Lincoln Police Department Chief Jeff Bliemeister spoke at Lincoln South Rotary Club on October 20.
Jeff started his presentation with a story about one of the officers in an off-duty situation. Bliemeister stated that many officers also work security or similar jobs outside of their police work. He pointed out that in those positions the officers are still expected to enforce the laws, but are not given authority to enforce the rules of the facility.
 
In his story Jeff talked about the officer working in the hospital, he was made aware that there was a patient that was making the nursing staff uncomfortable. He kept leaving his room and hanging around the nurses station even though they told him that the rules stated that he needed to stay in his room. The off duty police officer tried to engage the man in a conversation. But the patient quickly turned violent. He attached the police officer, the nurses called 911. 
 
Bliemiester spoke of the character of the police officer - protecting citizens even while off duty. He also spoke about the growing problem with violent citizens with mental issues. That was the case with this patient - he had been previously incarcerated 4 times. The reality is that we don't have a system in place to handle these types of citizens - we handle the immediate problem, but there is no long term help for them.
 
The Chief then addressed the incidence of all crime. He asked if we thought violent crime rates in Lincoln were up or down. He identified violent crime as murder, robbery, rape and aggravated assault. After polling our members he gave the answer - that those crimes overall have been static for decades. He pointed out that Omaha has about 3 times the violent crimes as Lincoln. and, if you look at Kansas City or Chicago the numbers are staggering compared to Lincoln.
 
Talking about the overall numbers of violent crime, he pointed out that in 2016 we had 11 homicides. So far in 2017 - fortunately - there have not been any homicides.
 
He did agree that robberies have increased. But also that most of those cases are solved. Of the `11 bank robberies this year, only 1 has not yet been cleared by arrest. of the 38 in the last decade, 35 have been cleared by arrest.
 
He also pointed out that the goal is to prevent the robberies - not just clear them. He said that the banking industry is addressing the issues and he periodically meets with the bankers associations to discuss options. 
 
He said that the main reason that we are able to clear cases, and also the reason we have a relatively low crime rate, is our citizens. We are willing to provide information and testify as witnesses. We are not willing to allow criminal behavior in our city.
 
When asked about the number of officers, Bliemeister stated that there are a total of 475 employees, 325 of those are officers. We learned that there are only 9 officers dedicated to traffic alone and that they manage about 9000 crashes annually. He shared that when looking at the per capita numbers - officers to citizens - that we would need to add 192 officers to match the per capita coverage in Omaha. This is a reflection of the efficiency of LPD.
 
He returned to the conversation about the character and integrity of the officers by reviewing the screening and hiring process. There are extensive physical and mental tests they must pass to be hired.