National Night Out to connect police with residents

2013-07-23 17:27:39

Lt. Ken Alexander is the south bureau commander for the Placentia Police Department. He will be taking part in the upcoming National Night Out, a national program aimed at promoting police-community partnerships in fighting crime.

With more than 20 years of law enforcement experience, he knows how important a good relationship with the community can be when it comes to policing. We caught up with Alexander and asked him about what kinds of challenges Placentia police officers contend with.

Q. What can people do as far as crime prevention from home?

A. The first thing is to just beware of everything that's going on around them. They're the best eyes and ears in their neighborhood for crime because they live there, so they know the ins and out outs of what's going on. If they see something that isn't right, especially something that's criminal in nature, they need to call the police.

Q. How important is having the support of the community for the Police Department?

A. It's huge. It's how our Police Department works. We need to rely on the citizens of our city to be able to let us know what is happening. They are the eyes and ears for us out there.

National Night Out is a time for all of us to come together one time and they can see what their Police Department has and get just a little glimpse of what the Police Department has to offer. They get a chance to see some of the specialty assignments that we have. That night's a great time for people to come out and interact with the police.

Q. What kinds of issues does the Police Department face?

A. You know our city is pretty diverse. Our Police Department is pretty diverse in who we police. We police high-income housing neighborhoods all the way down to low-income apartment complexes and also a small industrial area. So our department is pretty diverse in how we police the city, because there are all different types of elements here in Placentia. People just think it's just strictly a bedroom community, but there are actually a lot of different things going on here in town.

Q. How prevalent is crime in the city?

A. We keep a pretty good handle on crime in the city because we're so interactive with the residents. We have great men and women that police the city. We have a large population of people that live here, and people commit crime. We have a lot of narcotic issues in our city. It's very diverse, as far as crime goes.

Q. Do you feel there's less crime in the city compared to when you first started?

A. There's probably more crime now. I think it comes and goes in our town. We're at a point right now where we're starting to catch back up with having officers on the streets. That's been a challenge for us for the last few years and we're still down officers. It's come to the point where we're starting to be able to catch our breath and starting to be able to target these career criminals we have in our city.

Contact the writer: 714-704-3794 or

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