Trent McKinley and Tina Shambaugh are the new Neighborhood Resource Officers for the Lawrence Police Department. They’ll take your questions about community policing.

Dayna38

What is a Neighborhood Resource Officer? and what neighborhood are you policing?

icallbullshiat

Tell us about the pilot project the police department is implementing in April to deploy teams of officers to specific regions of the city. What are the objectives of this project and how are those objectives to be measured?
Keep up the good work!

eagle1

Why do police hang out for hours in the Douglas County Fair Grounds just sitting there. I have even seen them there sleeping in the police car.I called the Chief, He said they are doing there paper work.Liar.This is our tax dollars at work. Only in Lawrence,KS.

sun45kiss

What can be done about the police sterotyping ? Just because your kid is walking home through downtown from school does not mean he is looking for trouble or trying to drive customers from shopping. All of the kids walk through downtown from Central Jr High and I don’t want it to be assumed that my kid is loitering. They stop to buy buffalo wings and ice cream. Business and the Police should expect kids walking through downtown after school.

timetospeakup

What would it take to get better response time for drug problems in student housing (both on and off campus)? As an RA 2 years ago, we gave up on the police because because they always took over an hour. By then, the troublemakers would usually leave or destroy (consume) the evidence. I’ve had similar experiences trying to get police response in apartments where one room of pot smokers had filled neighboring apartments with smoke.

George_Braziller

Since East Lawrence immediately abuts downtown, problems related to oversized vehicles such as tour buses parking in the neighborhood, noise from bands playing outdoors, vandalism, littering, and graffiti tend to spill over into the western edge of the neighborhood. During large events such as parades, illegal parking also becomes a huge problem. Would the Neighborhood Resource Department be available as a liaison between the neighborhood and downtown?

Moderator

Hello. This is Cody Howard. I’ll be moderating today’s chat with Trent McKinley and Tina Shambaugh, Neighborhood Resource Officers with the Lawrence Police Department. Our thanks to them for joining us today.

Trent McKinley and Tina Shambaugh

Thank you for inviting us here and hello to everyone.

Moderator

The term “Neighborhood Resource Officer” is fairly new in Lawrence. Please give us a quick overview of how long these positions have been around and some of your duties.

Trent McKinley and Tina Shambaugh

The position of Neighborhood Resource Officer is new this year. We are going to act as liasons for the neighborhoods and different departments within the city.

Moderator

What are some specific neighborhood issues you will focus on?

Trent McKinley and Tina Shambaugh

The safety and quality of life in our neighborhoods. Many community members have expresses concerns about graffiti in the city and that is one of the issues we are addressing. We are also focusing on the noise and party related nuisances and crimes.

Moderator

Most would agree that’s a big task. How do you specifically plan to combat those problems?

Trent McKinley and Tina Shambaugh

By working with the community through crime prevention, public education and the coordination of city services. We will encourage the use of neighborhood watch programs and other means of increasing safety and improving quality of life in the neighborhoods. We are currently working on literature to help educate the public about the various city and state laws as well as how we can work together to combat problems. As liasons that will work closely with the community members and members of the various city departments we hope to ensure complaints are followed up on and the problems are resolved.

hawkperchedatriverfront

The recent water bills had some information about city ordinances. One of particular interest was NO PARKING on grass, gravel or dirt. Is this an ordinance that only applies to areas east of Iowa? How do you explain the lack of enforcement all through the Oread Neighborhood?

Trent McKinley and Tina Shambaugh

The ordinance you are speaking about is 17-410.30 and applies to all areas in the city. An exemption to this ordiance does apply to a portion of the city during KU home football games. If a violation of this ordinance is observed, please report it to the police department at 832-7509 and a patrol officer will respond and address the violation.

Moderator

It’s been about a month since this program has been up and running. How are things progressing? How has the first month gone?

Trent McKinley and Tina Shambaugh

Things have been going very well. Unfortunately we have been busy with administrative tasks required in getting our office up and running. We have made some accomplishments in reviewing procedures to improve the effectiveness of enforcement efforts. We have also been trying to get out in the community and meet some of the people we will be working closely with.

Moderator

We have time for one more question today. What are the long term goals for the Neighborhood Resource Officers? What can be done to ensure those goals are met?

Trent McKinley and Tina Shambaugh

I think our long term goal is to improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods and to ensure Lawrence is a safe and enjoyable place to live. By offering personalized service we hope to strengthen the bond of trust and reliance between police and the public. By working proactively with the community we can identify problems before they occur and solve existing problems in a more efficient and effective manner.

Moderator

That’s all the time we have. Our thanks to officers McKinley and Shambaugh for joining us today.

Trent McKinley and Tina Shambaugh

Thank you Cody and we really appreciated this opportunity.