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Crime & Safety

Lakeville Police Reserve Officer Academy Graduates Eight

The LPD Police Reserve Officer Academy teaches the new Police Reserve Officers the basic skills and knowledge that they need to perform their duties.

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 Officers the basic skills and knowledge that they need to perform their duties. The Academy was coordinated by the Police Reserve Liaison Officer Mike Katzovitz and is taught by a number of our police officers and detectives. Officers Tom Danielson, Jai Hanson, Troy Hokanson, Kevin O’Neill, and Detective Brad Paulson taught a wide variety of topics ranging from patrol operations andprocedurestocriminalinvestigations. The Police Reserve Officers are volunteers that come from all walks of life in our community to donate their time and talents to our citizens.

This week is national Volunteer Week and it was particularly fitting that we recognized our newest volunteers in the LPD Reserve Officer Academy graduation. ThenewPoliceReserve Officers are Alyssa Anderson, Dan Bloomquist, Matt Bromelkamp, Matt Hedrick, Molly Gleason, Natalie Anderson, Rachael Seelig, and Aaron Swenson. Our Police Reserve Unit donates about 4,000 hours of service each year to our Department. Our Police Department literally could not deliver the high level of public safety services that we do without their assistance throughout the year.

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MORE SNOW ... REALLY!

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April of 2013 has turned out to be one of the snowiest Aprils on record and that has continued to create challenging winter driving conditions for our residents long after the calendar has declared that spring is here. We have had three major snowfall events in April and each one has left plowable snow on the roadways.

Last Thursday night the snow and sleet falling formed slush on the roadways that made travel very difficult and by Friday morning there was another five or six inches of wet, heavy snow on the ground. Fortunately, our Lakeville Public Works Department crews did a great job plowing away the snow and treating the streets to melt away icy areas by the morning.

During the night on Thursday, officers had to switch over to our four wheel drive vehicles to respond to calls. There were not very many traffic related issues on Thursday night because many motorists wisely chose to stay off the roadways until they were plowed by the next morning.

That would have been unusual enough, but we had a second snow event on Monday afternoon this week that impacted our evening rush hour traffic. Captain Tim Knutson was filling in as a Patrol Team supervisor on Monday night and reported 12 traffic related incidents with vehicles sliding off the roads and a few minor crashes. There is warmer weather in the forecast and it is apparent that everyone is ready for winter to end.

WEEKLY LPD SNAPSHOT

Sampling of LPD activity for the week of April 18 to April 25, 2013

Traffic crashes: 13; Alarms: 24; Animal Calls: 25; Medical Emergency Calls: 24; Thefts: 8; Traffic Stops: 149.

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