[Last week] was a very special week for all police officers in our country. This [was] the week that we remember those Law Enforcement officers who have given their life in the line of duty. In 1962 President John F. Kennedy signed a proclamation that designated May 15 as Peace Officers Memorial Day and the week in which that date falls as National Police Week. On this past Wednesday, May 15, all of our officers wore black mourning bands over their badges in memory of all the police officers who have made the ultimate sacrifice in protecting the citizens that they serve. In past years, we …

Many motorists driving around Lakeville this summer will think the saying that in Minnesota we have only two seasons: winter and road construction, could not be more accurate. We have just finished (hopefully) with a spring of record breaking snowfalls and now, almost right after the snowplows are finishing clearing the streets of snow, there are a number of State of Minnesota, Dakota County, and City of Lakeville roadway repair and improvement projects going on across the city that will last until the end of this year. The first project is the bridge and roadway work on Interstate 35E in …

The 2013 Police Reserve Officer Academy graduation was held Tuesday night to recognize our eight new Police Reserve Officers’ successful completion of the academy. Mayor Matt Little spoke at the ceremony, thanking the new recruits for their demonstration of service to our community in volunteering to be Police Reserve Officers. The ceremony culminated with the Police Reserve Officers being presented with their badges by Reserve Captain Heidi Krane. Family and friends of the new officers attended the ceremony as well. The LPD Police Reserve Officer Academy teaches the new Police Reserve …

Officer Ron Hvinden responded to a report of a car fire in a parking lot of a local retail store one morning this week. When Officer Hvinden arrived on the scene, he found the engine compartment of a parked 2005 Jeep fully engulfed in flames. The driver told Officer Hvinden that the vehicle’s engine was acting up when he pulled into the parking lot and that then the fire started in the engine compartment. Lakeville Fire Department units arrived on the scene and quickly extinguished the blaze. No one was injured but the vehicle was a total loss.  LICENSE PLATE LEFT AT SCENE OF HIT AND RUN …

Law enforcement can be very dangerous work. Every year thousands of officers are feloniously assaulted and injured in the line of duty or, even more tragically, killed. What many people in the public do not realize is the number of officers that are killed or injured when they are struck by passing vehicles, while out on our roadways enforcing traffic laws. It is estimated that over 150 officers have been killed across our country since 1999 while on the roadway and struck by passing vehicles.  Since 2006, Minnesota has had a “move over” law that requires motorists to move one lane over when …

Officer Nic Stevens was training Officer Sarah Brockman on her first day in Field Training as a police officer one morning this week when they responded to a property damage crash. During the course of investigation of the crash, the officers discovered that the passenger in one of the vehicles had active arrest warrants for narcotics. The officers arrested the subject and also found suspected narcotics. The officers transported the subject to Dakota County Jail on the warrants and the pending narcotics possession charges.  RABIES CLINIC Last Saturday, we hosted our annual City of Lakeville …

The past few weeks of February, it has seemed to snow almost every day. While we have not had any huge snowstorms yet, a couple of inches of snow can make the commute difficult for motorists and a very busy day for the patrol officers working. That was the case last Friday morning when Sergeant John Kornmann’s patrol team was on duty and the strong wind created near blizzard conditions. Sergeant Kornmann’s daily shift notes indicated: “Officers worked nine crashes or assists to the State Patrol on I-35 before noon. I-35 was a mess from 0730 until about 1100 a. m. One person was injured after …

Officer Shawn Fitzhenry responded to a report of a single vehicle crash with the vehicle on fire on the side of the roadway. When Officer Fitzhenry arrived on the scene, he discovered that the driver, who was uninjured, had safely exited the car after the crash. Lakeville Fire Department units arrived on the scene and extinguished the fire without incident. The driver told Officer Fitzhenry that he had possibly dozed off and drove off the roadway, striking a line of trees. The car was a total loss. The officers at the traffic crash scene felt the driver was very lucky not to have been …

Officers Shawn Fitzhenry and Jim Dronen responded to a personal injury crash one night last week at an intersection on Cedar Avenue. The officers discovered that a pickup truck had been stopped at the intersection and was waiting at a red light when a van rear ended the stopped pickup and then flipped over and came to rest in an upright position. The officers found that all three occupants of the two vehicles had suffered non-life threatening injuries and they were transported to the hospital by ambulance. The initial investigation indicated that the driver at fault in the van also showed …

Officers on patrol respond to intrusion (burglar) alarms all the time. It is not uncommon for an officer to respond to an intrusion alarm almost every shift. The vast majority of the time when there is a call of an intrusion alarm, it is actually a false alarm. The sensors on the alarms are very sensitive and if not properly set, can be activated by a wide variety of causes including the wind, heat vents or even lights.  Many businesses and residences in our community have intrusion alarms and even though there can be false alarms, the vast majority of officers encourage their use for a …

This past week we had a couple of times when the weather warmed up just enough for it to rain and then overnight the temperature would dip below freezing and every sidewalk and parking lot and many of our side streets turned into virtual skating rinks due to the thin ice covering. Within a few hours, the surface warmed up to turn the thin coating of ice to water, but in the interim we did have a few minor traffic crashes from vehicles sliding into each other and things (like mailboxes) along the side of the roadway.  What most people don’t realize (and this seems counterintuitive) is that …

Police work for an officer working on patrol often involves being outside in the elements for extended periods of time. In Minnesota, that can mean being exposed to a wide range of weather conditions ranging from the hot and humid temperatures of the summer to huge snowstorms and artic-like temperatures in the winter. This past week, we have experienced some of the coldest temperatures in the past four years in Lakeville, with several days of below zero temperatures and wind chill temperatures in the -20 to -40 degree range.  The risk of suffering cold injuries such as frost bite can occur in…

So far this winter, we have had a few significant snowfall events that have required the snowplows to come out, but what many drivers do not realize is how the roads can become slippery from just a dusting of snow. Many times during the winter driving season, there will not be enough snow on the roadway for plowing, but the roadway surface is still slippery and the road crews will come out just to add deicing chemicals to the road surfaces.  Officer Jason Haider responded to a single vehicle crash one morning last week in which an SUV slid off the slippery roadway, struck a tree and landed in…

Officer Brad Wubben responded to a property damage crash one night this week involving two vehicles at an intersection. Upon arriving, he found that one vehicle had been stopped at the light and was rear ended by a vehicle coming up from behind. The driver of the vehicle said that he slid on the roadway, but Officer Wubben could find no evidence of ice or packed snow on the roadway. Officer Wubben issued the driver a citation for failure to use due care.  BUSY NEW YEAR'S EVE Most years, New Year’s Eve night has actually been quieter than a normal Friday or Saturday night for our officers in …

We frequently ask our residents to call and report suspicious activity in their neighborhoods because residents are often the best judge of what is suspicious activity in their own neighborhood. Lakeville residents are very good at watching out for their neighbors and calling when they see suspicious activity. In 2011 alone, our officers responded to over 1,800 reports of suspicious activity.  Sometimes, officers are very close by when the call comes out and, as a result of someone calling in suspicious activity, we are able to apprehend the offender right as the crime is occurring. That is …

Every year for the past several years during the Christmas holiday season, the Lakeville Police Department has participated in the Toys for Tots program. Officer Greg Jensen has taken the lead on organizing the Lakeville Toys for Tots effort since we started our involvement. Greg has been responsible for setting up the collection boxes at various City buildings and collecting the donated toys and getting them delivered with our squads to KARE 11, so the Marines can distribute them to needy children.  This year, collection boxes for Toys for Tots were set up in the lobby of our Police Station…

Every winter when we have the first real weather event involving snow and ice, we expect to have a number of crashes until drivers slow down and adjust their driving speeds to the icy and snow-covered roadways. Last Friday evening, just about the time that the afternoon rush hour traffic was starting to pick up, our first significant snow event of the season hit with a couple of wet, slushy inches of snow.  The patrol officers working were almost immediately overwhelmed by the number of minor car crashes and vehicle spin outs all across town. Sergeant Jason Polinski reported there were 14 …

Officer Sandy Thoeny is very good at locating and arresting individuals who have active arrest warrants out for them. Officer Thoeny will frequently make multiple warrant arrests during her shift and every day will check to see if there are people in Lakeville with active arrest warrants. Most arrest warrants are issued by the courts when individuals do not appear in court as required or do not respond to criminal summons or criminal complaints. Most times the individuals with warrants are taken into custody without incident, but officers always have to use due caution when making these …

Patrol officers can never become complacent when stopping vehicles for traffic violations because many times when officers make traffic stops for even routine or minor traffic violations, something unexpected will occur.  That is exactly what happened late one night recently when Officer Jessica Swaner stopped a large SUV in a quiet residential neighborhood for a traffic violation. As soon as the vehicle rolled to a stop, the driver and the passenger bailed out of the truck and ran away in different directions. Officer Swaner alerted dispatch of the fleeing vehicle occupants and assisting …

Over the past several years Crime Scene Investigations police television shows have popularized the application of the forensic sciences in the collecting, processing, and analyzing of evidence in criminal investigations. The forensic sciences play an important role in criminal investigations today, but in real life criminal investigations the evidence is not always able to be identified and collected in cases and we almost never have the crime solved in an hour as it happens on television.  Today, we do focus a much greater degree of our time on identifying and collecting all the evidence at…