Lester Prairie Police Department
By Robert Carlson
Lester Prairie Police Chief
The Lester Prairie Police Department is a proactive police department involved in community-oriented policing services. The department has three full-time police officers and three active part-time police officers.
The full-time police officers donated 20 hours ($360.13) above their normal 2,080 hours worked. They also donated 1504.5 hours of emergency on-call time in 2010. Part-time officers worked an average of seven shifts per month. Part-time officers are needed to fill in for vacation, training, special summer shifts, and sick time. The part-time officers have also been used for special activities (i.e. Prairie Days, Freedom Fest, and the bicycle rodeo) and emergencies (i.e. barricaded subjects and suicides).
As the chief of police, I am responsible for the administration of the department. I work a regular patrol shift during the day, teach Drug Abuse Resistance Education (fifth and eighth grade) during the school year, serve as the school liaison officer, and work with the city council and city department heads to make the city work efficiently and effectively. I represent the city of Lester Prairie in the following organizations and associations: president of the McLeod County Chiefs of Police Association, Lester Prairie Community Youth Task Force, and the Crisis and Student Assessment Teams (LP School).
I am proud to say we have worked on and received several grants this year that have helped keep equipment and other costs down.
If I am not at the school during the school year I attempt to have office hours from 9 a.m. to noon, which continues to provide more visibility and availability to the public to meet with us face-to-face.
The City of Lester Prairie has a new city website available for your viewing at: www.lesterprairiemn.us. You are now able to see, review, and fill out information from the convenience of your home. We have our house watch form on the website, and we will give your home special attention when you are on vacation if we are notified. We have also put our “Most Wanted” on the website and hope it can be a useful tool for you to help us apprehend those with warrants for their arrest. An anonymous way to report crime is available by clicking on the CrimeStoppers of Minnesota link. We prefer to receive our complaints and concerns by phone, however e-mail is available when you feel it is necessary at: chief@lesterprairiemn.us.
Officer Mark Thiry is the senior police officer of the department, and has been a valuable employee of the city for more than 10 years.
Thiry is in charge of the Safe and Sober Challenge program and is our firearms and TASER instructor. Under Thiry’s direction, the Lester Prairie Police Department received the second-place award for the 2009 Minnesota Safe and Sober Challenge. We received a $2,000 grant for second place, and used the money for hours of traffic enforcement above and beyond our normally scheduled shifts. We previously won the first-place award in 2005 and 2006, and second place in 2007 and 2008.
Officer Preston Voigt is our newest police officer and has been with us since July of 2009. He is in charge of the crime prevention detail and is the fire department liaison. Voigt did a fantastic job with our National Night Out activities this past year, and the highlights can be seen on the city website. Voigt works a regular night patrol shift.
Highlights from 2010
On Aug. 11, 2010, Arthur Paul LaFountaine II attempted to break into a residence. He was located and arrested. He was charged and convicted of attempted burglary in the second degree (felony).
On Aug. 11, 2010, while investigating the above crime, officers located 51.5 grams of marijuana on the person of Jason James Richardson. Richardson was arrested, charged and conviction of controlled substance crime in the fifth degree (felony).
On Sept. 16, 2010, Bruce Byron Lutgen III and Colton Lee Sikorski were arrested, charged, and convicted for selling 112.5 grams of marijuana (felony amount) to undercover law enforcement officers.
The number of violent and victim crimes is down from previous years. We responded to four domestic disturbances in 2010, six in 2009, 10 in 2008, 23 in 2007 and 20 in 2006. We also had seven assault investigations in 2010, 11 in 2009, 10 in 2008, 15 in 2007 and nine in 2006. The number of narcotic cases was up from previous years, and marijuana seems to be the popular illegal drug used in 2010. We arrested several individuals for marijuana possession, and have supplied intelligence information to the Southwest Metro Drug Task Force and the Drug Enforcement Administration about narcotic activity in Lester Prairie, which led to arrests and search warrants in neighboring towns.
We are very proud of our proactive policing efforts, as we presented programs to the community that were designed to protect our citizens from crime and educate them in the activities of the police department.
We have continued with our proactive police activities to include fifth grade and junior high DARE, bicycle safety, use of 911 and “stranger danger” and Cub Scout presentations. This will also be our 10th year of participating in the “cards for kids program.” The Minnesota Crime Prevention Association distributes Minnesota sports cards to member law enforcement agencies that have crime prevention tips on the back of the card. We use these cards as a positive contact with children in our community. We also gave out Dairy Queen “Free Ice Cream Cone” certificates to the children who were wearing their bicycle helmets and driving safely.
One of our biggest challenges this year is the direct result of the economy and state local government aid cuts and losses. We continue to tighten our belts and figure out ways to provide programs to the public while reducing the costs. Since I am a taxpayer of the community, I don’t want to see an increase in taxes to make up for the loss of local government aid. We will be careful with our spending and still be able to provide police services at the current level.
As the result of unemployment, wage freezes, and financial issues, the use of alcohol, drugs and mental health issues continue to be a problem. We investigated 19 mental health or detoxification (serious overage of alcohol consumption) holds this past year, 14 in 2009, 12 in 2008, and 13 in 2007. The number of mental health and detoxification holds has increased over the last three years. I believe this number is too high and we will continue to work with the faith community, Lester Prairie Public School, McLeod County Social Services, McLeod County Public Health, and the established coalitions, the Lester Prairie Community Task Force, and the McLeod County Methamphetamine Education and Drug Awareness (MEADA) Coalition. MEADA was developed to educate youth, families, and citizens on the dangers of drugs with a focus on methamphetamine. The MEADA Coalition of McLeod County brings together families, neighbors, school personnel, law enforcement, county agencies, faith communities, and municipalities to help develop a county mindset of zero tolerance for chemical use, with a special focus on methamphetamine.
As a member of the Lester Prairie Community Youth Task Force, we have been working with McLeod County Public Health on a $1 million grant to hire an individual and develop programs and initiatives to focus on underage drug and alcohol use and how to deal with the issues related to drug and alcohol use and abuse.
The second-largest problem we have been dealing with is the look and appearance of our community. We had 40 blight and junk investigations this past year. There were 19 investigations in 2009, 44 in 2008, 38 in 2007, 34 in 2006 and 44 in 2005. I expect that the number will remain high because of foreclosures and properties left for foreclosure. The properties were left in disarray, since the previous owners were being evicted, and they didn’t care about the condition of the properties.
We received many complaints about how some residents have junk automobiles, piles of garbage, and “unkept” properties. We have sent notices to these individuals and have also sent several through the court system, where a judge ordered them to clean up their property. The problem still exists today and biannual inspections will need to continue.
The third-largest problem is animal complaints. This would include habitual barking dogs, dogs at large, and now stray or abandoned cats. The Lester Prairie Police Department impounded 15 dogs and a handfull of cats in 2010, eight of both in 2009, 22 of both in 2008, and 13 of both in 2007. We have issued citations for continual animal problems. We never issue a citation on the first violation, but, after several complaints, we have no choice.
The number of animal problem complaints went from 64 in 2006, 48 in 2007, 45 in 2008, 58 in 2009 and 47 in 2010. There is no real remedy to this problem, and it was comforting to see a decline over the last couple of years.
In 2010, the police department had a significant decrease in the number of felony thefts (one), gross misdemeanor thefts (none), and misdemeanor thefts (10). The thefts include taking of property or cash, Internet theft, and issuance of dishonored checks (“bad checks”). I usually make it a habit to check the suspects of these thefts to find out if they are on probation, and almost 75 percent are repeat offenders.
The number of total arrests (taken to detention or jail) was 59 in 2007, 58 in 2008, 24 in 2009, and 25 in 2010. There were 10 people arrested for warrants in 2010, 12 in 2009, 18 in 2008, and 17 in 2007. We had 18 arrests for DUI or underage drinking and driving for 2006, 2007, and 2008. In 2009, we had only seven arrests for DUI or underage drinking and driving. In 2010, we had only five arrests for DUI or underage drinking and driving. We believe the numbers have decreased because of our proactive efforts to reduce drinking and driving.
We issued a total of 252 citations, which averaged to less than one citation a day. There were 625 verbal warnings for traffic or other violations of law or ordinances.
I am very proud of the work we have done, and love the community and city council I work for. If I have ever needed anything to protect our community, the city has never turned me down.
If you have any questions, concerns, or comments, please contact me at the number listed above or e-mail me at: chief@lesterprairie.mn.us.
