Local Police Departments

[glorkar]

The bomb thread got me thinking. How many of our local Police Departments actually know about geocaching? Has there ever been a concerted effort to let them know? It would seem that the more of them that know the better for our hobby. Has anybody here taken it upon themselves to enlighten their local law enforcement? I’ll admit I thought about it, but didn’t because I thought it would be weird if somebody already did. And correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t GC offer free premium membership to law enforcement?

[Trekkin and Birdin]

I know our community education committee, spearheaded in this effort mainly by Jerry’s Dad, did a nice job of creating a simple, direct information card for law enforcement groups.

As for the premium membership thing, not sure on that one. I do know of a few caches that have been checked out by local police, who signed them, even. So they aren’t all lacking in information. In our encounters, only one time did the officer not have a clue about the sport, but he does now. The others, when they heard ‘geocaching,’ simply said, “Carry on!”

I do think placements close to places like parks, schools and residences are going to generate concern at times. Another argument for the good old ammo cans in the woods! 😉

[BigJim]

@Trekkin’ and Birdin’ wrote:

I do think placements close to places like parks, schools and residences are going to generate concern at times. Another argument for the good old ammo cans in the woods! 😉

I’d have to agree with that. I enjoy a nice walk in the woods much more than sneaking around a busy park, especially when the cache is placed on or near playground equipment. I can’t help but think that to the casual passerby, there could only be one purpose to a 50 year-old man hanging around a playground, and in my line of work you try to avoid any possible accusation of that type of activity. I’ve never heard of a police department blowing up an ammo can because they thought a terrorist had planted a bomb under that pile of logs 😉

All opinions, comments, and useless drivel I post are mine alone and do not reflect the opinions of the WGA BOD.

[rcflyer2242]

I had a meeting with the McFarland Police Dept a few weeks before we had out ten year event here. We explained the entire thing and showed them a few containers. They took it well and thought it was a great idea.
A few weeks ago someone called on one of them and reported strange activity in one of our parks. The police went out, Once there, they knew what the deal was. They picked up the container, showed it to them and explained what was going on. They then emailed me to pick up the container. They thought it best to remove it from that spot since all the neighbor hood kids now knew about it. I was told that I could still hide there but to find a new spot. That’s cool with me.
We chatted a bit about the police being informed better about them. I gave them the web site and a print out of each cache that is in the area, including final resting places for all puzzle caches.
I think it would be great if some kind of a packet with all caches in each police district was put together for a quick referance, discribing each container and hiding spot.(kind of like the DNR form) Just my thought.
I also have been contacted by the Fitchburg Police in regards to geocaching. I have had 1 meeting with them so far. They want another meeting with them and the parks dept. I figure great, that will open up a large area of Madison’s south side.
Now to work on Madison and Dane county.

[-cheeto-]

It’s great to hear that folks are out there trying to educate law enforcement on this past time. It makes it that much easier to participate for everyone.

[CodeJunkie]

I’ve conversed with both the Berlin Police Chief and Green Lake County Sherriff (both who I know personally). I’ve passed along the info from the education committee and they thanked us and said they’d pass it along to their employees.

I even offered to speak in person at any workshop, education session, etc. that they were doing for 5 minutes to as long as they’d like. I even offered to bring in containers or take them out into the field. No bites from either department on any of these which disappointed me a bit, but at least I offered.

[goirish75]

Great idea to educate law enforcement. I am local law enforcement and before I started caching, I have taken many calls from concerned citizens seeing cachers and thinking they were doing drug deal and hiding drugs in bushes, lol. Our Ozaukee area has many geocachers on the various departments, but widespread knowledge is still limited.

[BigJim]

So where can one find the materials developed by the education committee?

All opinions, comments, and useless drivel I post are mine alone and do not reflect the opinions of the WGA BOD.

[zuma]

Here is the Police education flyer developed earlier this year by the education committee.

The board voted to print up 250 copies, and distribute them to law enforcement.

The community education committee will revisit this issue, find out what happened to the distribution planned, and see if it is reasonable to print more and distribute them.

Thanks,

zuma

[CodeJunkie]

@zuma wrote:

The board voted to print up 250 copies, and distribute them to law enforcement.

I thought it was only to produce the WGA brochure and distribute. I don’t recall the police flyer ever being approved to go to print.

[kmhiker]

When one places a “NEW” cache in a city,town,township etc. why not drop a map of the area with the caches placed on it and give to the loco law inforcement. Then every 3 to 6 months or so give them an updated map.
When we did the classe’s in Germantown the weekend before we informed the police that we would be placing temp caches around the middle school on that Sunday. They bwere very happy to know about this, and when we were placing the caches they came around to check it out. They “the officer” thought it was a cool hobby and asked about gps’s.

[Vegas Gamblers]

Here in Milwaukee there are several Law Enforcement personnel that are Cachers.

[Smashing Ground]

In the town im from I informed the police chief after I called in stolen goods I found in the woods.
I would like to further inform them one day in winter.

[CodeJunkie]

@kmhiker wrote:

When one places a “NEW” cache in a city,town,township etc. why not drop a map of the area with the caches placed on it and give to the loco law inforcement.

This is an interesting idea. With the ability to generate PDF’s and other electronic documents I think I’ll try the electronic method with the local police chief and see what the feeback is.

[Author]

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