Police chief emphasizes ‘building a stronger community together’
By Jenna Wilson
Creating better public safety is at the forefront for the St. Joseph Police Department as it continues to develop resources to keep the community secure.
That’s the message from Police Chief Paul Luster, who spoke Tuesday morning at a Public Affairs Coffee hosted by the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce. Legislators and community members learned about the vital services police provide to tackle crime.
One is a newly automated license plate reader system police have been using to successfully solve several local crimes by linking plates to vehicle data in national and state crime databases.
“There’s a system in place that has the proper checks and balances built in it,” Luster said. “So, it’s not infringing on anybody’s basic rights or their privacy, but it allows a really effective tool for law enforcement to get leads that they would not otherwise have.”
The St. Joseph Police Department recently began using flock safety cameras, which are deployed around the city. It has helped officers solve criminal cases including theft from area businesses and hit-and-run accidents.
With the use of the flock camera, detectives were able to locate images of a suspect vehicle involved in a hit-and-run prior to the crash occurring. Police then charged the person with leaving the scene of an accident.
“It’s not just about crime-fighting, it’s really about community safety,” Luster said. “We can even enter Amber alerts into the system. Recently we had a man from out of town make some significant threats towards city officials and we were able to flag that in the system so if he were to come into town it would give us that alert.”
Crime prevention officer Sgt. Jeremy Peters discussed the success that has come with the use of the department’s community neighborhood watch platform as well. Officers have been connecting with community members and residents can report suspicious activity within their neighborhood and at their businesses. The efforts were welcome news to many attending the event on Tuesday.
“As business owners, if somebody gets into a vehicle or breaks into a storage shed it oftentimes doesn’t get reported and that’s just the norm,” said Lute Atieh, chair of the government relations committee at the chamber. “But with the increase of the sophisticated cameras officers are using around town and catching these petty crimes, it’s really going to make an impact.”
Luster asked those attending to do their part by reporting crime so officers can investigate.
“We had a community member complain about 24 car break-ins happening in the south end,” Luster said. “Of those 24, only one had been reported. We have been relentlessly stressing the importance of reporting crime to the point where I think we’re going to see that rise in property crime because people are finally reporting and that’s what we want.”
