Lakeville Police Held Their Annual Domestic Abuse Awareness Luncheon

Last Friday at in Lakeville, over 300 people gathered to attend the 27th Annual Domestic Abuse Awareness Luncheon, co-sponsored by 360 Communities and the Lakeville Police Department, to hear United States Senator Amy Klobuchar speak on issues of domestic violence. The Domestic Abuse Luncheon started 27 years ago as a “brown bag” lunch at the B. Robert Lewis Domestic Violence Shelter, attended by a few domestic violence advocates and police officers. Over the years, the Domestic Abuse Awareness Luncheon has since evolved into one of the premiere annual events in the Twin Cities for drawing attention to the issues of domestic violence.

In her speech, Senator Klobuchar talked of attending the recent funeral of Lake City Police Officer Shawn Schneider who was killed at a domestic call in December and about her experiences dealing with domestic violence cases as a criminal prosecutor and as the Hennepin County Attorney. The Senator also spoke about some of the current domestic violence issues being addressed in legislation in Congress.

The Domestic Abuse Awareness Luncheon also offered an opportunity to recognize five individuals who have had a significant impact on domestic violence over the years with the presentation of the 360 communities/Lakeville Police Department “Community Caring Awards”. The first recipient was Bill Nelson who is a former Community Action Council board member and well known lecturer on the consequences of abuse. He also established a women’s recovery residential center responsible for treating over 1,000 women suffering from trauma, chemical dependency, and mental illness since 2000.

In addition, Burnsville Police Officers Christi Carpenter, Steve Adrian, Gary Lidster, and BPD Sergeant Tom Kelley were honored with “Community Caring Awards” for their pioneering work in establishing the first Domestic Violence Response Teams (DART) for the Burnsville Police Department in 1994. This model has been copied by many law enforcement agencies (including Lakeville PD) over the past 17 years and has been responsible for improving law enforcement response to domestic violence calls as well as improving the support of victims of domestic violence.

Weekly LPD Snapshot

Sampling of LPD activity for the week of February 23 to March 1, 2012

Traffic crashes 14, Alarms 21, Animal Calls 16, Medical Emergency Calls 27, Thefts 11, Traffic Stops 269

Polar Plunge Number Six...

This past Saturday, I was joined by 939 other people on a bright and sunny winter February afternoon in “plunging” in the icy waters of Crystal Lake to help raise money for Minnesota Special Olympics at the South Metro Polar Plunge. This is the sixth year in a row that I have jumped at the South Metro Polar Plunge and the event has grown in both participation and fund raising significantly in that time.

The first year of the South Metro Polar Plunge there were only 240 of us jumping in and we were able to raise about $46,000 in donations for Minnesota Special Olympics. The preliminary estimates for this year indicated that the 940 participants of the South Metro Polar Plunge raised over $200,000 for Minnesota Special Olympics. LPD Officer Andy Hentges is one of the organizers who has worked on this event every year.

Our Polar Plunge team, which included Dakota County Sheriff Dave Bellows and Dakota County Chief Deputy Tim Leslie, was bravely joined in the “plunge” this year by first time “plungers” Lakeville Mayor Mark Bellows and City Council Member Matt Little. Everyone had a great time raising money for a noble cause, but the water was very cold…

Dumb Criminal of the Week

Officer Mike Katzovitz responded to a retail store on a call from their loss prevention officers about an individual, whom they had detained for shoplifting. When Officer Katzovitz arrived, he found the woman was not only suspected of shoplifting, but also had an active felony warrant out for her arrest.

Officer Katzovitz confirmed the arrest warrant information and was advised by store security that the vehicle the shoplifting suspect arrived at the store in was still in the parking lot, occupied by a couple of people. Officer Shawn McMahon responded to the vehicle in the lot to investigate and identified the three people in the vehicle. Officer McMahon found that one of the vehicle occupants also had not one but two active felony arrest warrants out for her and one misdemeanor arrest warrant. Both women were jailed on the felony warrants and the shoplifting charges.