City officials gathered on June 9 to celebrate the completion of the new sidewalk and the reopening of Lakeport’s Library Park with a ribbon cutting ceremony: City Manager Margaret Silveira, Councilmember Stacey Mattina, Mayor George Spurr, Park Superintendent Ron Ladd, Public Works Director Doug Grider, and Chief of Police Brad Rasmussen. Time to visit the new lakefront promenade!
Equal Justice for All
Over the past few weeks since the tragic incident resulting in the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, law enforcement, community and elected leaders are seeing many questions regarding police policies and procedures relating to use of force. The actions and inactions we saw from police during their contact with Mr. Floyd are not consistent with how law enforcement should operate, or the manner in which the Lakeport Police Department provides service to our community.
We continue receiving questions locally and remain fully transparent in how we operate here in the City of Lakeport. Many of the questions we are receiving are focused on the Campaign Zero #8CantWait project which relates to eight areas of concern with police policies which we have compared to our policies.
We are pleased that the majority of Lakeport Police Department policies are consistent with the suggestions of the #8CantWait project. We have a long history of community policing and focusing on working in partnership with our community to ensure equal justice and protecting and respecting the rights of all people.
Our previous work has included The Six Pillars from President Barack Obama’s 2015 President’s Task Force on Community Policing: Building Trust and Legitimacy, Policy and Oversight, Technology and Social Media, Community Policing and Crime Reduction, Training and Education, and Officer Wellness and Safety.
Additionally, starting back in January of this year our supervisory and management team began focusing efforts on the eight critical areas in modern policing as identified by the 2019 report, “Law Enforcement Best Practices” by the United States Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. Those areas are: Community Policing, De-Escalation, Crisis Intervention, First Line Supervisors, Early Intervention Systems, Internal Affairs, Recruitment, Hiring, Promotion and Retention and Data Systems. We continue to weave these efforts into all aspects of our daily policing.
I am proud of and commend the efforts of all of the men and women of the Lakeport Police Department over the past decades for creating and maintaining the positive relationships we continue to have today with our community.
We continue to believe in transparency and remain open to interaction with our community to continue to evolve and adapt as we move into the future.