I’m popular because of pasta.
This week, we visited the Downtown Police Station for a Membership Luncheon, and I’m happy to report that I’d never been there before! After taking my two giant coolers of soda through security, setting the alarm off and making my way downstairs to the inner bowels of the police station, we made it to the briefing room and were ready to go. Lunch was a buffet of shredded pork and chicken, pasta salad, asiago cheese bread, and various cheeses, relishes and, of course, desserts from the delightful Joe Lococo of Pastabilities. I got the honor of bringing the goods back to the office as leftovers, and I’m pretty sure my popularity around here has gone up at least 50%. I’m sure it will be back down by Monday…
Chief Casady of the LPD was kind enough to share part of the presentation he’s doing for Ignite Lincoln in April, but I agreed to a “cone of silence” so I can’t spill the beans. He also filled us in on the police briefing for the day and showed us some of the new technology that makes a criminals’ digital footprint even more detectable. Something that stuck with me was when Chief Casady showed a map that highlighted all the places his existence had been recorded just that morning – traffic light cameras, checking his email from his phone at a red light, grabbing coffee to go, and swiping his badge to enter the parking garage and then the building. After just a few hours there were at least a dozen places around Lincoln that had recorded evidence of the Chief’s whereabouts.
Chief Casady then pulled up six people he was receiving constant updates about. I was quite shocked to see that one of my old classmates was (un)fortunate enough to grace his top six list. *sigh*
He also shared a new technology already implemented on a few cruisers called ALPR – Automatic License Plate Readers – that can scan one plate per second, search through databases and let the officer know if the plates are expired, the driver has unpaid tickets or the car is stolen. This is some crazy stuff. That means an officer can scan almost 4,000 plates in one day. I better make sure I pay my car licensing next month!
The LPD is moving more and more toward the idea of “push” information systems, rather than “pull,” meaning they want information to be readily available to people and allow updates to come right to their inbox. An interesting website is crimemapping.com where you can view the recent history of crimes near your home, or subscribe to receive them through email. I just did.
Other interesting links:
Chief Casady’s Blog (I just read the “Rabbit Ears” post and laughed out loud!)
Major props to Chief Casady for his great presentation and for hosting our group of almost 50 at the station. It was another successful Updowntowners luncheon in my eyes and I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. I can now check the Police Department off my list of places to visit. Where would you like to go next?
Your (crime-free) Events Coordinator,
Frances
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