Laramie Police Department (LPD) is potentially one of the best law enforcement organizations in the nation, according to a report finished this week by the Center for Public Safety Management (CPSM).
Leonard Matarese, CPSM director of research and project management, told the city council Tuesday he had not expected to find such a good police force in a town of Laramie’s size.
“This is an outstanding police department,” Matarese said. “This is one of the best public safety agencies that we’ve had a chance to evaluate. Surprisingly good, quite frankly.”
The CPSM director said the agency should be commended on its use of body cameras, its use-of-force policies, its technology and its crisis intervention team, which receives special training on how to recognize and deal with mentally ill people.
“There are no serious deficiencies in the agency whatsoever,” Matarese said. “As far as any serious problems with the agency, there are none.”
Mayor Dave Paulekas said the news was especially good for a college town.
“It’s tremendous to get that kind of compliment for a department within our community given the youth in our community, given all the issues we have because of our youth,” Paulekas said. “I think it’s wonderful to hear what we just heard.”
Matarese said, as he outlined the 98-page analysis for the council, that Chief of Police Dale Stalder deserved recognition for implementation of and adherence to a “model” use-of-force policy.
“This is by far and away, the best use-of-force policy we have seen,” Matarese said. “While departments all over the country are going through training, desperately trying to get in place a use-of-force policy that makes sense, your department has had it in place for several years.”
Stalder said the key to keeping a use-of-force policy effective is by keeping it up-to-date.
“It’s one of those areas in police work that’s really rapidly evolving,” Stalder said. “It’s important to stay up on case law as well as trends.”
Body cameras for police officers, which Matarese said could become the industry standard within the next year, was another area in which LPD was ahead of the curve.
“Everybody in the nation is talking about putting body cameras on police officers and how critical it is,” he said. “It’s something you should be very proud of having done because you’re way ahead of everyone else in this country.”
Stalder said he appreciates the body cameras, which have been used since early 2013.
“It gives us the opportunity to document a lot more than we were ever documenting on video before,” Stalder said. “It’s been a great thing for us all around.”
While the report emphasized the good and the good made up the majority of CPSM’s findings, the report did make minor recommendations, such as developing a strategic plan, using local and social media more effectively to educate the public and establishing a practice of preparing annual reports.
