The following is an ‘Ask The Chief’ question submitted to TLS, and the Chief’s response. Email your questions for the Chief to [email protected].
Question:
Chief,
Thanks for a great job. As you know, there are numerous construction projects and road work done in Lakewood. I have seen countless times where for example they have to rip open a road – and for a day or two there will be a detour and have officers sitting on both sides in patrol cars for hours or days on end. Could it possibly be a better use of the officers to have them ticketing those that egregiously violate at times the traffic laws or following up on other petty theft crimes for example and instead put significant barricades on both sides of these incidents. I have seen this done effectively in many places and essentially that is all the officers vehicle does in many of the cases?
Yochy
The Chief’s Response:Dear Yochy,
Thank you for your question about officers out working on construction jobs. The officers you see on these road repair and other jobs around town are usually hired by the construction company and are paid directly by them not by our tax dollars. So these officers close roads, monitor traffic backups and provide a safe and secure work area for the road workers to make necessary repairs. We do from time to time receive state funded grants that allow us to hire extra patrol officers to do strictly enforcement from time to time in addition to the regular patrol officers.
Thank you for your question,
Chief Meyer
Cheif keep up the good job you are doing.
thanks for the clarification … I was always wondering the same thing.
Thank you chief. Your clarity is excellent.
We pay for road repairs. If the contractor is required to hire police officers for the duration of the job, the cost of road repair goes up accordingly. So the chief did not answer why we are paying for officers instead of using barricades. Please answer the question.
ask the contractors
i think legally there needs to be someone there to help traffiic etc. better give a couple extra bucks to an off duty local cop then some random company
The question is why do they legally need an outside source to block the streets, the construction crew comes with trucks and cars, they can effectively use that and cones for a road block. Construction vehicles and construction crew vehicles are allowed to have Amber lights on them, let them use it.