Lakewood, Fort Lewis start police liaison program

Lakewood, Fort Lewis start police liaison program

Published: 03/10/09 12:05 am | Updated: 03/10/09 11:37 am


Fort Lewis and Lakewood police are working together to build a better understanding of what happens on ‘the other side.’ Lakewood police are enlisting the help of Fort Lewis for times when city cops need to cooperate with the Army, including when soldiers get in trouble off post.
Meanwhile, another partnership will let the local Army post receive the city’s assistance in civilian police training for soldiers bound for Iraq this fall.
Fort Lewis has assigned a full-time military liaison police officer position to the Lakewood Police Department. Police Lt. Steve Mauer said the soldier won’t patrol with city officers, but will serve as a resource.
Fort Lewis sent a pair of military police officers to get oriented with the Lakewood Police Department last week. They will split time in the single position.
The soldier, who will work five days a week including Friday and Saturday nights, will serve as a point of contact for city police who need to get information from Fort Lewis.
The types of police calls that could benefit from Fort Lewis’ help include bad behavior at bars and collisions in cars, Mauer said.
Lt. Col. Ted Solonar, Fort Lewis’ provost marshal who helped forge the Law Enforcement Liaison program, said post officials want to exchange knowledge with their neighboring city.
Solonar said Lakewood police contacted the post to see how the two sides could bridge the fence that separates them. They decided on the liaison program, which is already used at Army installations such as Fort Carson, Colo.
The military police officer, most likely a lieutenant, will spend most of the work week learning from Lakewood officers, Solonar said.
During weekends, if city officers need help with soldiers behaving badly at a local bar, for instance, they could call on the liaison to help calm tensions. Young soldiers might listen better to a commanding officer because they are trained to follow the Army chain of command, he said.
“If there’s a situation where a soldier is celebrating too hard, we’ll be there to diffuse the situation and, if necessary, transport them back to Fort Lewis,” Solonar said.
Jeff Corbin, owner of Maggie O’Toole’s Pub & Grub in Lakewood, said he welcomes the extra help. He said obnoxious behavior among soldiers isn’t an ongoing problem, but the military police officer’s presence will help when it occurs.
“If a sergeant major is telling a guy to do it, the guy is probably going to do it,” Corbin said.
Help between the post and the neighboring police department will also go the other way.
The city has agreed that five to 10 soldiers from the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division will ride with Lakewood officers on patrols every week.
The Stryker brigade soldiers will observe community-policing tactics, evidence gathering and other police techniques they can use on their deployment this fall. It will be their second tour of Iraq in the last three years.
The ride-alongs will continue until the 4-2’s deployment. In Iraq, soldiers will have to work with Iraqi civilians – skills they can improve by watching Lakewood officers interact with community members, Mauer said.
“The point of it is actual training,” he said. “It really does serve a purpose.”
Fort Lewis and Lakewood police have worked together on a case-by-case basis for years, from helping track down soldiers who are absent without leave to investigating the 2005 murder of a soldier and another soldier’s wife in a parking lot outside a Lakewood bar.
They also share the occasional oddball case, like when a citizen dropped off an Iraqi AK-47 assault rifle at a Lakewood police station in January.. The city later turned it over to the Army.
But placing the military liaison officer and Stryker brigade soldiers in Lakewood will bring more formality to the relationship.
Solonar said exchanging knowledge between Fort Lewis and its largest neighboring city is a good thing.
“As we cross back and forth over our borders with one another,” he said, “it gives us a better idea what’s happening on the other side.”
Brent Champaco: 253-597-8653