2012 Annual Report - City of Alma

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Community Highlights The department continues to be involved in the Alma community in a variety of ways. As usual, the department provided traffic control for local parades and events, such as the 45 th Annual Alma Highland Festival. The department participated in other events like “Touch-a- Truck” for Lucky MacDuck Day. We have also hopefully started a new annual tradition with the Alma Police Department’s “Cram a Cruiser” program, which accepts donations to the Toys for Tots charity. This year, the Alma Police Department continued to strengthen police Director Walsh helps collect winning presence in the Alma school system. Our School Resource Officer has ducks during Lucky MacDuck Day. been actively involved with the schools, and in late 2012, all officers were encouraged to increase patrol of Alma schools during the school day and at night. Response to the increased presence of patrol officers has been positive. The 2012 Toys for Tots “Cram a Cruiser” flyer. We received many donations this year and hope to make it an annual event. Two other programs continued to encourage local area youth: Alma PAL and Alma Police Youth Academy. Nearly 300 kids ages 5-17 participated in at least one of 19 different events or sports offered by the Alma Police Athletic League (PAL) in 2012. Alma PAL’s yearly membership also surpassed 200 for the first time in the 8 years of existence. This year’s Alma Police Youth Academy was organized by the department’s School Resource Officer, Officer Biehl, and consisted of 22 participants in grades 5-8. The Academy was held in June and instructed local youth in various parts of the criminal justice system. Nearly every officer participated as an instructor or mentor during this year’s program. This year the department also established a permanent prescription drop site. The new drop site is located within the department lobby and is available to the public during office hours. The drop site provides a free and convenient option for those residents within the city of Alma and surrounding communities that are looking to safely dispose of unwanted, unused, or outdated medications. The department currently accepts pills, liquids, inhalers, and other medications. However, sharps are not accepted at this time. The Alma Police Department is pleased to be offering this service aimed at reducing drug abuse, accidental poisonings, and environment contamination. The drop site has proven quite popular with local residents; in 2012, the department collected over 43 pounds of pills alone.
Advancements with Technology In 2012, the Alma Police Department made significant progress with the goal to advance the department's incorporation of updated techology. Some of the major projects that were focused on this year include: Talon Information Management System (TIMS): In October 2011, the Alma Police Department implemented a new records management system known as TIMS. This new system granted many more features and was easier to operate than the AS400 system that was in place. Throughout 2012, the department continued to adjust to, and take full advantage of, the new TIMS system. One of the major changes involved was the classification of incidents by offense file classes. TIMS requires an offense assigned to every incident created in the system. Offenses are listed according to specific file classes based on the State of Michigan crime reporting (MICR) policies and procedures. By assigning a MICR based file class to each incident, TIMS can easily convert the information on a police report to MICR reports. Assigning specific file classes also allows for greater uniformity within the department’s police reports and with other police agencies. One of the projects that the department worked on this year was further defining when the different file classes would be used. This should assist the department with future statistical analysis and understanding the types of incidents the department handles. TIMS contains a statistics reporting feature that should also help with quicker internal assessments. Counywide Mobile Data/Records Management Systems Collaboration (MDC Project): In 2011, the department changed their records management system to the Talon Information Management System (TIMS). The success of this transition led to discussion in early 2012 with all area law enforcement agencies, including Gratiot Central Dispatch, to explore a countywide records system. The committee eventually decided to not only transition to TIMS as the records system for all agencies, but sought monies from the Gratiot 911 Authority and State of Michigan Emergencey Management Division to equip all patrol cars with state of the art Mobile Data Computers along with electronic crash and electronic ticket capabilities. The Alma Police Department now has Panasonic CF-19 Toughbooks with modems installed in all patrol cars. This allows officers to run all records management applications from their patrol car. Officers now have in car access to the Michigan State Police Electronic Traffic Crash Reporting System which allows immediate input of crash data. The project will conclude in 2013 with all cars having electronic ticketing, Law Enforcement Informaiton Network (LEIN), and Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) capabilities. Conversion to 800 MHz Radio System: All Gratiot County Law Enforcement Agencies migrated from the traditional VHF radio system to the statewide 800 MHz radios. All officers were trained prior to the new radios being installed. The 800 system allows for better communication within the county and each agency now has private talk channels. In Car Video Upgrade: The department purchased three new video systems for their patrol cars in 2012. The Pro Vision System will allow officers to upload evidentiary video remotely. The department was able to make this purchase for all three cars by securing a donation from the Luneak Foundation and a grant from the Michigan Municipal Risk Management Authority. This system will be put into service in early 2013 when all patrol cars are upfitted as part of the MDC project.
Page 1 and 2: 2012 Annual Report Alma Police Depa
Page 3 and 4: Message from the Director of Public
Page 5: 2012 Training All Officers Emergenc
Page 9 and 10: 2012 Statistical Analysis The follo
Page 11 and 12: File Class # of 2012 Offenses % of
Page 13 and 14: Offense File Class Monthly Comparis
Page 15 and 16: Parking Tickets Issued Yearly Total
Page 17 and 18: Tickets Issued by Patrol Officers
Page 19 and 20: Five Year Total Incident Comparison

2012 Annual Report - City of Alma

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