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7: t <br />In regards to his complaints on the way the survey was run, I will respond to <br />them in order: <br />#1 - The use of a fully marked squad car: The Lake Elmo City Contract <br />with the Sheriff's Department includes one police car. Obviously the <br />most practical car to get is one fully loaded with equipment enabling <br />us to respond to emergencies in a safe and quick manner and allowing <br />us to stop vehicles, thus the red lights and markings on the squads are <br />essential. Officers driving unmarked squads I'm sure will tell you that <br />it is at times very difficult to get from point A to point B in an emergency <br />because their cars are not noticable enough, however, the markings on the <br />squads made no difference on checking and clocking speeds on County Road <br />17. Mr. Acree says that our survey was faulted by placing the vehicles <br />in a clear and obvious position on Lake Elmo Avenue that was clearly <br />visible to drivers from both directions at great distances. The place- <br />ment of those squad cars when running the radar didn't make a difference <br />as the range of the radar greatly exceeds the length of the section of <br />road on which the radar was used. This allows us to get the speed of the <br />vehicle as they rounded the corner long before the driver seen the squads, <br />therefore, the driver of the vehicle had no time to slow before his speed <br />was clocked. <br />#2 - The use of a one-way radar gun: The issue of this is correct, however, <br />this was done several times using two squads. One pointing north with a <br />radar and the other pointing south with a radar, thus radar was used at the <br />same time in both directions on several occasions. This is not possible all <br />the time as there are other problems to deal with requiring our attention. <br />#3 - As for Mr. Acree's statement that the radar only clocks the first car ! <br />when the cars behind the first car could have been speeders had they been <br />the first car in line, I feel that it is hard to respond or argue with that <br />kind of logic. <br />It is true that there are more important problems than running radar and if an <br />alarm goes off (for one example) we will respond to the alarm. I can only imagine <br />Mr. Acree's response if I told him I was sorry his house was burglarized because <br />when his alarm went off I was running radar and I couldn't leave before another <br />squad took my place. <br />I do not think the mechanics of our speed survey were poor by any means. All <br />Officers involved in this survey gave it a good an effort as possible using the <br />best radars available. Mr. Acree is commenting on something he knows nothing <br />about and I think at times he has been misinformed. Mr. Acree has also made <br />several comments as to the amount of service given the City of Lake Elmo by <br />the Sheriff's Office, specifically the Contract Officers. It appears that <br />Mr. Acree thinks there are no problems in Lake Elmo requiring our services <br />other than speeders on County Road 17. I would like Mr. Acree to know the number <br />of calls handled in Lake Elmo by the Sheriff's Department, not only by the Contract <br />Officers but by the Sheriff's Department. I believe this will be addressed to the <br />Council by the City Administrator. <br />- 2 <br />