Summer 2020 Hometown Messenger

CHIEF’S NOTES

It’s hard to believe it’s been one year since our city passed a first-in-the-nation ordinance restricting the purchase of major credit card gift cards when using a credit card. The ordinance requires anyone who purchases a Visa, Master Card or American Express gift card with a credit card to show a photo ID that matches the name on the credit card. (Such gift card purchases are also prohibited at self-checkouts.) Our goal was to reduce frauds in our community, consistently one of our top-reported crimes. The process of developing this

ordinance took nearly a year as we worked with impacted businesses, the Minnesota Retailers Association and the Shakopee Chamber of Commerce. We used the input to create a workable ordinance. We also promised to measure its effectiveness. So, has it worked? We partnered with the Shakopee High School CAPS Program to

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT! Thank you to River Valley Montessori and Child Care and Firemans Barbeque for hosting our Shakopee firefighters and police department staff to lunch May 15. They are just two of the many local businesses that have shown their support to our first responders this spring. We thank all the businesses for their generous donations.

EVIDENCE

#AsktheCity

Shakopee Police Chief Jeff Tate

The Shakopee Police Department handles a variety of evidence used to help investigators solve and assist with the prosecution of crimes. The city's evidence technician is responsible for managing the evidence and documenting the chain of custody for each item. HOW DO YOU COLLECT EVIDENCE? Police officers and investigators collect evidence on scene following an incident using a variety of collection techniques from DNA collection to surveillance retrieval. This evidence is carefully collected, documented, stored and analyzed to maintain its integrity throughout the investigation process. HOW DO YOU STORE EVIDENCE? The police department has an evidence room dedicated to the safe storage of items. Some evidence is stored on site while other items required additional analysis and testing off site. Evidence storage depends on the type collected. For example, biological evidence is often stored in a refrigerator or freezer. Items that have DNA on them need to be stored in paper bags or boxes to prevent mold. HOW LONG DOES THE POLICE DEPARTMENT KEEP EVIDENCE? Evidence is kept for two years past the sentence date. For unresolved cases, our storage period is based on the statute of limitations and nature of the crime. Deceased, arson and unsolved sex crimes are permanent evidence. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN EVIDENCE IS NO LONGER NEEDED? If an item has no value, we throw it. If it's valuable, we auction it. HOW MANY PIECES OF EVIDENCE DOES THE POLICE DEPARTMENT HANDLE EACH YEAR? Our evidence technician processes approximately 5,000 items per year. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE MOST COMMON EVIDENCE ITEMS COLLECTED? Among the most collected evidence are surveillance, mail fraud items and stolen bikes.

evaluate the ordinance by looking at fraud cases before and after the ordinance took effect. In the eight months prior, we had 13 cases costing victims more than $13,000. Our department spent more than 110 hours on these cases, approximately $10,450 worth of staff time. In the 11 months since the ordinance, we have only one fraud report that violated the ordinance. We worked in partnership with that business to rectify the situation, which was a training issue. Our evaluation did not stop there. Our CAPS student surveyed every impacted business to see what, if any, impacts they saw and if they felt the ordinance was effective. The responses were overwhelmingly positive. Comments from these stores include: “Always thought the previous procedure was flawed" and “Yes, allows all businesses to be consistent and deter fraud." This was reassuring since not every Shakopee business was in favor of the ordinance when it passed in 2019. Frauds take up an extraordinary amount of our time to investigate. The fact that we’ve essentially eliminated this type of fraud means we have time to investigate other crimes. Most importantly, we are saving victims thousands of dollars. Frauds were down 20 percent overall for 2019, which this ordinance certainly impacted. I’m proud of the process we went through and the cooperation we’ve had with our community business partners.

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