Lakeville Police Talk Dangers of Patrol Work

This past Wednesday was the first Wednesday of the month and at exactly 1 p.m., you probably heard the monthly test of the emergency outdoor warning system. In the past year in Lakeville, we completed an upgrade of our emergency outdoor warning sirens, including the replacement of a number of the sirens.

Sergeant John Kornmann, who serves as our Administrative Services Sergeant, oversaw the outdoor warning siren update project over the past year. Because of the large geographical area that Lakeville covers, we have the largest number of outdoor warning sirens of any city in Dakota County.

The outdoor warning sirens are designed to warn people who are outdoors of pending threatening weather that may be approaching the area. When you hear the sirens go off, you should seek shelter and tune a radio or TV to get updated local weather information on weather warnings issued by the National Weather Service.

As we are just entering the time of year when severe weather can occur, it is good to review with your family a severe weather plan. We all know that it is wise to keep an eye on weather conditions when you are outside, but it is a good idea to go over a severe weather plan with your family members.

Coming up this month, the week of April 16 - 20 is Severe Weather Awareness and Preparedness week for Minnesota. Here is a link with information on how you can improve your severe weather awareness and preparedness: https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/hsem/weather-awareness-
preparedness/Documents/SWAW%20INFO%20SHEET%202012.pdf

Weekly LPD Snapshot

Sampling of activity for the week of March 29 to April 4, 2012

Traffic crashes 7, Alarms 29, Animal Calls 17, Medical Emergency Calls 34 Thefts 19, Traffic Stops 260

Being in the Right Place at the Right Time

Often times on patrol, you are in exactly the right place at the right time as Officer Adam Stier was a few nights ago when he was on patrol. Officer Stier pulled into the parking lot of a restaurant late one night in his squad car just in time to see a man apparently attempting to attack a “For Lease” sign and then turn to a nearby cable TV box and attempt to damage it by kicking it. Officer Stier exited his squad and arrested the man for criminal damage to property.

Danger of Patrol Work

Not all dangers that officers on patrol might face during the course of a patrol shift necessarily would come from people, or for that matter even animals as evidenced by this recent note on a Patrol Division team’s nightly shift summary submitted by Sergeant Chad Hagen: “...The patrol team decided that we would see how many wood ticks we had on our uniforms before the shift was over. We were up to 12 by the end of the shift, not including those on our K-9 Shadow.”

Dumb Criminal of the Week

Officers Jai Hanson and Greg Jensen responded to a local business in which two individuals were confronting the staff of the business and refusing to leave. The business just wanted to have the individuals removed from the premises by the officers. When the officers arrived, they located the two subjects and identified them. A subsequent records check revealed that one of the two subjects had not one, but two active arrest warrants out for him. The officers arrested the subject on the warrants and he was not only removed from the business but also placed in Dakota County Jail.