{"id":11266,"date":"2012-04-12T20:37:12","date_gmt":"2012-04-13T03:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.57.196.122\/~gdatwofo\/theavtimes\/?p=11266"},"modified":"2012-06-30T12:00:19","modified_gmt":"2012-06-30T19:00:19","slug":"coffee-with-the-captain-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2012\/04\/12\/coffee-with-the-captain-recap\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Coffee with the Captain’ recap"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Rising crime rates in Lancaster, public perception of law enforcement, and customer service and courtesy within the Sheriff\u2019s Department were just a few of several issues raised at \u2018Coffee with the Captain\u2019 Thursday.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LANCASTER \u2013 Lancaster Station Captain Bob Jonsen and Sgt. Theresa Dawson held an open and candid conversation with about a dozen residents Thursday morning as part of \u2018Coffee with the Captain,\u2019 an event aimed at bridging the gap between the Lancaster Station and the community.<\/p>\n

Some residents brought specific problems to the captain\u2019s attention, while other residents questioned Jonsen on broader public safety issues, like rising crime rates and the public\u2019s perception of law enforcement.<\/p>\n

One lady said she lived near Cedar Avenue and West Avenue J, and cars were speeding through her neighborhood at all hours of the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re treating my street like a freeway,\u201d the woman said, adding that she worried for the safety of youngsters playing football in the street.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Jonsen said he would have his traffic unit look into the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll you need to do is let us know where the problem is, and we\u2019ll allocate the resources,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Another resident worried about the recent rise in crime.<\/p>\n

Jonsen said crime trends were still way below where they were five years ago. He said many of the crimes reported, as of late, were lower level thefts or crimes of opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople breaking into your car, that\u2019s a crime of opportunity,\u201d Jonsen said. \u201cWe\u2019re asking residents to take the necessary precautions to secure their property.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jonsen said crimes of opportunity were especially prevalent in high density commercial areas, like the shopping plazas that house the two Walmarts \u2013 on Valley Central Way in west Lancaster and on 20th<\/sup> Street and Avenue J in east Lancaster.<\/p>\n

He said the station had beefed up its presence in those areas recently, and now dedicated officers were working fulltime to police those zones. Jonsen said foot patrols on The Blvd were a deterrent to crime, as well. He said he would be deploying bike patrols in targeted areas throughout the City within the next two weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll be seeing a lot more of us, a lot more visibility,\u201d Jonsen said.<\/p>\n

Lancaster resident, Marshall Dymowski, said people in his neighborhood were reluctant to report suspicious activity, because when they did, they were interrogated by deputies and made to feel like criminals themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe process seems unwelcoming,\u201d Dymowski said. \u201cIt hasn\u2019t deterred me, personally, but a lot of people I know said they\u2019re just not going to bother anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Dawson explained that deputies needed to ask several questions to establish a witness\u2019 relationship to the victim or the suspect in any given incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis helps us in determining your credibility about what you\u2019re telling us,\u201d Dawson said. \u201cSo that sometimes can feel like an interrogation, but it\u2019s really just us establishing who\u2019s who and the motive for your telling us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jonsen said, in any case, his deputies were taught to always be respectful and to always be professional.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t feel you are being treated with respect or there is a lack of professionalism, those are the things I want to know about,\u201d he said. \u201cThose are the things we can change\u2026 we can hold our own accountable and we have been doing that quite a bit over the past 12 months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jonsen said the Lancaster Station had met with the Justice Department as part of the federal investigation into alleged discriminatory policing by law enforcement in the Antelope Valley. He said the Justice Department gave him some feedback, which he took to heart.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe feedback was that we need to be more engaged in the community, because there\u2019s a perception out there that we\u2019re not connected\u2026\u201d Jonsen. \u201cI agree there\u2019s room for improvement, there always is, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jonsen said respect is a two-way street, and the community had to do its part in giving deputies the necessary respect as well. He said there was a misperception that Lancaster deputies routinely used excessive force when, in reality, the station used the least amount of force in the region.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Captain Bob Jonsen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI think it was over 400 uses of force in the last three years that this station has used,\u201d Jonsen said. \u201cOnly about 20 of those resulted in people having to get medical treatment, that\u2019s a small number.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said Lancaster handled more calls for service and arrested more people than any other station in the north region and had more than 250,000 calls for service in the last three years, yet there were only two cases where someone was shot in a pedestrian stop or a vehicle stop. Jonsen said the other three deputy-involved shootings happened during the service of a search warrant.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo [for] a general citizen walking down the street, the probability of them being shot by a deputy sheriff is probably less likely than winning the lottery, it\u2019s that low,\u201d Jonsen said.<\/p>\n

Residents who attended Thursday\u2019s Coffee with the Captain said they were impressed by Jonsen\u2019s candor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe his honesty in trying to really reach out and make a difference in our community,\u201d said Antelope Valley NAACP President Juan Blanco.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really like what this captain is doing with the department,\u201d said Lilia Galindo. \u201cThey are paying attention to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jonsen said he hopes to hold similar meetings in the future. The Lancaster Station\u2019s monthly \u2018Coffee with a Deputy\u2019 meeting is held on the second Thursday of every month. A location for the May meeting has yet to be determined.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LANCASTER \u2013 Lancaster Station Captain Bob Jonsen and Sgt. Theresa Dawson held an open and candid conversation with about a dozen residents Thursday morning as part of \u2018Coffee with the Captain,\u2019 an event aimed at bridging the gap between the Lancaster Station and the community. Some residents brought specific problems to the captain\u2019s attention, while […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11266"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}