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Chief Terry Scherer

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City of La Porte, Indiana
Police Department

"Live and love
La Porte, Indiana."
1206 Michigan Avenue La Porte,
Indiana 46350 * Phone (219)362-9446 * FAX: (219)324-4375 |
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Please note that many of the graphics in the
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on text that is in red and underlined on the pages of this site, you expand
the bulleted list and access more information. |
Community Outreach Programs
- Citizen's Police Academy
- Overview
- The Citizen's Police Academy is a twelve week program
that is intended to help educate the public as to the
function and operations of the police department. Classes
will be taught by sworn police officers from various
branches of the La Porte City Police Department. Classes
will be held one night per week for three hours and are free
to all qualifying members of the public. The purpose of this program is to facilitate better communications between
the police department and the citizens of La Porte County through education.
Graduates of this program will be better informed and have a greater
understanding of police procedures and practices.
- Selection Requirements
- Must a La Porte County resident or work in La Porte City Police
Department jurisdiction.
- Must be at least 21 years of age.
- Must have no felony convictions.
- Must have no misdemeanor convictions in the last three years.
- Must be willing to undergo a background investigation.
- Must be approved by the Chief of Police and Board of Captains.
- Topics Covered in the Citizen's Police Academy
- Recruitment and training.
- Criminal and traffic law.
- Use of force.
- Communications.
- Accident Investigation.
- Crime Scene Processing.
- Defensive Tactics.
- Emergency Vehicle Operations.
- Traffic Stop.
- Bike Patrol.
- K-9 Operations.
- Emergency response Team Operations.
- Applications and Information
- Community Relations Coordinator
- The LaPorte City Police Department's Community Policing
Coordinator is Captain Dennis Behenna who also oversees all
training for the department as well. The Community Policing
Coordinator works with the LaPorte Neighborhood Watch Association
and Citizen's Police Academy
as well as initiating other projects directly related to community policing.
- Explorer Post
- The LaPorte City Police Department now has an Explorer Post
attached to the police department. The Explorer Post, which is
advised by Captain Terry Scherer, is a win-win situation for
both the police department and the young men and women that are
involved in the Explorer Post. The Explorer Post lets the
officers of the police department have an opportunity to
interact with the young men and women in a positive manner and
help them learn about law enforcement while learning from the
Explorers as well. The participants in the Explorer program will
have an opportunity to learn more about law enforcement and
whether they might like to pursue it as a career while they have
an opportunity to serve the community. Chief Terry Scherer is
the liaison for the Explorer Post.
- La Porte Neighborhood Watch Association
- The LaPorte Neighborhood Watch Association has been in existence in the City of LaPorte since 1994 and meets at the police station on a regular basis. Neighborhood Watch
is a very vital program to the police department as well as the community. The Neighborhood Watch program serves as the police departments eyes and ears
and is a very valuable network and source of information for its participants.
- The LaPorte City Police Department realizes how vital and strategic a role
the LaPorte Neighborhood Watch Association plays in this community and intends
to support the LaPorte Neighborhood Watch Association in such a manner as to
maximize its benefits for all community stakeholders. Meeting dates and
other information concerning Neighborhood watch can be found on the main page on
this site and the LaPorte City Police Department in partnership with the LaPorte
Neighborhood Watch Association encourages all citizens of the City of LaPorte to
consider Neighborhood Watch membership as a way of increasing their level of
community involvement.
- Sgt. Larry Mitchell is currently the liaison for the La
Porte Neighborhood Watch.
- Beat Meetings
- The LaPorte City Police Department also will begin holding
regular meetings with citizens in different areas of the city in
order to seek input on we can better serve the citizens of
LaPorte. These meetings are being held in cooperation with
the LaPorte Neighborhood Watch association and initially will be
used as informational meetings for Neighborhood Watch. The
LaPorte City Police Department will try and have as many officer
on-duty officers as possible attending these meetings so that
the public can meet them.
- Partnership With The LaPorte County Metro Task Force
- The LaPorte City Police Department has officers assigned to work with the
LaPorte County Metro Task Force to address the drug problems in this community
as well as LaPorte County as a whole and is a joint venture between the larger
law enforcement agencies that works under the overall direction of the LaPorte
County Prosecutor.
- The Metro Task Force is the unit that handles almost all ongoing drug
investigations in the City of LaPorte and is the unit that ultimately receives
any information that citizens provide about possible drug dealers in their
neighborhoods. All information of the type is taken very seriously and is
thoroughly investigated. Citizens are encouraged to call the LaPorte City
Police Department if they suspect that someone is selling drugs in their
neighborhoods. However, due to the difficult, time-consuming methods that
are used to investigate drug cases and the necessity of attempting to identify
suspects further up the drug supply chain; citizens reporting possible drug
dealers should not expect immediate results.
- Reserve Officer Program
- The LaPorte City Police Department has an active Reserve Officer Program that
we are currently planning to expand beyond its current three members. Reserve Officers are specially trained, unpaid volunteers that assist regular
officers from the LaPorte City Police Department in the performance of their
duties.
- The LaPorte City Police Department plans to hold its own Reserve Officer
Academy beginning this fall, and in combination with some other training,
eventually beginning certifying Reserve Officers for solo patrol duty.
- School Resource Officer
- The LaPorte City Police Department, in partnership with the LaPorte Community
School Corporation, has a full-time officer, Sergeant Larry Mitchell, serving as
a School Resource Officer at LaPorte High School. The School Resource
Officer is a very important to both the police department and LaPorte High
School because he is able to address many problems and disputes between students
at the high school before those disputes are settled on the streets. In
addition, the School Resource Officer also works in cooperation with school
officials to help beef up security in school buildings as well as acting as a liaison
between the schools and the police department.
Special Enforcement Target Areas
- Overview
- The LaPorte City Police Department realizes that certain areas within our
communities have significant ongoing problems develop that require special
attention in terms of patrol presence in order to address their particular
problems or issues. These special problems could be issues with criminal
activity, traffic problems or even quality of life issues such as noise or
animal ordinance violations. Unfortunately, we have limited manpower and
other resources, so we cannot always immediately address all of the chronic
problems going on in the city at one time. We must prioritize problems and
we also must be sure that we completely understand the problems and develop
systematic approaches to dealing with them. To learn more about problem analysis
and problem-oriented policing in general, you might want to look at the
Problem
Oriented Policing Center web site.
- Special Enforcement Target Areas
- The LaPorte City Police Department is currently running extra
traffic enforcement on Pine Lake Avenue in response to complaints from
area residents and business owners about chronic speeding problems in the
area. Officers are patrolling the area as much as problems in an effort to
curtail the problems of speeding and illegal lane changes and prevent
accidents.
- There have been numerous reports of illegal narcotics being sold from
residences on the near east side of town. We are utilizing saturation
patrols and other techniques to address this problem, but we encourage all
citizens to call in any suspected drug houses in their neighborhoods.
- There has been a recent increase in the number of night time thefts from
vehicles. We encourage all citizens to secure their valuables in their
residences at night rather than leaving them in plain view in vehicles. We
have some leads on these thefts, but encourage everyone to call in any
suspicious activity immediately.
Interactive Forms
- Overview
- In an effort to make it as convenient as possible for citizens to bring
problems in their neighborhoods to the attention of the LaPorte City Police
Department, we are in the process of creating a series of interactive forms that
will allow you to report problems anonymously if you wish. We strongly
encourage you to report any problems in your neighborhood by using these forms
and/or calling the police department because we cannot help you if we do not
know the problem exists. Please note that all crimes in progress and other
emergency situations should be reported immediately by telephone by dialing 911.
- Forms
- Crime Tips is intended to allow you to report
any information that you have regarding possible criminal activity to the
LaPorte City Police Department. This form may be used to report
chronic problems of a minor nature or may be used to give information that
will help us to solve past crimes.
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LaPorte Neighborhood
Watch Association Interest Form is a form that allows you to indicate your
interest in being contacted regarding Neighborhood Watch. You may fill
out and submit this form online and a LaPorte Neighborhood Watch Association
representative will contact you.
- Traffic Complaint Form is intended to
allow you to report any chronic traffic safety problems in your
neighborhood. Problems that should be reported using this form
include: chronic speeding problems during certain hours of the day; problems
with motorists chronically running a particular stop sign and other similar
problems.

01/24/2008 |