The Lompoc Police Department (LPD) sent out a gentle reminder to its citizens on Nov. 8—if you see suspicious activity, call 911. Or, at the very least, call the department’s main office line at 736-2341.
LPD Police Sgt. Kevin Martin told the Sun the effort was a response to several instances of suspicious or potentially criminal activity that officers did not receive reports regarding.
Instead, community members posted about it on local Facebook groups. The result was crimes that could have been prevented, Martin said.
“What’s happening is people are reporting things like vehicle break-ins, suspicious subjects, and [domestic] disturbances in their neighborhood rather than calling us, thinking that we are going to see it and we don’t,” he said.
Martin added that the department simply does not have the staffing levels or time to constantly sift through the myriad claims that can pop up on social media throughout the course of a day.
The LPD sent out a press release on Nov. 8, asking for direct reporting of crimes and urging two-way communication between officers and the public.
Police Chief Pat Walsh said he and his officers work to maintain open and friendly relationships with community members and welcome the opportunity to look into any possible crimes.
“We want the community to feel comfortable talking to our Lompoc Police Department about any concerns they have, including potential crimes,” Walsh said in a statement. “Our police department is here to serve the public, and we can best accomplish this through open and direct channels of communication.”
Martin said people concerned about endangering themselves by reporting a crime can do so anonymously, and added that for smaller, less pressing crimes, residents can visit the police station at 107 Civic Center Plaza or report it through the department’s mobile phone app.
The LPD rolled out the app in November 2015. According to Martin, its implementation has largely been a success.
“We had a really good response from the community on the app,” he said. “Lompoc is a community of about 45,000 people and we’ve had about 15,000 downloads of the app—so we’ve been pretty pleased.”
And while the app is an excellent way to report crimes, and preferable to social media posts in community groups, Martin noted that in certain situations, the quickest and best way to report a crime is the old fashioned way.
“We have had situations where somebody specific to the app reported what they thought was a domestic disturbance next door which should have been a 911 [call],” he said. “But there’s not been a major [crime] that’s been missed.
“We just don’t want anyone to be victimized and potentially not have an officer respond thinking [a crime report] would get to us through Facebook or Twitter,” he added.
This article appears in Nov 16-23, 2017.
