CITIZEN’S ASSISTED PATROL By David Muller The Citizens' Assisted Patrol (CAP) is a service of the Polk County Sheriff's Office and Lake Ashton is fortunate to have it in place. The benefit is for both Lake Ashton and the Sheriff's Office. The program is a patrol and report program and it is NOT a law enforcement or emergency medical assistance program. According to the Sheriff's Office, communities with a CAP program have less crime than communities without a program. CAP allows the Sheriff's Office to use its resources on more urgent activities such as investigations, serving warrants, traffic control, court appearances for pending criminal cases, in general, responding to "911" calls. Because of CAP, "manpower" is freed up for these activities and not allocated to patrol our community looking for crimes or urgent situations requiring police or other emergency services. The Sheriff's Office gets "free labor" using volunteers but it gives the training, identifiable garb (uniform) and patrol and communication equipment. Lake Ashton benefits by showing the residents there is a patrol and report program looking for "out of the norm" situations to report to the Sheriff's Office. It also shows "bad actors" or would be criminals that someone is out on our streets looking for them. Not knowing when a patrol will come makes bad actors think twice about committing crimes. CAP wants you! Please help out and email Mike Weissberg at lakeashtoncap@gmail.com and be a volunteer. Applications are also available at the Clubhouse and the HFC. You not only help out the community but enjoy saying hello to many of your neighbors (on the Sheriff's nickel)! SIGN UP FOR ALERT POLK Prepare yourself this hurricane season by signing up to receive emergency notifications from Alert Polk. Communication is key in any emergency and knowing what information to pay attention to can make a difference. Polk County uses the Alert Polk system to inform county residents about public safety threats and concerns. During situations which may affect the health, safety and welfare of Polk’s residents, official messages are sent to telephone numbers and email addresses within the affected geographic area. Emergency notifications include: • Tornadoes/severe weather • Mandatory evacuations • Boil water notifications • Gas leaks • Sexual predator relocation notices • Critical law enforcement notifications • Hurricanes & recovery information For more information, go to polk-county.net/EM, or call the Emergency Management division at (863) 298-7000.
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