occupies roughly 1,600 square feet inside the Logan County Safety Complex.

The tour began with Greenslate introducing the group to the patrolmen's office area. This is one of the larger areas inside the building, with four workstations that include computers and other items necessary for completing paperwork and conducting victim or suspect interviews.

Greenslate turned the tour over to Officer Matt Vlahovich. Inside this room there is comfortable space for four officers. On most days there are at least five officers on duty per shift. Vlahovich told the group that at the beginning of each new shift there is an overlap of officers as one group wraps up their day and prepares to leave and another begins their day. In that overlap, for possibly two hours, the number of officers working in the room can double.

Vlahovich explained that it does depend on what each officer has to work on in the office, but they often run into a situation where there is not enough workspace for officers to do their jobs.

He also said this is the area where officers may be doing interviews with witnesses, victims, juveniles, even suspects.

Greenslate also commented that possibly contrary to belief, the officers cannot always just take someone to a holding cell. For example, juveniles cannot be held in that manner.

In addition, Vlahovich said that when the officers are working on a case, this is the area where they first bring in evidence.

The department does have one interrogation or interview room, but Greenslate and Vlahovich explained that one room is seldom enough when they are dealing with a case.

The tour moved on to that one interrogation room. The space is less than a 10-foot square with one door and a one-way window for viewing interviews from outside the room. Inside the room there is a small table and two chairs.

Greenslate explained that in addition to the need for more rooms, the department also needs safer, sturdier rooms. He explained that the walls of the room have numerous patches where irate individuals have lost control and punched holes in the walls.

As the visitors took turns stepping into and out of the room, Detective Tim Kerns talked about the problems with the area. He said one of the problems the department faces when taking cases to court is accusations of intimidation. He said the physical size of the room adds to that feeling of being intimidated.

He noted: "I'm not the largest officer in the department, but you put Alderman Tibbs, me and another officer in there; Alderman Tibbs might be able to say she felt intimidated and compelled to talk to us."

Kerns also said there are times when multiple people are involved in a situation: a possible victim, a witness and a possible suspect, for example. Kerns said keeping those people separated may involve having one in the detective's office, one in the interrogation room and another one sitting in the lobby area. He said this brings up issues of privacy.

Stepping into the detective office, Kerns pointed out that the back wall of the room is a common wall between the office and the jail holding area. He said this is a problem because if there is an agitated person in a holding cell, that person's actions and words can be heard through the walls. He said this is particularly a concern when he has a child in his office because these are children who are sometimes already very frightened, and the commotion on the other side of the wall makes the situation worse.

Kerns also talked about the problems with processing evidence. He said the area now being used is insufficient. He added that something the department doesn't have is a safe, secure drying space for evidence. He said evidence can get wet; items get thrown in a creek or wet from rain. Some things need to be properly handled to preserve them. He cited as an example if he were to have blood evidence on a wet shirt, his option today would be to spread newspapers on the floor and lay the shirt there until it is dry. He said this is not conducive to maintaining evidence in a proper manner.

As the tour progressed, Greenslate took the group to the front desk or reception area of the building. He said this is where Brenda McCabe works. McCabe is a city employee and not an officer with officer training. Greenslate said oftentimes when the department is working with more than one possible victim or suspect, someone ends up being placed in this room with McCabe. He said it is neither a safe nor private place to hold someone.

Other areas the group looked at included Greenslate's office. He said that while the room is fairly large, there is a lot that it doesn't offer. He added that there are times when his office, too, becomes a waiting area for possible suspects or victims, and again that is not the ideal situation.

The final stop on the tour was the evidence room, which, according to Officer Michael Fruge, is lacking in many areas.

Fruge explained statutes of limitations on certain evidence and said that the room, which is small, is packed. In addition, he said the room had odor issues that make it burdensome to work in there, and there is only one electrical outlet in the room, which also causes a problem. Fruge also told the group that while the door has a lock on it, architecturally the room is not all that secure. He said if someone were determined to get into the evidence room, it is possible they could do so without going through the door.

The department had been afforded 30 minutes to conduct their tour. After viewing the evidence room, Greenslate said there was another small area downstairs that the city department uses, but due to time constraints, they would have to forgo that part of the tour.

The final item discussed was an invitation for aldermen to do a ride-along with patrol officers. The police department will allow any civilian to do a daytime ride-along and experience an officer's day from inside the patrol car to inside the office. There are certain releases that have to be signed, so it is good to ask in advance by contacting the city police department office.

When the aldermen left the police station, they journeyed back to City Hall, where fire Chief Mark Miller was waiting to give them a tour of the firehouse.

[By NILA SMITH]