Friday, Jan. 06 2012 9:45AM
Police expand patrol presence
By Rob Roberts, rroberts@lsjournal.com
Print
E-Mail
AIM
ReprintThe Lee’s Summit Police Department just got more visible.
Starting this month, the department has shifted from nine to 10 patrol districts, completing a long-term plan shepherded by Chief of Police Joe Piccinini.
The three-year-plan, which became a four-year plan because of the economy, called for the department’s staffing to increase, by increments of seven officers a year, to 143 from 122 when Piccinini was named chief four years ago. That has allowed the number of districts to be increased from seven to 10 during that span.
“With seven patrol districts,” Chief Piccinini said, “the average district was about 10 square miles. That’s roughly the size of the city of Raytown. It’s hard for one officer to patrol a geographic area that large.” The shift to 10 districts has reduced the size of the average district to about 6.5 square miles, which is expected to produce several payoffs.
For starters, Piccinini said, having more patrol officers on the streets should help prevent crime through the mere visibility of the officers.
“But another goal I had when I became chief was to implement the community policing philosophy of crime prevention and policing in general,” Piccinini said, and the increased number of patrol officers should help with that, as well. Having more patrol officers on duty allows each to do a better job of getting to know the residents, business owners and problem areas in their districts – a practice that serves as the basis for community policing. It also will mean fewer calls per shift for each officer, meaning the officers can spend more time per call. And according to the chief, that’s especially important given the fact that Lee’s Summit patrol officers are called upon to solve help solve a wide variety of problems.
In addition to dealing with crime-related issues, Piccinini explained, his patrol officers help residents with everything from codes-enforcement to mental-health issues by acting as liaisons between them and the appropriate officials and agencies.
Allowing officers to spend more time on each call, rather than “chasing their tails going from call to call to call,” allows them to work through and resolve more problems. And that minimizes return calls during subsequent shifts, Piccinini said. The transition to 10 patrol districts was expected to be completed a year earlier. But during 2010, the hiring of the final seven officers was put on hold because of the lingering economic downturn. But in July 2011, the hiring was authorized, allowing the transition from nine to 10 patrol districts to be made this month.
According to Piccinini, the new positions have not all been filled yet, meaning that patrol staffing currently remains at nine officers during some night shifts. But when the new officers are in place, there consistently will be 10 officers making rounds in patrol cars and, when circumstances dictate, on foot or bicycle. And those won’t be the only officers on the streets.
In addition to patrol officers, the chief said, there are always one or two traffic officers on duty. Also, the department continuously monitors crime hot spots in the city and assigns additional officers to those areas – sometimes on foot or bikes and sometimes in unmarked cars and civilian clothes.
In cases such as the recent rashes of residential burglaries in the city, Piccinini said the goal of the hot-spot patrols is to “catch ’em, prevent ’em or simply move them out of town.”
