Lion John Lynde and Apex Community Police Officer JT Allen
Officer JT Allen, a Community Police Officer from the Apex Police Department was our guest speaker this evening. He has been in law enforcement for almost 18 years with the last 14 of them here in Apex. In that time, officer Allen has been involved in several aspects of law enforcement such as being on the road, a supervisor, a drug investigator, and working with the SRT SWAT team. Currently he works along side officer Matt Hunter as a Community Police Officer. This position allows them to partner with the community and to promote safety in many different ways. These officers work together to coordinate some great events for Apex that include: National Nights Out and Safe Kids.
Safe Kids is a program run by Wake Med which stresses safety for children. It includes everything from helmets for children to something called “Don’t Forget Me” which is a new program to raise awareness of the dangers of leaving children in vehicles. There have been far too many of these incidents recently. They actually make S’mores on the dashboards of closed vehicles to demonstrate how hot it can get in there!
Community police officers also partner with HOA’s and community watch groups as well as securing the neighborhood pool areas. Currently, they are promoting “Lock It Or Lose It” which is a campaign to help the public remember to lock vehicles and homes. Signs are being places around Apex to make people aware of the #1 crime in Apex. You may have noticed that these were recently put out around town. Often times the cars that are being broken into are the ones not locked at night. Groups are walking around neighborhoods checking doors. When this campaign was held last year the crime rate dropped 12% so it seems to have had a positive effect. Officer JT also talked a little bit about the way the police department is using some of the latest technology in crime prevention to understand data patterns and use the data to find the criminals. If you have any questions for him, his email is cpo@apexnc.org and he would love to help!