Last Wednesday was Law Enforcement Memorial Day in Minnesota, a day to pay tribute to peace officers who lost their lives or were injured in the line of duty. This year the families of two Minnesotans, Tom Decker, who was killed in the line of duty on November 29, 2012, and Josh Lynaugh, who died in the line of duty on February 16, 2013, dedicated the names of their loved ones on the National Law Enforcement Memorial in Washington D.C.
Eden Prairie officers participated in the tradition of standing guard at the Minnesota Law Enforcement Memorial on the state capitol grounds. The officers stood for twenty minutes, then after the guard duty change, the officers left their posts, rang the memorial bell and stated the name of a Minnesota officer who was killed in the line of duty. This ritual continued every twenty minutes with officers from departments across the state during the 24-hour vigil.
In honor of those who died as heroes in the line of duty, flags at all City facilities were lowered to half staff on Wednesday and EPPD officers wore mourning bands over their badges, from sunrise until sunset that day.
At the end of April more than 600 Explorers from around the state attended the Minnesota Law Enforcement Explorer Association’s state conference in Rochester. The Edina/Eden Prairie Post came home with four team trophies:
2nd Place award for Crime Scene Investigation
2nd Place award for First Aid
4th Place award for Use of Force
4th Place award for White Collar Crime
Police Explorers are a group of men and women age 14 to 21 who are interested in learning more about the law enforcement field through hands-on experience.
On April 29, Street Division Lead Worker John Hobbs was on street sweeping duty near Eden Prairie Center when he witnessed a vehicle fail to yield, strike another vehicle and leave the scene. John reacted with lightning speed and followed the suspect vehicle while notifying Dispatch.
The driver subsequently pulled into a parking lot about three-quarters of a mile from the crash scene. John remained with the driver until an officer arrived to investigate. The driver was found to be under the influence of alcohol and was charged with both misdemeanor and gross misdemeanor charges. The victim relayed how appreciative he was of the quick response and apprehension of the driver.
Thanks John for helping to keep our streets clean and safe!
At their annual conference last week, the Minnesota Professional Law Enforcement Assistants Association (PLEAA) awarded EPPD Records Supervisor Sandy Mitchell a PLEAA Excellence in Service Award. Sandy was nominated for the award by EPPD Chief Rob Reynolds. Here is an excerpt from her nomination:
Sandy has worked for the Eden Prairie Police Department since 1984 and during her tenure has proved to be an invaluable member of our department who excels at customer service.
During the past three years Sandy has worked tirelessly to ensure our department’s smooth transition from our old records system to a new records system. This new technology resulted in a complete change in the way her unit operated. She lead the Records Unit in preparing for the conversion of all historical data, researching and implementing solutions that were compatible with the new system and the needs of our business practice, and then spent many additional hours training her staff on how to use the new technology. All this was done in addition to her normal duties.
Sandy greeted these new responsibilities with the same upbeat attitude and work ethic she typically displays. She takes great pride in her work and demonstrates it by putting in an average of 50 hours a week. Sandy has been able to successfully motivate her staff and other city employees to embrace these new developments. Sandy has demonstrated a unique ability to understand future technology and implement it into the current workflow.
This is just one example of the great work Sandy does in our department. Sandy is well respected in the Police Department and in other city departments for her strong work ethic and her commitment to excellence. No matter how busy she is, Sandy is known to always greet her internal and external customers with a smile and can-do attitude.
Police Chief Rob Reynolds, Richard Lane III, Patrol Lt. Jim Morrow
At last night’s City Council meeting, a civilian named Richard Lane III received the EPPD Commendation Award for helping an Eden Prairie police officer during a difficult traffic stop. Lane is a sergeant in the Minnesota National Guard and was driving through Eden Prairie to run an errand when he came across an officer fighting with a driver on Mitchell Road.
Following is the text of the award which explains how Mr. Lane assisted the officer:
“On January 30, 2013, an Eden Prairie officer pulled a driver over at Highway 5 and Mitchell Road for a revoked license. The officer placed the driver in the back of his squad car while waiting for a tow truck as it was cold outside. Once inside the squad car, the driver put his hands in his pockets and refused commands to make them visible. The officer was concerned that the driver might have a weapon in his pocket and reached for the man’s hands. A tussle between the driver and the officer then ensued, spilling outside of the squad car.
During the scuffle, the driver bit the officer’s wrist. The two men were then on the ground fighting in the middle of the Mitchell Road exit ramp as vehicles drove by them. The officer was able to call for help on his lapel microphone as they struggled.
At this point a passerby, Richard Lane III, stopped his vehicle in front of the officer’s, approached the officer and asked him if he needed any assistance. The officer answered that he did and had Mr. Lane hold the driver down while the officer handcuffed the driver. Other officers then began arriving to assist.
Mr. Lane’s role in this dangerous arrest was invaluable. While other drivers drove past, Mr. Lane had the courage and presence to stop and offer assistance. Mr. Lane was able to lend his strength in order to help subdue the driver, thereby ensuring the safety of the officer.
For his willingness to put himself in danger and for his quick actions in coming to the assistance of an officer in need, I hereby award this Commendation to Richard Lane III on behalf of a grateful Eden Prairie Police Department.”
The Commendation Award is awarded by the Police Chief to department personnel or citizens for excellent or unusual accomplishments or actions as acknowledged by other officers, their supervisors, or concerned citizens.
Here is a video of the award presentation…
Note: While the investigation into missing Eden Prairie resident Mandy Matula continues, the EPPD would like to continue bringing our blog readers information on other events taking place in and around the Police Department. For the latest information on the Mandy Matula investigation visitedenprairie.org/missingperson.
At noon this Sunday, May 5 the Eden Prairie Crime Prevention Fund is hosting a fundraiser at Biaggi’s restaurant in Eden Prairie Center. Tickets are available at the door and cost $20.00 per person or $45 per family, which covers your choice of rigatoni bolognese, pasta with alfredo sauce, risotto with grilled chicken and vegetables, house salad, bread and dessert. Coffee, water, iced tea and soda is free; all other drinks will be charged. All proceeds are tax deductible and funds are only used in Eden Prairie to build a safe and strong community.
The Crime Prevention Fund was founded in 1978 when a group of concerned residents and members of the business community came together to assist the Eden Prairie Police Department with crime prevention through funding for educational programs, community gatherings, reward funds and more. Some of the programs the Crime Fund helps sponsor are Eden Prairie Night to Unite, Citizens Academy, Police Explorers and CounterAct.
To learn more about the Crime Prevention Fund or to make a contribution contact the Police Department at 952-949-6200.
With the retirement of Sgt. Maggie Munro earlier this week, the EPPD conducted a promotional process and appointed Lonnie Soppeland to the sergeant vacancy effective April 23, 2013. Sgt. Soppeland has worked for the EPPD since 2005 and during that time has served as a Patrol Officer, Emergency Response Unit team member, Field Training Officer and Reserve Coordinator.
Prior to working at Eden Prairie, Sgt. Soppeland spent 12 years in the retail security management industry and two years as a Deputy Sheriff for the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office. Sgt. Soppeland also spent twenty years in the Army National Guard where he retired with the rank of Sergeant First Class in 2011.
Sgt. Soppeland will spend six weeks in field training with other sergeants before heading out on his own in early June.
Today Sgt. Maggie Munro is retiring from the EPPD after 25 years of service. During her tenure here, Sgt. Munro has served as a Patrol Officer, Field Training Officer, Reserve Coordinator, Use of Force Instructor, Crime Tech Unit member, Training Sergeant and Patrol Sergeant, most recently supervising the canine unit.
Sgt. Munro is known throughout the department for her calm demeanor, problem-solving abilities and excellent writing skills. Throughout the years Sgt. Munro has received numerous letters from citizens thanking her for the helpful and professional manner in which she helped them through a difficult situation. As one letter writer noted, Sgt. Munro “…made a very unpleasant situation a bit easier with extra leg work and concern for my well-being”.
In the fall of 2012 Sgt. Munro received a Commendation Award along with three other EPPD staff members for their work in coordinating last June’s Region 18 Canine Trials which were held in Eden Prairie. Sgt. Munro provided the overall supervision for the event which included coordinating and organizing meetings, organizing equipment and overseeing all of the tasks involved in running such a major event. She also helped with many of the hands-on tasks including building equipment.
On behalf of the staff and citizens of the City of Eden Prairie we thank you for your twenty-five years of dedicated service to our community and wish you the best in retirement.
On Tuesday, Officer Orrin Alt celebrated 34 years with the Eden Prairie Police Department. The blog post on Tuesday featured the first of a two-part interview with Officer Alt. Here is the rest of the interview.
Q: What is the most memorable call or investigation you’ve been on?
A: Here are two that come to mind.
The first one occurred while I was off-duty and came upon a head-on collision. An infant had been ejected from one of the vehicles and was being held incorrectly by a dazed passenger. She was obstructing the airway in the manner she held him so I corrected her grip to allow the child to breathe easily. I went to the driver of this vehicle and kept him from angrily ‘going after’ the other driver who had caused the crash. The other vehicle involved was burning under the hood so I pulled the door open which others arriving on the scene had been unable to do. I dragged a man out of the truck and off the roadway down into a grassy ditch which shielded him from the searing heat of the now fully engulfed vehicle. I removed the man’s shoes which had caught fire when his feet went through the floorboards. Local police and ambulances took over the scene upon arrival a few minutes later.
The second situation involved my role in possibly averting the murder of a person in another state. This was a potential crime of passion in which a man learned of his wife’s affair with another man. The suspect had access to firearms and had left Minnesota to confront the other man. I called the targeted man and was able to convince him of the legitimacy of this threat. He then took his family and fled for their cabin in the mountains. I quickly obtained photos of the suspect and faxed them to other law enforcement agencies. Ultimately Amtrak Security, in conjunction with Chicago Police, located the man on the train carrying two firearms.
Officer Orrin Alt (second from right) with EPPD staff at last fall’s Open House
Q: Do you have a favorite quote?
A: I’ll go to my Dad on this one: “Go to work each day anticipating what challenges may present themselves, knowing you can overcome them.”
Q: What keeps you motivated?
A: Genuinely enjoying what I am doing while being associated with a well-run organization and doing so with fine co-workers.
Q: When you decide to retire, how will you spend your days?
A: If I ever do retire, my retirement will be spent at the horse farm which is sometimes used as a training facility for the Carver County Sheriff’s Posse. Along with that, I intend to get my 1959 Jaguar sedan running again which hasn’t been driven since 1982, tackle a buckthorn invasion on our woodlot, drag out the stained glass gear and try my hand at picture framing.
Tomorrow the EPPD, along with neighboring law enforcement agencies, will be focusing on enforcing distracted driving related statutes including the following:
Inattentive Driving: 169.14, Subdivision 1. Duty to drive with due care.
No person shall drive a vehicle on a highway at a speed greater than is reasonable and prudent under the conditions. Every driver is responsible for becoming and remaining aware of the actual and potential hazards then existing on the highway and must use due care in operating a vehicle. In every event speed shall be so restricted as may be necessary to avoid colliding with any person, vehicle or other conveyance on or entering the highway in compliance with legal requirements and the duty of all persons to use due care.
Texting While Driving: 169.475, Subd. 2. Prohibition on use
No person may operate a motor vehicle while using a wireless communications device to compose, read, or send an electronic message, when the vehicle is in motion or a part of traffic.
This includes while your vehicle is stopped in traffic or at a stoplight. Cell phone use is completely banned for drivers under age 18.
Each year in Minnesota, distracted or inattentive driving is a factor in one in four crashes, resulting in at least 70 deaths and 350 serious injuries. While many motorists may perceive driving as a routine activity, attentive driving is critical as the traffic environment changes constantly and drivers must be prepared to react.
Orrin Alt (left) in 1976 serving in the Carver County Sheriff’s Mounted Posse
On April 16, 1979 Orrin Alt began working for the EPPD as a patrol officer. Today marks Officer Alt’s 34th anniversary at the EPPD. During his tenure here, Officer Alt has worked as a patrol officer and investigator. Officer Alt has been working in the Traffic Unit for the past three years where he responds to ongoing traffic complaints, school bus stop arm violation complaints and regular patrol duties. During the past two years Officer Alt has averaged 1,500 traffic stops per year.
We caught up with Officer Alt and asked him a few questions about what it’s like to be the longest-tenured officer in EPPD history.
Q: How did you become involved in law enforcement initially?
A: My career started in about 1975 when my horse and I were deputized and joined the Carver County Sheriff’s Mounted Posse. After that it took just a few times riding along with deputies that convinced me law enforcement would be my career. I was attracted to the autonomy one had, the variety of circumstances and the satisfaction of assisting people through the myriad levels of chaos that may enter their lives from time to time.
Q: How did you start working in Eden Prairie?
A: One winter night while I was working as a part-time Carver County Deputy, a driver caught my attention as he raced out of town. When I stopped him along Hwy. 101, he jumped out of his car and came charging at me. He grabbed me and we struggled between our cars on the roadway. I called for help and while the struggle continued, I heard the sound of another car coming up behind us.
The oncoming car screeched to a stop behind my squad and two men jumped out. They were burly looking and dressed in sweat pants, boots and heavy winter parkas and ran towards us. I figured these were friends of the driver and had come to help him. But when they reached us they grabbed the driver from me, secured him with my handcuffs and put him in the back of my squad. The two men turned out to be Eden Prairie Police Chief Jack Hacking and one of his officers. They were returning from playing in a broomball game, heard my call for help and came to save me. I made up my mind right then I wanted to be a member of the EPPD.
Officer Orrin Alt (center) with fellow officers in 2012
Q: What do you like best about working in Eden Prairie?
A: From the first days I had ever heard about the Eden Prairie Police Department when it started in 1973, I was fascinated by their approach to law enforcement, training and community involvement. These innovative techniques continue, and are built upon, to this day. The EPPD continues to be a department which other departments look to in a leadership capacity. Over 120 officers have been associated with this department, and many of those who have left have assumed leadership roles in other departments.
We’ll have more of our interview with Officer Alt in a post later this week.
Editor’s Note: National Telecommunicators Week is April 14 – 20, 2013. Thefollowing post was submitted by EPPDDispatcher Michelle Moberg.
Since 1990, when you call 9-1-1 for police, fire or medical help in Eden Prairie, your call is answered by a telecommunicator, also known as a dispatcher, who is located close by in Eden Prairie City Center, 8080 Mitchell Road. The dispatcher asks you questions to determine what type of emergency services to send to help you including: what is your emergency? What is the location of the emergency? Is anyone hurt? Is this happening right now? Are there any weapons involved? Are there any drugs or alcohol involved? What is your phone number?
The answers to these questions allow the dispatchers to “paint a picture” for the emergency responders so that they will be prepared to help you in any situation. The dispatchers’ knowledge of the geography and landmarks specific to Eden Prairie allow them to assist callers who might not know exactly where they are. This can be life-saving knowledge. Dispatchers are also highly trained in using the newest technological advances and databases to find that elusive “needle in the haystack.” This includes tracking down a criminal or finding a lost vulnerable adult, a lost child or the parents of a found child.
Eden Prairie dispatchers take pride in exceeding the expectations of our citizens and visitors with excellent customer service for all, whether the nature of the call is a life-threatening emergency or a question about city ordinances. Every caller is important and dispatchers do their best to be of assistance to them.
Dispatchers work as a team with the police and fire departments of the City of Eden Prairie for every call, every day. They also work with public safety personnel from neighboring communities and across the nation. By utilizing emergency services correctly and efficiently, Eden Prairie dispatchers make our community safe for all to live, work and dream.
Each spring the City of Eden Prairie enacts restrictions on the weight of trucks allowed on city streets from March 1 to May 1. The reason for this is that heavy trucks can cause damage to city roadways during the spring thaw.
More specifically, as moisture is released from the frost thawing, the road base becomes less stable. When heavy trucks drive over the road surface, the weight of the truck’s wheels press down on the paved surface causing the bottom of the paved layer to become cracked and allowing the moisture to enter the layer and deteriorate the pavement. This results in potholes and costly repairs. In fact, one fully loaded 9 ton single-axle truck can cause the same damage to a roadway as 3,000 average passenger cars.
For most of the year, trucks are allowed to carry ten tons per axle but during the months of March and April, they can only carry six tons per axle. For many trucks this means that they cannot carry a full load during those two months.
Officers use special scales that they place under tires in order to accurately determine the weight of truck axles. If a vehicle is found to be overweight, the driver is issued a citation for a misdemeanor which is punishable by up to a $1,000 fine and 90 days in jail.
Getting overweight trucks off of vulnerable city streets in the spring saves the city money in maintenance costs and helps decrease the wear and tear on private vehicles traveling those same streets.
You may have heard that this past weekend was the deadliest one on Minnesota roads so far in 2013. Eight deaths occurred during this time and in at least four of those deaths, the victims were not wearing seatbelts.
These tragic deaths come during a previously scheduled Toward Zero Deaths enforcement event which is running from April 5 – 14. The EPPD is participating in this statewide initiative which focuses on the enforcement of seatbelt and child safety seat laws. As a reminder, Minnesota’s seatbelt law requires that drivers and passengers in all seating positions must be buckled up or in the correct child restraint.
Although 94% of Minnesotans buckle up, each year more than half of those killed in car crashes are not wearing a seatbelt, leading to more than 150 deaths annually. In rollover crashes, unbelted passengers are likely to be ejected from the vehicle. Seatbelts have been engineered to restrain motorists in the car’s designed protective space which helps save lives and decreases injuries.
A violation of the seatbelt law can cost between $25 to more than $100. But it could also cost you your life, as we tragically learned this past weekend.
The crime statistics from 2012 have been compiled and analyzed. Here are a few of the highlights:
Total Calls for Service: The EPPD experienced a slight increase (2%) in total calls for service in 2012 (60,632 in 2012 compared to 59,544 in 2011).
Domestic Assaults: Domestic Assaults decreased by 21% as compared to 2011 from 96 to 76. This is due in part to the Department’s Domestic Abuse Response Team (DART) which works with domestic abuse victims and perpetrators to decrease the number of repeat domestic incidents. Domestic Assaults in 2012 were at their lowest level in ten years.
Identity Theft: Cases of Identity Theft were down 27% compared to 2011 (144 vs. 197). The EPPD hopes this number continues to decrease as the public becomes more aware of ways to protect themselves against identity theft. The EPPD works to educate residents on identity theft through its Speakers Bureau, Crime Prevention Program and public education. The number of Identity Theft cases was at its lowest level since 2004.
Burglaries: The number of residential and non-residential burglaries both decreased in 2012 compared with 2011. While residential burglaries only decreased by 2% (84 vs. 86), non-residential burglaries decreased by 43% (28 vs. 49). These numbers can fluctuate dramatically year to year as a result of one or two prolific burglars who commit multiple crimes.
Traffic Citations & Warnings: The total combined number of traffic citations and warnings in 2012 was 11% higher than 2011 (20,676 compared to 18,662). The EPPD continues to emphasize traffic enforcement believing that it is the most effective way to decrease the number of deaths and injuries from traffic crashes.
Last Wednesday was Law Enforcement Memorial Day in Minnesota, a day to pay tribute to peace officers who lost their lives or were injured in the line of duty. This year the families of two Minnesotans, Tom Decker, who was killed in the line of duty on November 29, 2012, and Josh Lynaugh, who died in the line of duty on February 16, 2013, dedicated the names of their loved ones on the National Law Enforcement Memorial in Washington D.C.
In honor of those who died as heroes in the line of duty, flags at all City facilities were lowered to half staff on Wednesday and EPPD officers wore mourning bands over their badges, from sunrise until sunset that day.
