Feb 12
Many of us work hard at keeping our community up to date on current happenings and ways to protect themselves from criminals and scammers. We have a Publications page here on the WCPPA site that has several handouts that can be provided to your community along with several others that will give you a hand in your crime prevention and community policing role.
Take a look at the page for several different CPTED security surveys, samples of newsletters, and a great CPTED handbook!
Jan 23
It has been awhile since we had a post…..my apologies, but we have been pretty busy, which is good I guess! Last year was a busy year for us as we partnered with several others to host the WI Problem Oriented Policing conference which was attended by 200 people! That was such a great success that we are doing it again, this year in Wisconsin Dells. You will find more info on the POP conference under trainings on our home page.
Speaking of the Dells, we will be heading back there this fall for our conference. We have moved the conference to the middle of October and have made a few other changes, but promise that it will be as productive and entertaining as year’s past!
The board has also been working on some other projects that we hope to have finalized in the next few months that will bring some more tools and resources for our members.
Lastly, 2012 was a tragic year for a couple of our member agencies – we keep those officers from Oak Creek,Wauwatosa and Brookfield in our hearts for the shootings that occurred there. Let’s all be safe out there and make 2013 a great one!
Oct 23
Halloween is right around the corner and this is a great time to reinforce some safety tips with our children about strangers and being out in the neighborhood. Check with your local community on trick or treat dates and times! Below are some great safety tips courtesy of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Swords, knives, and similar costume accessories should be short, soft, and flexible. Avoid trick-or-treating alone. Walk in groups or with a trusted adult. Fasten reflective tape to costumes and bags to help drivers see you. Examine all treats for choking hazards and tampering before eating them. Limit the amount of treats you eat. Hold a flashlight while trick-or-treating to help you see and others see you. Always WALK and don’t run from house to house. Always test make-up in a small area first. Remove it before bedtime to prevent possible skin and eye irritation. Look both ways before crossing the street. Use established crosswalks wherever possible. Lower your risk for serious eye injury by not wearing decorative contact lenses. Only walk on sidewalks whenever possible, or on the far edge of the road facing traffic to stay safe. Wear well-fitting masks, costumes, and shoes to avoid blocked vision, trips, and falls. Eat only factory-wrapped treats. Avoid eating homemade treats made by strangers. Enter homes only if you’re with a trusted adult. Only visit well-lit houses. Don’t stop at dark houses. Never accept rides from strangers. Never walk near lit candles or luminaries. Be sure to wear flame-resistant costumes.
Oct 11
We are proud to partner with Towsleys, Inc. in Manitowoc to offer a variety of apparel with the WCPPA logo embroidered on it. Click here for more information on how to order!
Sep 28
At the award banquet last night, our key speaker was Joe Libowski from the Department of Justice. He discussed the successes stemming from the Wisconsin Crime Alert Network. You can learn more about it at http://www.wisconsincrimealert.com/
This year there was only one award: the Program of the Year. Congratulations goes out to the City of Menasha for the City Pride program. This program mixes history and crime prevention.
In Menasha, much of the population is transient. 55% of the people in the city are in rental property. A side effect is that many of the young people in town identify themselves as having another home town. Unfortunately this led to some young people not valuing their new home town and with this lack of respect of the property, they were led to vandalism.
To address this, they went to the schools armed with a slide show of historic buildings. This helped the school age children feel better about their new home town and as a result, curbed vandalism in the area.
Congratulations to the Menasha Police Department and wish you continued success!
This morning, Ritch Wagner from Purdue Pharma spoke about the ever growing issue of misuse and abuse of prescription drugs. The “When Good Drugs Gone Bad” tab here or check the website http://www.gooddrugsgonebad.com/ for some great information on this horrible epidemic in our country.
Our venue this year, the Paper Valley Radisson, has been a great host and a fun place to be for the conference this year.
It’s been a great morning and this afternoon we will have post office fraud and Block Watch programs as the subjects for our great slate of presenters. Stay tuned here for exciting updates!
Sep 26
The WCPPA conference is off to a rocking start! Today, we had Bill Bongle (Captain from Green Bay, WI Police Department) and Andy Fischer (Superintendent from Merseyside Police in the UK) present Community Oriented Policing ideas and issues. They did a great job and they were well appreciated by the attendees.
More excitement tonight with a social gathering…and tomorrow three more presenters to cover topics such as prescription drug abuse, postal fraud and scams and Block Watch programs. It should be an excellent program so we are excited to see it continue throughout the week. Thursday night, of course, is the banquet. Stay tuned!
The board has been working diligently the past few months finalizing details for the conference. We have a solid line-up of topics and speakers, kicking off the conference with a full day covering community oriented, problem oriented and intelligence led policing. We are excited to have Bill Bongle and Andy Fischer who are both known throughout the United States and the United Kingdom for their innovativeness in policing. They will provide information that you will be able to take back to your department and immediately start using.
The second day of the conference will feature Ritch Wagner from Purdue Pharma speaking on pharmaceutical abuse and ways that we can use CPTED principles and other measures to combat the crimes against our pharmacies. Thursday afternoon starts with Faith Kohler from the US Postal Inspectors covering the latest scams and services that the USPS can offer local agencies and wraps up with a great bullying prevention program from Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin.
We close our conference like we do every year with the world renowned Dave Perlman and legal update!
As always we will have some great networking opportunites Tuesday night before the conference and at the Social Night on Wednesday. Don’t forget to nominate your programs, volunteers, officers, and businesses/organizations for recognition.
National Night Out is Tuesday, August 7, 2012. This event is held in neighborhoods and communities throughout Wisconsin and the United States. It is estimated that last year over 37 million people participated in National Night Out!!
National Night Out has been occuring since 1984 when it was created to heighten awareness of crime and strengthen police-community relationships. Since that time National Night Out has evolved to:
Join with your local police department and neighborhood in taking a stand and fighting back!
The following comes from a blog post written by WCPPA Board of Director Jason Weber that was featured on The Partnership at Drugfree.org site www.pact360.org
Recently, I was part of a coalition that developed a fairly comprehensive toolkit on prescription drug abuse. I’ve since been fortunate to have the opportunity to travel throughout Wisconsin giving presentations on prescription drug abuse, and for each of these I start with the question, “When you hear the words ‘drug abuse,’ what drugs come to mind?”
Answers I always get include: marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other street drugs, but people never think of listing prescription drugs. Unfortunately, we can now also add a suite of new designer drugs to the list – synthetic drugs like K2/Spice and “bath salts.”
I can hear the sighs from here; another emerging drug threat? Yet another trend to keep up with, and even more substances to worry about when it comes to our teens’ health and safety?
Many communities around the country are experiencing problems with several new synthetic drugs. I won’t go into great length about what these products are and what the effects of taking them are, as The Partnership at Drugfree.org recently created an excellent parent kit on synthetics that gives details about these new substances and what you can do to prevent teens from using these drugs.
I will, however, tell you what they aren’t. While these products are typically marketed like incense, potpourri or bath salts (the kind that you actually use in a bathtub), they are not intended for this type of use. Upon closer examination, the packets clearly do not contain any of these products. Here in Northeast Wisconsin, law enforcement agencies have recently been encountering these synthetic cannabinoids in convenience stores, smoke shops and adult toy stores. The prices for these products range from about $19.95 to $39.95 for a small three-gram container. Clearly, most consumers would not purchase three grams of potpourri or spa bath salts for that amount of money. These prices are actually more in line with traditional drugs such as marijuana or cocaine. Another frightening thought: since they are marketed as incense, potpourri or bath salts, anyone – regardless of age –can purchase them. We have actually seen these products in convenience stores at the counter right next to candy bars!
In March of 2011, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) enacted an emergency measure to place several of the compounds commonly found in these synthetic drugs on the controlled substances schedule. Here in WI, a law was passed last July to ban these compounds, and many communities have followed with the passage of local ordinances. One thing we have learned is that the manufacturers of these substances will place stickers on their products or provide lab reports that their product does not contain any of the banned compounds, but investigations from across the state have shown that products seized have tested positive regardless of the letters or stickers.
What does this mean for you as parents? It means that we need to work together to keep up on the current trends in substance abuse. It is an ever changing world for us parents. Between texting, smart phones and hundreds of channels on television, life has changed for many of us! Substances that are abused also change with the times. K2/Spice and “bath salts” have been an eye opener for not only myself, but many of my partners in law enforcement. The Wisconsin Crime Prevention Practitioners Association worked to create a drug bulletin highlighting these new threats to our youth. Law enforcement agencies across the country are taking steps like this to help their communities stay informed.
Stay educated, and remember to keep talking to the kids in your life about the dangers of these and other substances.
