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Highlands Today

Synergy Of Effort

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Marlene Barger

Published: October 28, 2008

I appreciate and agree with Chief Williams' comments (Oct 20) concerning day-to-day cooperation between the sheriff's office and the Lake Placid police.

I, however, was addressing countywide, strategic-level, inter-departmental meetings between the sheriff and all police departments in Highlands County, as well as intermittent meetings between those players and state-federal law enforcement organizations who operate in Highlands County. These meetings have not occurred.

This begs the question of why not. Are the existing mutual aid agreements so well written and effective that they do not require updating? Do crimes and other law enforcement issues remain so static that updates and combined inter-departmental discussions are simply unproductive and therefore unnecessary? Is the collective sharing of intelligence among law enforcement departments throughout the county not necessary?

If the mutual aid agreements are effective and current, then why, for example, do victims of burglaries outside city limits sometimes wait nearly an hour for sheriff deputies to arrive on the scene, when city police are close to the scene of the crime?

I realize that all departments have limited resources, but formalized synergy-of-effort processes can be force multipliers in protecting and enhancing citizen safety and perhaps lead to rapid arrests of perpetrators.

Until such meetings occur, I stand firm on my statement that there are "zero" meetings of the type I described. My statement is not an "allegation," it is factual.

Marlene Barger
Lake Placid

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