The Lander Police Department didn’t experience any officer turnover in 2023 – an accomplishment LPD chief Scott Peters attributed to the ongoing support of the Lander City Council.
“You’ve been supportive in every aspect of improving our police department,” Peters told the council during a regular meeting Tuesday. “In the last two and a half years, we’ve upgraded the quality of life (for officers). The council helped us get the pay up to what it needs to be … and then on top of that we’ve been able to update all our equipment.”
Officer retention benefits the entire community, Councilmember Missy White pointed out, since the LPD is now staffed with “more sophisticated” law enforcement officials who have experience on the job.
‘High-visibility enforcement’
Lander’s team of experienced officers initiated more contacts with the public last year than they have in the past, Peters said, with 8,935 self-initiated calls recorded in 2023 compared to 6,598 in 2022 and 4,807 in 2021.
“Ultimately that is what we want,” Peters said. “The whole aspect of driving down crime and keeping down crime is through high-visibility enforcement, so the folks know we’re out there.”
That self-initiated activity didn’t lead to more arrests, however – in fact, Peters said crime was down last year in Lander, with 529 arrests recorded in 2023 compared to 589 in 2022.
“The more they see us, the less (people) commit crime,” Peters said.
Traffic
Local officers also made more traffic stops in 2023 than in years past, but again, Peters said, the increase in activity didn’t lead to a commensurate spike in citations – instead, there was a larger increase in warnings.
“Our traffic (stops) went up 13 percent, but our citations only went up 4 percent,” he pointed out. “To me, that shows that we’re being fair. …
“The officers are not going to the side of punishing – they’re going to the side of educating when it comes to warnings.”
The LPD did arrest more people for driving under the influence this year, Peters said, with 79 DUIs recorded in 2023 up from 66 in 2022.
“That goes with the territory,” he explained. “Our stops are up 13 percent, (so) you’re going to get more DUIs.”
Lander saw more vehicle crashes in 2023 as well, Peters said – a statistic that “irritates me, after all this traffic enforcement.”
Sixty percent of local crashes occur near the intersection of Main and Fifth streets, he said, so that area has become “a focus” for the LPD.
“We identified the problem, and now we’re allocating our resources (appropriately),” Peters said. “You’ll see a lot more focus on Main Street to drive that down.”
The LPD’s full annual report is available here.
For more information call the City of Lander at 332-2870.