COMMUNITY UNITY
Police chief: 2021 built partnerships after upheaval of 2020
LANSDALE » After a year like no other, the Lansdale Police Department followed up 2020 by making lasting changes in 2021.
Police Chief Mike Trail presented his department’s 2021 annual report on Wednesday night, outlining how a summer of upheaval has led to a year of growing partnerships to help those in need.
“This year, although we’re not out of the 2020-2021 COVID pandemic, we at least definitely can say we are rounding the corner,” Trail said.
Starting in 2020 for 2019 the department has presented to council and the public on the department’s goals, accomplishments and statistics, and after a 2021 presentation on 2020 that was made virtually due to the pandemic, the presentation was made in person for 2022 on Wednesday night. Trail told council that after a year of social isolation and shuttered schools and businesses due to the pandemic, 2021 was full of finding ways to solve problems.
“It’s in 2020 that we really, as an organization, started to see a lot of the issues that are on the forefront today, with respect to mental health, and people and persons in crisis, with respect food scarcity, housing inequality and whatnot,” Trail said.
“For community outreach in 2021, I challenged the officers to adopt a problem-solving approach, involving all of the community stakeholders. A program that uses a hub model, and we began that,” he said.
The “North Penn Hub” began as a series of informal conversations between police, borough staff, and local nonprofits and agencies that Trail said is meant to create lasting fixes to frequently occurring problems that officers may not be trained or equipped to solve themselves.
“We find the homeless folks who are out there, we go out, we respond, we quell the situation, we go back and write a report — and then an hour later, we go back and do it all over again. And that cycle continues,” he said.
How do police end that cycle? “We do that by partnering with our community stakeholders. We do that by planning, and through a lot of hard work, and building relationships, a group of people that can come together, and work in uniform to end that process.”
As he spoke, Trail showed a series of slides outlining the hub model, which involves monthly meetings for police and the local partner agencies to share information on risks, trends and ongoing issues, find new ways to collaborate and commu
nicate, be proactive, and solve problems before it’s too late. Since those initial meetings, the hub has grown to include seven other neighboring police departments, over a dozen nonprofits, and state and county agencies including the state and county departments of Human Services and Pennsylvania State Police, all working on ways to solve problems they see in the community.
“We have significantly impacted people’s lives, in a meaningful way,” Trail said.
Their efforts may already be paying off on the ground, the chief noted, showing a series of statistics: calls to the police department for mental health incidents have increased dramatically, from 116 in 2018 and 145 in 2019 to 273 in 2020 and 450 in 2021.
“Those are people who have no other resources. They don’t have any family, or friends, or ability to work through their problems, so they call us. You can see, that’s a dramatic increase (in calls) — obviously a lot of that has resulted from the pandemic, from income inequality, housing, food issues and whatnot,” Trail said.
Attempted suicide calls have declined over the same time period, from 17 in 2018, 14 in 2019, down to just 11 in 2020 and nine in 2021.
“When I plotted this out, what I notice is, as people reached out for police services, and we emphasize people coming in contact with the police department, and seeking out help, and pushing the narrative that it’s OK not to feel OK, there’s nothing wrong with that — it’s just the reality of life we live — we can see that as calls for service increase, and people get help or reach out, the instances of attempted suicide go down.”
Graphed over the two, the trend is unmistakable: as the number of mental health calls has increased sharply, the calls for suicide attempts have decreased steadily.
“I’m not going to sit here and say this is a statistically verified model, or data that can stand the test of professional scrutiny. But I will say it’s interesting: the data’s the data. I’d like to think that it’s as a result of what we’re doing,” he said.
In addition to detailed statistics on incident responses, the report also focuses on a tie-in with the borough’s 150th anniversary celebrations this year, highlighting the history of the department, starting with the hiring of the first officer in April 1900.
“The Lansdale Police Department is 122 years old this April, and that’s a lot of history. And it’s important, because as we look to see where we’re going in the future, it’s important that we have an understanding of where we came from,” he said.
The report contains detailed information about prior borough stations, a timeline of chiefs starting with the hiring of Charles F. Kulp as the town’s only officer in 1900, and a series of photos of Kulp, other early officers, and more modern assemblies outside the department’s new station that opened in 2015. Along with the photos are statistics comparing 2021 to the two prior years, showing how many times the department responded to certain categories of crimes, accidents, traffic and parking enforcement calls, non-criminal investigations, and more.
“One of the things I notice is, we’re not experiencing this surge in violent crime that most cities, and urban departments, have. And we’re fortunate for that. But as we think the data does show, we’re seeing an increase in people in crisis, and that’s really important,” Trail said.
The statistics also include a breakdown of police calls by month, by day of the week, and data on arrests and whether cases were cleared, along with stats on the 2,620 hours of training officers completed in 2021 and the over 131,000 miles patrolled by officers. As he summarized the statistics, Trail thanked borough council, staff, and the residents for their ongoing support of the department.
“We enjoy a tremendous
amount of goodwill, and the men and women of the department thank you for it. It is a badge of honor they wear,” he said.
“They know the community they work for, they take pride in what they do every day, and it’s because of the great response that they have from each of you, and the elected officials, that allows them to do their job every day,” Trail said.
Council President Denton Burnell thanked Trail for the report, particularly the emphasis on the hub: “I can see that paying great dividends for us down the road, so keep up the good work.” Councilwoman Meg
Currie Teoh, chairwoman of the public safety committee, said she’s already seen that group in action thanks to her day job with local nonprofit food pantry Manna on Main Street, and credited Officer Dave Pelzer in particular with bringing that group together.
“Dave has built this into a really dynamic room full of people, following up on things, troubleshooting, sharing resources. It’s very incredible, and really effective,” she said.
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