Last weekend was one of our busy ones—the final blast before the fall semester starts. Our late shift officers certainly kept busy, but the cauldron never quite boiled over. We did, however, have a rather violent weekend, with 55 assaults on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. None life-threatening, but several requiring medical treatment.
Of the 55 assaults, officers recorded “alcohol involved” on 31 of the Incident Reports. A third were within a par five of the intersection of 14th and O Streets, where the twenty-something bars cluster. Here is the timeline on when the 31 alcohol related assaults occurred (no surprise):
16 comments:
I'd still like to see a live video webcam, covering that area. Some zoos have webcams showing what's going in in the more interesting animal exhibits, and that block is probably Lincoln's most interesting animal exhibit at bar break. The double trouble of Duffy's and Brother's. Sur Tango might run a close 2nd.
Do you really think the bar owners will report the extra tax made from the stay open late, real late, profits...
If they give the ok on the 2am close, it will all be about the money!
Anon 6:20: I don't have any video, but I got a still shot.
CENTER B 015 ASSAULT 2036 08-22-2010 3200 BLOCK ORCHARD ST B0-082217
KNOWN PR OPENED DOOR INTO PREG VICTIMS ABDOMEN
WHAT?
Chief,
Since you brought this up about the assaults and the downtown area what is your feeling about the 2am proposed closing times of the bars? You have remained very silent about this issue which is not like you; if it has to do with alcohol you are usually all over it. Is your silence about the proposal an order from the mayor? If not do you see more assaults/DWI's/reported sex assaults/vandalism/theft's etc...being reported? It's time to chime in Chief and let us know where YOU stand!!!
so chief, coming into the new school year, let me ask you a couple things.... and hopefully you will answer all of them???
1. how many police will we lose over the next 14 months due to cutbacks? what is then are ratio per capita, and during all shifts..?
2. is this because the mayor will receive a 20 percent increase in pay ---- via ljs.com
3. would it be fair to ask for the mayor to decline the increase, and then the ability to add more police to the staff, to compare to the low numbers per population?
4. to increase the safety issues especially with violence and the local downtown bar scene, will you ever allow bars to hire off duty lpd to work ID check and door guy????
thanks
ED
It's apparently necessary to remind some blog readers that the Chief is an appointed city official, and serves at the pleasure of the Mayor. He does a better job than the mayor, so that seems a little flipped, but that's how it is. Because of that, the Chief, and every other appointed city official, is effectively mute on any issue currently under consideration, and definitely cannot issue comments opposing decided city policy. He has opinions, naturally, but he sometimes must be quite crafty about how he expresses some of them.
An elected County Sheriff can (absent gross dereliction of duty) be fired only at the ballot box, but an appointed Chief of Police can be fired every day, though it would clearly be political suicide for the Mayor to issue that pink slip - and he's got a re-election to worry about in May.
Chief-This activity has been going on since the caveman days, but I've really noticed a difference over the years.
When I was a kid, we sometimes had fights, but there was some honor and unwritten rules. We pushed each other around a little, threw a few swings, got a bloody nose, and left without police intervention. And the next day we were back to being friends.
Having raised four drinking age sons, I've noticed changes, particularly in the last few years. The first is that kids today are now fascinated by shots of liquor, and not just drinking beer. I think they are getting more wasted. The second is that I believe they are conditioned to be more violent and instead of throwing a few punches, it ends up being a group fight because they all bring friends. Or it becomes a group raging on a smaller group. It's probably cliche to say this but I give credit to the video game industry for some of this activity. And the young women are worse than the young men.
Sadly, most 20-somethings are wimps that don't understand settling some grievance man-to-man with honor, and then shaking hands and going on with life. No cops, no hospital, no gang, no weapons.
256 the Dinosaur
4:13@ Whether or not the Chief has an opinion (and likely he does) on the 2am bar closing proposal, do you really think it is appropriate to have him share it in a public forum such as this? Whatever the City Council decides is what he will have to deal with. The officers will do the same.
So, whether or not Chief Casady voices an opinion one way or another, it really does not matter in the grand scheme of things. And if you have watched the chief at all over the years, you would already know his position.
The number of DUI arrests are down significantly this year compared to a record setting number in 2009. Do you think officers are too busy doing other things or just ignoring the DUI problem?
Wait, there COULD be another reason. People could be finding alternatives for transportation when they are too drunk to drive. Okay, at least SOME might be.
Chief,
There's an article in the LJS today that discusses a month-long effort to increase enforcement on late-night and weekend parties. A quote from the article reads...
"Lincoln Police Officer Katie Flood said the goal of the project is to reduce fatal and serious alcohol-related injuries in the under-21 community by 10 percent. From 2009 to 2007, there have been on average 21 alcohol-related injuries per year. One resulted in a death."
So just so I am understanding the stats here, the goal is to reduce the number of alcohol-related injuries from 21 down to...what? Obviously, with such a small number, a decrease of 10% for the entire year is only a decrease of 2 injuries (and 0.2 deaths). Now take into account the fact that this enhanced enforcement project is only 1 month long, you're talking about a decrease of 1/12th of 2...or approximately 0.17 fewer injuries. My question would be that, with such a small number, how would you know if the effort was successful? Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the increase in enforcement...it just struck me as somewhat peculiar.
Sorry I haven't been able to keep up with comments very much, but between a family medical emergency at home, and some teaching duties this week at the Academy, I've been swamped. I'll try to hit a few high points, though.
4:13-
The administration has elected not to weigh in on this issue, and to let the City Council make their own judgements. I've been available for any questions the City Council has. I think the primary impact will be to move our "hour of power" forward one hour. There may be a slight increase in intensity, since there is one more hour in which people can drink in some bars.
ed:
1. None, I suspect. 1.25 per 1,000.
2. No. Tiny amount in a $140 million city budget.
3. That's not quite enough to fund 1/2 a police officer.
4. Not on my watch. The sheepdog should not receive his paycheck from the wolf.
256-
Amen. Hallelujah.
Grundle-
The goal is alcohol-related injury and fatal traffic crashes involving people under the age of 21. We'd like to bring that down to 19 from it's annual average of 21. This particular project is just one of several strategies we engage in through the year to impact this issue. I've documented those rather regularly in my blog.
You are quite correct that when the numbers are small, it is more difficult to measure the impact or to attribute changes to a particular strategy. You've got to have a goal, however, and you can't just shrug your shoulders. Obviously, underage drinking results in many harms other than traffic crash injuries to young people. I don't think you'd want us to give up on murder, just because there are only a handful every year.
chief,
Im wondering, I was told if a bar has 4 or more violations in a time period then they lose a license? how is it this establishment has like 7 violations that repeat themselves and yet are still open for business
http://www.lcc.ne.gov/license_search/licsearch.cgi
256-
I recommend the book "On Killing" by LT. Col Dave Grossman. He talks about the conditioning of America's youth. If you enjoy it he has written a second book, "On Combat", both are great books!
"The sheepdog should not receive his paycheck from the wolf."
To expand on that, it's not just the possibility of preferential treatment of the hiring establishments that is an issue here, but the mere perception that any preferential treatment exists is absolute poison to the public image of a PD.
Well, here comes another hour of these, starting on 9/17. You have my sympathy.
It has happened. The 2am closing time has passed.
As our city council is home snug in their beds with visions of tax dollars in their wee little heads, the city police will try to handle with care our fine young drunk citizenry with no extra police to spare.
Tom Osborne was right when he said in his letter, alcohol's a problem with kids this age.
But hey, what's that matter to a city in money distress, get those tax dollars, we'll let someone else deal with the mess.
That someone else will be the cops & firefighters no doubt. Picking up little Johnny or Suzie hopefully just passed out.
But let's not fool ourselves, someone will get hurt.
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