08-05-13 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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4 expected to respond to every call for service and make contact with complainants and victims. The geography of Lino Lakes does not always allow for the timely response of an officer to low level crimes, so some reports are handled by phone. It is up to the officer to determine the appropriate method of response. Officer’s annual performance evaluations contain a citizen feedback portion. Lino Lakes Patrol Office rs are expected to investigate a case as far as possib le before passing the case off to investigations if it is necessary . This practice follows the recommendations made in the seminal study by the Rand Corporation, The C riminal Investigative Process (1975). The study suggests that much of an Investigator ’s t ime is spent on case preparation in addition to investigations and that cities will benefit from patrol officers having an expanded role in the investigative process. Lino Lakes p atrol officers are trained in evidence collection, interviewing, and case pr eparation. In some insistences, patrol officers are able to take a case all the way from the initial call to preparing the felony case file. For example, ICR 13 -010769, a burglary, patrol officers contributed another 25 hours of investigation time after t he initial report. In 2012 , patrol officers conducted 439 investigations, submitted 9 felony case files for charging , and wrote and executed 5 search warrants. Geography and Population The C ity of Lino Lakes is 33 square miles with a large county park dissecting the city into two distinct patrol areas. The Rice Creek Chain of Lakes Park is a 5,500 acre park that extends from the south to north borders of the city. The park provides a unique challenge when traveling to and from the east and west side o f the city . There are only three ways in Lino Lakes for vehicle traffic to cross the park to the other side of the city, Main Street, Birch Street, and Ash Street. The scarcity of routes provides for increased traff ic and slower response times. According to Google maps, i n normal traffic it takes from 13 minutes to 18 minutes to go across the city. Another factor to consider is the time it takes for officers to do a transport to jail. The Anoka County Jail is located 20 miles away in Anoka City. Round trip travel time is 40 minutes not including the wait at jail and booking process. A conservative estimate for a tip to jail is 1 hour. Lino Lakes is bordered on two sides by agencies from other counties. This is an important factor as it relates to o fficer safety. Because other counties do not monitor our radio system, they cannot directly monitor a call for assistance from a LLPD officer on the east or south side s of the city. Should an officer need assistance, the request would have to be relayed from Anoka County Dispatch to Ramsey or Washington County dispatch, and the n to the officer on the street, which results in a slower response time. This is a significant officer safety consideration that must be considered when making patrol staffing deci sions. To assess e mergency response times, the average response times from medicals were chosen at random in 4 grids in different parts of the city. Grid area 7 is the Behm Century Farm neighborhood on the west side of the city, grid area 31 is the Baldwi n Lake area located on the south side of the city, grid 25 is the Highland M eadows area on the east side and grid 36 is the West Oaks area.