Column: Guest Column

Last Thursday our Citizens Academy class met two more officers, Jacob Stockwell and Tim Matson. Just like in previous weeks we learned about the sort of extra training they’ve done and the initiatives they’re passionate about.

 

Tobacco, alcohol and other drugs

Officer Stockwell is involved in many different programs as well as being a patrolman with the force. One of his big projects is keeping ZAP a priority, which is the Zero Adult Provider initiative.

“Our department has zero tolerance for minor use,” Stockwell told us.

He said he’s been fortunate to never have to deal with the death of a minor that involved drinking, and he hopes to keep it that way. He said he and other officers understand that many adults don’t agree with the social host ordinance that can prosecute anyone over 21 for knowingly providing alcohol to minors.

Now that it’s been in place for about four years, more adults are on board with the policy. When they come to a party where minors are drinking, now they treat it like a crime scene (taking photos and interviewing those present) where before they would have told everyone older than 21 to leave.

For social hosting to be breaking the law, one would have to have a gathering of three or more people where alcohol is present and where minors do or have the intent to consume alcohol. The one loophole is that parents can still provide alcohol to their children at home, but not to their children’s friends.

While it’s not a law everywhere, Stockwell expects something similar to the social host ordinance to become a state law in the future.

Another big part of Stockwell’s job is working to reduce the sale of alcohol and tobacco to minors. Part of that includes completing compliance checks, which while he knows they’re not popular are needed.

He’s become somewhat of an expert about the various security features on Minnesota driver’s licenses and teaches a class to bartenders and servers for how to look for fake IDs.

He showed our class some examples of the fake IDs he’s seen before, and while the fake Minnesota ones were laughable, it was harder to detect fake out-of-state IDs.

Kids these days are drinking more and driving with higher blood alcohol content, according to Stockwell’s statistics. Most children under age get alcohol from friends, at parties or by getting others to buy it for them. One of the more surprising statistics to me was that minors are responsible for more than 19 percent of liquor sales in the United States.

 

Crime-free housing

Next we met Cpl. Tim Matson who actually started the Citizens Academy back in 2000. One of his big focuses is safe and crime-free rental housing within the city of Albert Lea, which was interesting to me since I’m a renter in the city.

The program was originally started in 1992 in Mesa, Ariz., and the results are surprising. It’s basically a partnership between city government and police, landlords or property managers and tenants.

For tenants the program is pretty easy, they’re just advised to call the police when they see any issues. For landlords there’s a little more work involved, but it has proved to be worth it, according to Matson.

One of the biggest things Matson teaches to landlords is the importance of having a strong lease and screening process for prospective tenants. Also, to qualify and be able to advertise a rental property as crime-free, property owners have to have certain security requirements. These include: 1-inch deadbolts on entrance doors, solid core entrance doors, lift and slide protection on windows, lighting in hallways and parking lots, and landscaping trimmed low or high so as not to give criminals a place to hide.

Matson said the program has been successful in Albert Lea, but part of the success is that it gets rid of criminals in those rental properties, not permanently. He said he’d like to see the program go county-wide because right now, people who can’t rent in Albert Lea just go to smaller communities in the county where there aren’t the same guidelines.

The basic goal of the program is to ensure that people who rent have rights and are able to enjoy the same kind of lifestyle of people who own homes. The program isn’t guaranteeing that anywhere will ever be crime-free, but that’s the goal.

From my personal experience, living at Fountain Lake Estates, which follows the crime-free program, I’ve never had any problems. The police have responded to issues at nearby complexes, but as far as I know it hasn’t been for anything very serious like guns or violence.

I’m learning a lot in this class, and loving every minute of it so far! I’m most excited about this Thursday’s class when we learn about use of force, the SWAT team and get to shoot handguns in the indoor range. On Friday look for photos from Thursday night, and I’ll again have a column in next Monday’s paper about my experience. Thanks for reading!

 

Kelli Lageson is the special projects editor at the Tribune. She’s enrolled in a weekly Citizens Academy put on by the Albert Lea Police Department. Email her at kelli.lageson@albertleatribune.com.