Buzz with the Fuzz: Episode 2
What's up, everybody? My name is Cody Yard, and I am the host of The Buzz with a Fuzz. It's Apple Valley's police department podcast. We're gonna do fun stuff. This thing we're gonna do chatting with the chief.
Cody:We're gonna do some q and a's, and we're gonna do some longer format podcasts where we sit down with folks from specialty units, and you guys get to learn about who they are and what they do. I got my start in journalism back in 2002 as a combat correspondent in United States Marine Corps. Really excited to be the host of this podcast here with the police department, and I'm really looking forward to bringing you some new fun facts and information that you might not know about Apple Valley's police department. So stick around, buckle up, and let's have some fun.
Cody:If you are listening to this podcast, this is the 2nd episode of Buzz with the Fuzz. Again, my name is Cody Yard, and with me today is Pam Walter. Pam, tell us what your job is here at the police department and how long you've been here.
Pam:So I do community outreach and prevention for the police department. I've been here for 23 years. I've done prevention about 25 total with another department, and then I've also worked for the county. I've done court work. I was a court aid with Ramsey County and did court intake and court clerking, if you will.
Cody:Tell me about the changes you've seen here. You've been here for 23 years. Tell me about the changes and how your job has evolved.
Pam:So the job has evolved in such that we are doing a lot more digital reach out to the community. We still like to do in person events and things like that, but I do a lot more, conversing with people via email. I do a lot more responding to people via texts, handing out my cell phone number, and, you know, directing people to our website for the a lot of the information that I used to tell people over the phone.
Cody:My assumption is that makes it a little bit easier for you in terms of, like, the community outreach part where you can direct people just to the website versus having to have a recited or a preplanned, this is what we've got going on. This is if you're looking for information, I have it for you.
Pam:Exactly. It does make it a lot easier to connect with the community. Social media is one I forgot to mention where we are able to reach a lot more people via those avenues, the social media platforms, email, things like that. So we're reaching more people, rather than having to wait for people to read a newspaper or see a news television program or a newscast on TV. So Yeah.
Pam:Yeah. So it it enhances our reach, makes it easier to flow information out to the public and, share with them things that we've got going on.
Cody:Very cool. And so you also help plan the events that the police department has coming up throughout the year. Right?
Pam:Exactly.
Cody:What's the first one coming up here that we've got?
Pam:We are gonna be offering our citizens and teen academies again. These are outreach opportunities for us to connect with the public. We invite the public in to kind of get an inside look at our department. The teen academy is open to kids in high school that, either live or attend high school in Apple Valley, and it's kind of an idea for kids to look at the career of law enforcement. The Citizens Academy for Adults is open to adults, obviously, living in the city of Apple Valley that are just interested in our department and learning more about it.
Cody:Do we get enough interest in that? I know in the past years, we've also partnered with, like, Rosemont or Farmington. I think we've had a partnership with where it's citizens from all three cities.
Pam:Yep. It's, we do partner with Rosemont PD. So it is Rosemont and Apple Valley citizens. Bettina Academy, we have had less interest in, so we are gonna open that up to, more communities this year. But, we're going to probably keep the Citizens Academy to just Apple Valley and Rosemount residents.
Pam:It is something that we do have a maximum number of people that we can accept. The last 2 years, we've been filling it and having to put people on a waiting list or, yeah, we haven't been able to allow everybody.
Cody:Not nice that they have to go on a waiting list, but it's good that we have people interested in what we do and who we are.
Pam:Exactly. Yep. And it is there is a huge interest, and these are the people that are are supporters of law enforcement. These are people who wanna learn more about the profession of law enforcement. These are people who wanna know who are the people that are out there on the streets working day in and day out in their community.
Pam:So, yeah, it's a good thing.
Cody:Yeah. And I know we always have, Citizen Academy riders who come and hang out with us for a couple hours. That gives them a good opportunity to see what it's like out working patrol. And and then they come out at night too, which is Yep. You know, I mean, crime happens during the day.
Pam:Yes.
Cody:But the fun stuff happens at night.
Pam:Yes. And that's mostly what people wanna do is ride at night with the officers, get some action, if you will. It is part of the program, and it is something that people I think it's a big draw to the program itself is that people get to ride along. And, you know, so it's a fun time for them. And I've always heard very positive feedback.
Pam:The officers that take people are fantastic. It's got can't be easy having people in your car for a couple hours making conversation and doing your job, but it's still it's it's a really it's a great part of that program that people will love.
Cody:What else do they get to do with the, like, the Citizens and Teen Academy?
Pam:So with the Teen Academy, we pair it down a smidge just because it is, it's a little bit shorter and it's kids. A lot of classroom, we try to make it interactive where they learn about the profession. They see some real life stuff. We have different departments that come in and talk to them. Our Our investigators come in.
Pam:We talk about DWIs. We talk about traffic stops. We do some scenarios with them, with traffic stops. And then with the adults, they actually get an extra they get the ride along. That's part of our the adult program.
Pam:And then they also get to go out to our range and fire the office like, the weapons that the officers use. And we've got firearm instructors out there that are helping put that session on. And so it that's another big draw is is getting them out, showing them the weapons that you guys have at your disposal, and then allowing them to to partake in shooting.
Cody:Yeah. I was lucky enough to be a firearms instructor for one of those days. Me and and Nick Wolf, the sergeant in charge of the firearms program, we brought out the fully automatic m p 5 that we have and let people shoot that.
Cody:Just a couple of rounds apiece because we don't have a ton of ammo. And although it would be fun to let them shoot a full 25 round magazine or whatever it is. I don't even remember. But I think that was a highlight for folks that day.
Pam:It was. Some people are really, really into it, and then you get some people like me who are very intimidated by it. They they might, you know, not wanna partake, which is totally fine. They can come out and learn and watch and then some of them, most of them will just step right up. And with our firearms instructors, it's fantastic because, you know, you I think it makes them feel better to be able to handle a weapon, fire a weapon under the guidance of somebody who is familiar and an expert in it.
Cody:Right. Yeah. And we, as instructors, we know the importance of firearm safety, especially with folks that we also don't know and don't know their level of proficiency with those weapon systems. So it's good to have, that level of respect for the firearm out there as well.
Pam:Yes.
Cody:And so, and we never pressure anybody into doing something that they're not comfortable with, and that's but it is fun to watch people, like they get this, you know, you can tell that there's, like, this this really, like, high from doing something like that. And even if it's just shooting, like, our duty handguns, that might be the first time people fire a a pistol and and it's pretty cool to watch their, people come away with 1 of 2 reactions like, oh, don't ever wanna do that again because that was scary. And then there's other people are like, that was exhilarating, and I now have a newfound respect for these weapons. Right?
Pam:Exactly. Exactly. And we're so fortunate that we're able to offer this program year after year. It is an annual program, and that we are able to do some of these things with them and and show them in-depth what it is that we do here. You know, there's a lot of specialties.
Pam:You'll be highlighting a lot of these in your podcast. And just seeing, you know, and and putting faces, you know, to the patrol officers and the cars that are out there and learning that officers are human beings. And, you know, we show them the lighter side of policing, you know, with some of the the presentations and some of the the way that people do their presentations. So it's great to if you're gonna see an officer, you see them on all different sides, you know, when they're in the classroom, when they're out on the range, and then in the vehicle. So it's it's a good program.
Pam:And and like I said, I think people enjoy it, and we're fortunate that we're able to do it year after year.
Cody:Yeah. Yeah. And I I like the idea that, you get citizens who don't normally have an opportunity to hang out with us. They get that inside view, and then they go back and they they tell their friends. They tell their family, like, you guys, I had this awesome opportunity to do this.
Cody:Here's my experience. Everybody that I met, most were okay. There was no. I'm kidding. But
Pam:They're all awesome.
Cody:Yeah. Right? Like like, if I'm working and there's a Citizens Academy rider with one of my partners, we're still very welcoming in the briefing room. We always make sure to have a briefing so that they get as much contact with whoever's working as possible, and they can hear some of the stuff that we're passing along. You know, like, consistently getting a noise complaint here.
Cody:There's traffic complaints on this end of town. Let's pick some some things to do tonight where we can actually go out and make an impact in that area, especially, like, traffic complaints. Right? Like, that's a big deal for us.
Pam:Yep.
Cody:So we've got Citizens Academy, Teen Academy coming up. What else do we have in store for this year?
Pam:So the summer is very busy for outreach and prevention. I usually like to start the summer off with an event that I call Watchdog Walkers. It's a it's an event it's a pet centered event where we have people come out and their animals. The premise of the program is to teach people about being aware when out and about, and then, like, watching for and reporting suspicious activity. So we do this in a fun way where we bring a bunch of pet professionals out and invite the community and their pets out to just visit the different vendor tables, talk with officers, and pick up some resources on safety and security while out and about.
Pam:One of the big messages that I give to people every year is make sure that you, you know, when you see something, say something. I mean, we all know that phrase.
Pam:But it really does resonate with prevention. You know? It's and you would probably agree, it's hard for an officer. It's probably easier to respond to something that people have just seen or is in progress versus having to respond after the fact, and, you know, you've got now 15 cars that were broken into Right. When overnight, somebody saw something, but they never called it in.
Pam:So the program itself, the Watchdog Walkers program, will will try and target people who are out and about, you know, walking their pets. You know, we invite everybody. You don't have to come with your animals. But, it is kind of a more of a pet centered event. That happens in June, and we like I said, we usually have a lot of different vendors, and then we've got resources from the police department as well.
Cody:Very cool. Yeah. I've been out there a couple of times for that event, and everybody asks if I'm gonna get my canine out. And it's always hard to because there are other dogs there. People it's a pet friendly event, so people bring their dogs, and dogs don't interact well at the end of a leash all the time, especially meeting new animals.
Cody:So for me, I always have to leave Virgil in the squad just because I don't wanna have any sort of unfortunate event.
Pam:Yeah. And and everybody asks and it's tough. I mean, people understand. They everybody wants to see the canines. You know, we do really do have to people need to realize that they're working dogs and and they're there for a purpose.
Pam:It's not a pet. And Right. Yeah. And so Well,
Cody:Virgil's a pet at home.
Pam:A pet to you.
Cody:Yeah. He's he's got this really great on off switch. Right? Like, at home, he is he is a pet. But as soon as I put him in that squad car, you know, it's we're going to work.
Cody:So if I'm in uniform and I put his collar on and put his vest on, he knows he's going to work too. So it's a really different mindset. And it's weird, but you can see it in him and his demeanor when we go to work.
Pam:Which I imagine is exactly what you're looking for in a canine dog. So it's unfortunate that some of these outreach programs, the canines are not a good fit for that, to bring them out to the public and everything. But, you know, I think everybody has been fairly understanding. And, you know, the events are what they are. We invite people to come out and enjoy them.
Pam:And, whenever we can get canine out, we will. And I know we've done demos and things like that. So, you know, when it's more of a just come watch and see, those are good events. But when it's a let's mingle and, you know, that's a little bit harder. So Right.
Pam:People get that. But Yeah. But it's a cool event. I we're trying to grow that every year. We're always looking for people to that wanna come out and and be a vendor.
Pam:You know, if you've got a pet friendly business or you have, you know, some ideas, I'm I'm always open to hearing stuff. I've been in this position for 23 years, so I'm I'm always open to hearing what people's ideas are.
Cody:If somebody wants to be a vendor Or they want to have a booth at your event?
Pam:Yep. Yeah. Just people can give me
Cody:a call. Hopefully, my contact information will be on the end
Pam:of this, or I am, can be found on our website. But, yeah, if there's no fee to do this, just set up a table and, you know, just mingle with the people. We love it. You know? And the more resources and and businesses and things like that we can get there, I think the better the event is.
Cody:The most important part about Watchdog Walkers is being engaged in the community. And if you're seeing things in your in your little neighborhood that you think are suspicious, give us a call.
Pam:Exactly.
Cody:Call 911.
Pam:Yep. So let me take off my event planner hat and put my prevention hat back on, and it's yes. That is ultimately the the message that I'm trying to get across with that event is watch for and report stuff. We have little handy, like, wallet cards, laminated wallet cards that we hand out that says here's what you should be looking for. This is these are some things that don't if they are occurring when you're walking that don't appear quite right, just call 911.
Pam:That's another huge hurdle is 911. People think, that they're bothering people.
Cody:It's for emergencies only.
Pam:Yes. Exactly. It's not for heart attacks anymore. It's for everything. So that's another good message for us to get out at that event.
Cody:Yeah. That that is very important because people always say, like, I don't wanna bother anybody. Mhmm. I called in on the on the nonemergency line. Folks, that number goes to the same operators if you call 911 or if you call the nonemergency line.
Cody:It's the same it's the same folks out there answering those phones. And that's important because it's a lot easier to remember 911 than it is 651, whatever that
Pam:Exactly.
Cody:7 digits that follow is because even I don't know the nonemergency line. Exactly.
Pam:Yeah. Yeah. So that's one thing I will always promote to people when I meet with them is is to just use 911 if you need a police response, fire response, or an ambulance. It's it all goes through the same thing. Getting back to Citizens Academy real quick, dispatch is one of the topics, and we get to go out to their facilities.
Pam:So that's another cool thing. We bring the kids out there as well, the teen academy. So it's nice for people to learn how dispatch works and, you know, see the call takers and and understand, you know, here's where your call goes and what somebody's doing. And and I think it helps too to help get people over the hurdle of, oh, I don't wanna be bothering anyone.
Cody:Right. Yep. And then it's also I think there might be some hesitation because it's a I don't wanna bother the police department either.
Cody:Well, I'm here for 10 hours every day that I work, and I either respond to calls or I drive around and look for activity.
Cody:But everybody sees me coming because I'm in a bright, you know, shiny car that's marked and says police, and you can recognize a Ford Explorer from 3 blocks away and know that that's a cop car coming my direction, if I'm up to no good, I'm gonna duck behind something I'm gonna hide. I might drive right past somebody doing something they're not supposed to be doing. Now a citizen who lives in the area might see this person milling around, you know, whatever, checking car door handles, stuff like that. People can hide really easy from us, but they can't hide from somebody watching from their window across the street.
Pam:Right.
Cody:That's the best part. Like, call us. We will come out. It's not a bother. It's not like, that's what we're here for.
Cody:We're here to have those interactions with people who probably shouldn't be doing those things.
Pam:Right. And and that's what I try to get across in my prevention, you know, piece is is is you are the eyes and ears of this community, and the officers need assistance. And if you see something and you don't call it in and realize the next day that 5 of your neighbors were victimized, you know, that's a bummer. So we wanna kind of nip things in the bud and and have people call stuff in. And I do try to tell people too when we're talking about prevention and and what to watch for that, you know, there's there's certain ways you can call things in.
Pam:You know, you can give the information and and have be done with it. You can ask the officer, you know, to to get a call or ask the dispatcher to have the officer call you back. You can report anonymously if you would like. You could say, I don't want a callback. I'm just reporting this.
Pam:Whatever. So all of those are good just to get an officer out to the, you know, the location. But, just being involved, that's part of what it means to live in a community. And, you know, that's the message that I'm always trying to get across.
Cody:Right. Because, ultimately, the citizens make the community safer.
Pam:Exactly.
Cody:As police officers, we help Mhmm. To make it safer. But so, like, the responsibility is on the people who live in those neighborhoods. Yep. It's hard for me to turn it off because, like, I live in another city, and I was out for a walk, came home.
Cody:There was a car parked in the cul de sac that I'd never seen before. It was running. I could see somebody on their phone. Of course, like, I go into, hey, what are you doing here? Why are you here?
Cody:Who are you waiting for? And they're like, my friend, you know. It turns out I made, you know, the another neighbor came out and said, hey. That's my friend. Whatever.
Cody:And they left, which was nice because it's a car that I don't know.
Pam:Now you know it.
Cody:Now my neighborhood, you know, it's it's a quiet so I'm I'm actively engaged in, like but for me, it's hard to turn it off. And I live kind of in that world of, like, hey, I'm willing to have these these confrontations.
Cody:And the average citizen doesn't want that con confrontation, and that's what we're here for.
Pam:Right.
Cody:And so that's why I wanna like, if I'm working, I'm more than happy to come out and talk to folks. Yep.
Pam:So And that's the message that I think we just gotta keep getting across to people. Right. And that's what I do.
Cody:Yeah. And the best part is is if we get the community engaged, there's only, what, 8 people, 8 officers working at a time, like, between 8 PM and 2 AM. There's 8 of us. If we have everybody working, it could be as low as 4 and a sergeant. So for 16 square miles, we can't really cover a lot of ground in terms of, like, prevention.
Cody:That's why we need the community's help.
Pam:Yep. And that is one of the pieces I like to stress to people is, you know, if you call, you know, it it's kind of a double edged sword because, you know, people don't wanna bother the officers, and they feel like you always have something better to do. And and sometimes there is that small ratio of officers on the street. But in the same respect, we're needing the public's help to report things. And this is what helps combat crime in the neighborhoods is you standing up and saying, Joe Citizen, I'm not going to allow this, and I'm going to call the police when I see this activity.
Pam:And, you know, the police are there to assist, but, you know, we all have to kind of take a little stake in keeping the community safe. And it's it's a sometimes it's a hard sell when I do my prevention and my outreach. But, you know, I think all in all, the the more times we can get that message out, the better it is for our department and for the community as a whole.
Cody:Right? Yeah. We absolutely need the public's help in crime prevention.
Cody:We're a reactive agency.
Pam:Right.
Cody:Right? Like, we respond to things. We are proactive in policing as far as, like, traffic enforcement and, like, checking businesses for open doors, things like that. But, like, there's very little that we can control there in terms of, like, how we go out and stop crime.
Cody:Right? But, like, the prevention side of it and and actually catching criminals, it's typically a reactive response.
Pam:Right.
Cody:So
Pam:I think people too in our community, some people have what I would consider a false sense of security thinking they're in the suburbs. Crime doesn't happen here. Maybe they don't hear about the crimes that happen, and that's a nice segue to into our website is a plethora of information, and there is a spot on our website where people can actually go on an interactive map and see calls for service. It's called the police incident mapper on our website, and that's applevalleymn.gov. And if you go on the police page, you'll find that incident mapping.
Pam:And it's it's good for people to know that, you know, we do have burglaries. You know, we're we're certainly not as the department publishing every time we respond to a call. So we appreciate the fact that, you know, some residents are very engaged in in seeing what goes on and that's a good spot to reach out to see what kind of calls have gone down, what's happening in your own neighborhood, you know, and being more aware and more informed so that you people can take the right precautions, you know, and and realize that it's very important to make sure that your garage door is closed every night and, you know, to protect yourself from being a victim. Or, you know, my standard line of make sure you've got your exterior lights on, you know, just to light up your neighborhood. And light is a very inexpensive deterrent to crime and it's, you know, everybody can do it.
Cody:Right.
Pam:So, yeah, just things like that. There's simple ways that people can kind of start living their lives and helping with the situation. But, I do recommend people check out that incident map and find out what's been happening. And you can look all over the city and see what's been going on.
Cody:And then you you know, like, oh, man. Just two doors down, my neighbor's house was broken into while they were on vacation. Yep. That reminds me. I saw that car down there that I didn't recognize parked in their driveway or whatever it is.
Cody:Right. It's not to shame people to say, like, you should have called or anything like that. No. But it is definitely something like, we should be aware of these things.
Pam:Mhmm. And that's the biggest piece. And that's why the communication from us to the public is so great. We've been able to increase it in the years that I've been here with our email outreach, with our social media outreach, with a podcast like this. So it's good.
Pam:It's good that people are aware. That helps people to understand that things happen and to better protect themselves, from becoming a victim.
Cody:What's the biggest event that you have this year?
Pam:I would say probably Night to Unite. It's our annual crime prevention event. It's an it's a started out as a national program, National Night Out. People know it as the city, the state of Minnesota, and then many cities within decided to promote, a similar event called Night to Unite. It is one night of the of the year where we asked the community to come together, plan neighborhood gatherings to support crime prevention and and build police and community relationships.
Pam:It happens the 1st Tuesday of every August. We are encouraging neighborhoods to organize, if you will, and host a block party or any kind of gathering. And then we try to get our officers out to as many parties as we can. We also enlist the help of the fire department to visit parties that night. It's tough because everybody has their party from, you know, anywhere between 6 pm 8 pm and it's tough for us to get to every single party in that short time frame.
Pam:But we give it a try. It's a good time for us to get out even just for 10 minutes at a party and then move on. But it's also the underlying other piece of it is is we're getting neighbors together. You know? So you are getting more familiar with the people that live on your street or in your building or in your community.
Pam:So it's it's kind of a it's a win win all across the board. We get out a little bit and meet people and then the the community as a whole comes together. So that's my biggest event and don't know why every year I'm shocked at, you know, what I have to do to plan it because I've been doing it for 25 years, but that is by far our biggest. We have upwards of, you know, a 100, 120 parties a year that will organize. Yeah.
Pam:And, and that's that's a huge undertaking to to manage all of that, but it is, you know, having done it so long too, a lot of it is second nature to me. So I encourage neighborhoods to consider doing one this year. Like I said, you've got until August Right. To put something like this together. So it's, it's a big one for us.
Pam:And, again, information on all of our programs can be found on the website, or people can call me.
Cody:Yeah.
Pam:You know, I'm happy to discuss things with people.
Cody:Yeah. I've I've been lucky enough to be a part of that a couple years, now. And I was lucky enough 2 years ago because last year, I wasn't working Tuesday nights. But 2 years ago, I took Tom Melander from the city council.
Cody:And we just drove around other to to the neighborhoods, to the parties. And it was a great time. At that point, I I was able to get Virgil out of the squad and let let him interact with children and, do some of those things. And it was actually nice to hang out with the city council member and chat a little bit about, like, what's going on with them because, you know, we view them again as they're in an elected position and they're, you know, everybody maybe just has different differing opinions on who they are, and they just see them as that position and not as a person. So
Pam:Right. I'm glad you mentioned that because the city is massively supportive of all of our prevention efforts. And, you know, they take time out of their evenings away from their neighborhoods to help us celebrate that night. And the mayor and city council have always been very supportive, so I do appreciate their participation as well that evening.
Cody:Yeah. It's huge to have those guys get out here and and just meet the people of the city.
Pam:Exactly.
Cody:That's the most important part.
Pam:Exactly. And that's what it's about. Like I said, building those community relationships and then, you know, sprinkling in a little prevention information.
Cody:Right. I and I like the getting the neighborhoods together, because how often when I was growing up, you know, it was, I'm 42, so I'm a product of the eighties nineties. You know? And I I grew up on a farm after the age of 11, so I'd ride my bike 3 miles into town to play baseball with all my friends and then have to ride 3 miles home for dinner. But, like, I also spent time in Stillwater as a child.
Cody:I don't know if my mom knows this, but I rode my bike to Lakeland one day at 10 years old.
Pam:And that She does now.
Cody:She does. And that's a haul, right, for a 10 year old on a BMX bike. Mhmm. But I had friends that we were always playing together. And now, you know, I think that that dynamic has shifted, and I have friends on the Internet.
Cody:And I play with friends on the Internet. And that cool, but also get outside.
Pam:Exactly.
Cody:Meet your neighbors. You know, meet the families in your neighborhood. They could be your lifelong friends. Mhmm. You know?
Pam:And your biggest supporters. You know? You're out of town for a week on vacation. You get your neighbor that you trust to watch your home and call in anything. Or I could go on for days talking about why building great community relationships is good, but we only have so much time.
Pam:So Yeah. Just everybody's gonna have to trust me on this. Get to know your neighbors.
Cody:Yes. Absolutely. Right? Yeah. It's it's nice.
Cody:I'm my neighbor, he texted me like, hey, dude. I'm I'm out of town, but I had something delivered. Can you just throw it in your garage until I get home? Totally.
Pam:Yep. I do that for my neighbors too.
Cody:Yeah.
Pam:Yeah.
Cody:Same. And and it works both ways too.
Pam:Right? Exactly.
Cody:So what else is one of your favorite programs to put together
Pam:here? So we have had some massive success with our youth fishing event. Now, not ice fishing, but summer fishing, on the during our Freedom Day celebration. So Freedom Days is about a week long celebration that the city does every year. And a few years back, we started our Casting with the Cops event.
Pam:It's a youth fishing event, just to get people out and fish with our officers. It has been very well attended. It's again, it's a pre registration kind of event, but the kids get to get out there. Some who've never fished before, we do that on Cobblestone Lake on the pier, and it's just it's a really fun, kinda low key event. And I think what happens too is, you know, kids don't just wander up to the lake by themselves, so now we've got the parents, a little bit of a captive audience that we've got there that we can mingle with.
Pam:And, you know, we give people the opportunity to take a photo with the squad car. The chief is always out there dragging kids around in the garden carts with our UTV. It's just it's a fun time. You know, we add some extras and it's just a very good way for children to see officers. Yeah.
Pam:Yeah. To get a little taste of here are our our police officers that are, you know, they're not on shift. They're not responding to something hideous or heinous in your neighborhood or within your family. Here they are. They're real people.
Pam:They're out on the dock fishing with you. And it's, so it's been very well attended, and I think people love it. And I think that's Cool. That's another one we're gonna continue to do year after year.
Cody:Big question is, are people catching fish?
Pam:Yes. I have some photos. Now, again, I'm a little bit of a land lover, so I'm on the shore. Nobody wants to fish with a crime prevention specialist. Yes.
Pam:We do have photos of kids and officers with their fish and yeah. Sometimes Sometimes it's a little tough when you got 20 kids on a dock and every, you know, dropping lines. Yeah. But, but kids have they have a good time. So
Cody:Maybe we should talk to the DNR and get them to stock the lake a little bit more for us.
Pam:Is an idea. I like the way you think.
Cody:Because they will come out and stock lakes.
Pam:Well
Cody:I think we just have to put in a request. So
Pam:Garrett, if you're listening, we want the lake stocked.
Cody:Yes. I don't ask for much. Just a couple of state record, fish in there as well. Okay. Grown.
Cody:I'll do my best to catch them.
Pam:Yes. Okay. Not that's not asking for much.
Cody:No. I I you know what? Actually, I'll just let a I'll I would be willing to let a child catch a state record fish because what kind of a memory would that build for them?
Pam:I know. Fantastic.
Cody:So
Pam:We'll shoot for that this year then. Casting with the cops is always right before the 4th July. So hopefully people, again, can look check out our website. Everything that we offer will be offered on the website when it's available for registration.
Cody:Cool. How many spots available for casting with a cop?
Pam:I think we do about a 100. We give them a half hour time slot. And so we've got maybe we do about 80. And half hour time slot, we try and get 20 kids out on the dock at a time. We might squeeze more on there.
Pam:It depends on, you know, what the water levels are and what have you and how many staff we have. But Right. With that event, I need to do a plug for the Minnesota Valley Inn Fisherman's Club. They are the ones who actually help and and do most of the work for that. And then their staff is on-site as well.
Pam:They offer up prizes. They, have staff there helping the kids fish. They bring all of the bait. It's a fantastic group to work with, and and again, they help make that event run smoothly. Because I will tell you, and I will admit, I don't know anything about fishing.
Pam:I don't fish. I don't like to fish. So, again, I am on the shore checking people in. But, yeah, the the Minnesota Valley and Fisherman's Club is awesome.
Cody:Cool. Do they take the fish off the hook for the kids, or do they teach them how? I my hope is that they would teach them how.
Pam:I believe, yes. It's
Cody:And like baiting hooks.
Pam:Some instruction. And then the kids who absolutely do not wanna do any of that, they're there for them. You know? But if I'm sure if they wanna get their hands dirty and get in there with the bait and get in there with the fish, I'm sure they can.
Cody:I just hate it when I get stung by their by their fins or their gills. And then I'm such a big baby. I just drop the fish right away. Like, I don't ouch. Yep. Done.
Pam:This is why I'm on land.
Cody:What else is going on in in in your world as far as crime prevention, community outreach?
Pam:I do have a couple things I'd like to point out, and, again, I'm gonna go to our website. We have a couple registration programs that are out there. One is our rental residential rental registration, and that is something that's online. Anybody who rents their home in Apple Valley has to register. Pretty self explanatory.
Pam:Everybody that has this or or does rent out their their property can go online. The other one that's not quite as well known is our safe cam program. This is a program we're asking people to register if they have home surveillance equipment. So maybe a ring doorbell or an exterior property camera, And this is something that our officers then can refer to. Let's say we have a string of or an incident occurs in the neighborhood.
Pam:And rather than officers having to go drive through the neighborhood to our system, the SafeCam registration system or program online and see, and then they can reach right out to to folks who have registered. And basically, the information that's, in the registry is for officer use only and only if there's an incident.
Pam:So if you register your cameras, you know, we're not gonna be showing up and asking for things only, you know
Cody:Yeah. So does that that database and I my assumption would be it's email address, phone number, and then home address?
Pam:Yes.
Cody:And so that's how we would reach out like, hey, we had a we had an incident happen in your neighborhood. Would you be willing to provide any camera footage from your security system that may have captured that, like, this time frame?
Pam:Yep. Here's what we're looking forward. Can you check your system? Do you have anything that maybe saw anything? And and I will say, I don't, right off the top of my head, know how many people are registered, but we're always looking, you know, if if people have systems and they wanna register, it's completely voluntary.
Pam:But I will say in looking at calls for service and knowing, you know, some of the things that have gone on in the city, there are a lot of times where officers are looking for this residential footage. And we have a lot of people who will also call us and say, hey. You know, I was looking at my video footage or whatever.
Cody:Yeah. I had an alert.
Pam:Yeah. Oh, yes. Yep. And then offer that up. So, I would love to see that that that registration system grow and or, database grow.
Pam:So if people are interested, they can go online and sign up. And again, the information is is private for police use only. We don't share that information. And it is, you will only be contacted if there's an incident
Cody:Right. In the neighborhood. And this isn't giving us access to their systems at all. It is just on their own volition giving us that information if they're willing to provide it.
Pam:Correct. Yes. Thank you for bringing that up. It does not give the police, the right to or or any access to the system.
Cody:Right. It's yep. We would contact them and say, hey, would you be willing to look through your system to see if you have any footage of this event?
Pam:If yep. Exactly.
Cody:Like in this time frame. Yep. Same way we we ask businesses, you know, hey, do you have video footage of this theft or accident that happened out in your parking lot?
Pam:And, you know, that's actually a good point because we are asking businesses to, register their camera systems as well. So that if, you know, there's a crash at, Garden View and 42, we can go to Flowerama and say, hey. Did you have, you know, any footage or whatever if they've got their system? Now, I know a lot of the officers know the businesses around town, and they know if they've got systems or not. Mhmm.
Pam:But, just one more kind of a back up way for us to see, you know, if there's maybe a business that moves in or starts up or whatever and they wanna register their system, then we've got a contact there.
Cody:And the easy thing then is we can the business doesn't have to be open. Right. Right? Like, we can email them at the time of the incident versus because sometimes that follow-up stuff might get pushed to another officer.
Pam:Exactly.
Cody:And so it's nice when there's a there's a sense of, like, accomplishment for us on patrol when we were able to see something all the way through versus having to send this up to investigations for further follow-up. It is nice to have that finality when you put a case together completely and you can just send it off to the appropriate folks, whether that's closed or to the attorneys for charging, whatever that looks like. So Right.
Pam:Yeah. And, hopefully, this, safe cam registration system will aid in that.
Cody:Yeah. Absolutely. It would. Yeah. So what else?
Cody:Anything else you got going on?
Pam:I do have one more plug. Please. So there's a new community driven organization in the city. It's called the Apple Valley Community Crime Prevention Association and this is an organization. It's a nonprofit 501c3 made up of, residents of the city, business people in the city.
Pam:And the the the organization's mission is to support the police department. We, in my 23 year history here, I have had a lot of different endeavors where businesses have reached out to the police department wanting to donate funds or and you know very well as a k nine officer that we've had people who have, you know, very deep seated interests in providing things to your dog or for you as an officer. The Apple Valley Community Crime Prevention Association gives the department, a resource for those types of donations. If a business is looking to support us, they can give to that nonprofit and then, which is run a 100% by people in the community. And then the department then can reach out to that organization for, you know, funds.
Pam:If Virgil needs a vest, or if, you know, you've got something that's not budgeted that all of a sudden an officer realizes that this might be a good resource for our department, then, we've got some funding that might be able to be used. We are still looking for people to join that organization, to help us shape it, mold it, and run it. So if we've got any people out there with nonprofit experience, if we've got people who have tech experience or are great with event planning and fundraising or, you know, just wanna be a, you know, a little bit closer to our department and help us plan for the future, that's a good way to do it. Right. I do know that we do have a link under our prevention and resources on the city's website on the police page for the Apple Valley Community Crime Prevention Association.
Pam:So, things or you can Google that and, there's a website that of the organization. It's in kind of its infant stages of developing. So we're looking for anybody who's interested in in being involved.
Cody:Very cool. So it let's let's say if somebody wants to donate money specifically for an item or for
Pam:A program. Yeah. An event. Yep.
Cody:Yep. Does that money get earmarked for that? Or is it just is there a way that we can guarantee people, you know, hey, I wanna donate $7 to buy the canine program to Big Macs for their dogs.
Pam:Yes. If that's the way that the donation comes in, then, the organization will look at that and, you know, then kind of probably reach back out to us and say, here's what we've, you know, just received. And I know that the organization itself is going to be on a kick to look to businesses and individuals and and give them opportunities to donate to different causes and different ideas. Eventually, I think this organization would love to plan an annual fundraiser for the department to keep, you know, some of the money flowing. In the past, we have used funds from this organization.
Pam:And, again, it's in in its infant stages. We've used funds from the organization to support our Shop with the Cop programs when we didn't have any retail partners. The funds have been used to help support the most recently, the the purchase of our second canine.
Cody:Yeah.
Pam:Yep. We had a business in the community that wanted to give that money specifically for the canine program and they did it through the AVCCPA. So it's, the potential is there to do some great things for our department and we're just, you know, looking to get it running, get it off the ground, and get some people that have the ability to keep it and make it what it can be involved. So it's it's more of a call to action for those out there who are listening that are interested, which I hope.
Cody:And it's it's another great way to get involved in the community. Mhmm.
Pam:Exactly.
Cody:Which is where we want the community involved with us. Yep. We're we don't wanna be on an island. We wanna have the community support. We wanna have their involvement because that just helps us make the community safer.
Pam:Exactly.
Cody:Anything else that you have that you think is
Pam:Oh, Cody, I could talk for hours, but, no, I I think we have a lot going on in prevention and in outreach. But, yeah, I would just love to direct people to check out the resources on the website. You know, they can call the department anytime and talk with me about the things that we have going on or inquire about things that they'd like to see, and that's kinda what we can do.
Cody:So easiest way to get a hold of you is probably through email?
Pam:Email or my phone. You know, I'm here during the days, regular business hours. Well, 7 AM to 3:30 PM. Not always at my desk, but I have voice mail. So, yeah, phone or email.
Cody:Okay. Cool. Well, thank you very much, Pam. I hope the community gets, a lot of new information that they didn't have and, I hope that your programs just continue to grow.
Pam:Me too. And and I look forward to seeing, you know, some of the people who show up to these events that they've never heard of. And hopefully, yeah, we'll have a great summer for some outreach.
Cody:Very cool. Thank you.
Pam:Thank you.
Cody:Hey, folks. We want this to be engaging for you as well. So please drop a comment wherever you follow us on social media. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and share to this podcast. Tell your friends, tell your family.
Cody:We'd like to get this out to as many people as possible. We want people to know who the police officers of Apple Valley are. If you have questions or comments, something you'd like to hear about, reach out to us. Let us know. We'd love to hear from you.
Cody:We'd love to address some of those topics that you guys have questions about as well. We look forward to having you back next time.
