This Hurricane Preparedness Week, call your insurance company or agent and ask for an insurance checkup to make sure you have enough homeowners insurance to repair or even replace your home. Don’t forget coverage for your car or boat. Remember, standard homeowners insurance doesn’t cover flooding. Whether you’re a homeowner or renter, you’ll need a separate policy for flooding. It’s available through your company, agent or use the agent locator at www.floodsmart.gov. Act now as flood insurance requires a 30-day waiting period.
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https://www.fema.gov/what-mitigation

If a hurricane strikes, you’re going to need supplies not just to get through the storm but for the potentially lengthy recovery period that could follow. Have enough non-perishable food, water and medicine to last each person in your family a minimum of one week. Electricity and water could be out for at least that long. You’ll need extra cash, a battery-powered radio and flashlights. You’ll also need a portable crank or solar powered USB charger to charge your cell phone.

https://www.ready.gov/kit
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http://hurricanes.gov/prepare

During Hurricane Preparedness Week, make sure you have a hurricane evacuation plan. The first thing you need to do is find out if you live in a storm surge hurricane evacuation zone or if you’re in a home that would be unsafe during a hurricane. If you are, figure out where you’d go and how you’d get there if told to evacuate. You do not need to travel hundreds of miles. Identify someone, perhaps a friend or relative who doesn’t live in an evacuation zone or unsafe home, and coordinate with them to use their home as your evacuation destination. Be sure to account for your pets, as most local shelters do not permit them. Put the plan in writing for you and those you care about.

http://flash.org/hurricane-season/evacuation-zones/find-your-evacuation-zones.pdf

http://hurricanes.gov/prepare

Hurricanes are not just a coastal problem. Their impacts can be felt hundreds of miles inland, and significant impacts can occur without it being a major hurricane. Hurricane Preparedness Week (May 6-12, 2018) is your time to prepare for a potential land-falling tropical storm or hurricane.
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http://weather.gov/hurricanesafety
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http://hurricanes.gov/prepare

 The Vero Beach Police Department has received information that Greg Alyn Carlson, age 46, a federal fugitive, may have recently been in the Vero Beach area. Carlson is wanted by the FBI for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution and assault with intent to commit rape.

He may be traveling in a stolen white, four-door, 2017 Hyundai Accent rental car with South Carolina license plate NKl-770.
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If you have any information concerning this person, please contact your local FBI office, Miami - ph. (754) 703-2000 or the nearest American Embassy or Consulate.

Due to the planned Vero Beach Air Show activities, periodic road closures will occur on 43rd Avenue between 26th Street and 41st Street beginning on Thursday, April 19, 2018 through Sunday, April 22, 2018.

The periodic road closures will take place between the hours of 12:00 PM. and 5:00 PM. daily. Access to property owners as well as emergency access will be maintained at all times.

For additional information, please contact the Indian River County Traffic Engineering Division at
(772) 226-1547.

This week, we would like to recognize Public Safety Telecommunicators across the Country for their hard work behind the scenes!

As for your local Public Safety Telecommunicators, Indian River County has three 911 Dispatch Centers:

• Vero Beach Police Department
• Indian River County  Sheriff's Office
  • Fellesmere Police Department and Indian River Shores dispatch from the Sheriff's Office
• Sebastian Police Department

These three centers work together to ensure that everyone in Indian River County has access to emergency services. If one of the dispatch centers goes offline, the remaining ones automatically get their calls and can dispatch out their calls by working together.

To give you an idea of the amount of work that goes into this, here are some stats just for the Vero Beach Police Department, which only covers about 2% of the land area of Indian River County:
(data for 1/1/2018 - 4/9/2018)

• 14,234 Phone calls into Dispatch, 911 and non-emergency.
  • This does not include Radio traffic, or Officer Initiated events
• 12,576 Calls for Service
• 1,170 Cases assigned
• 2 Dispatch Personnel per shift, 1 call-taker 1 dispatcher.
• 280 Car Crashes worked
  • For some reason, Tuesday is the busiest day for crashes!

As you can see, they stay busy all the time!

You can also watch this video to see how a typical Dispatch center works, it was created by the City of Edina, MN and it is awesome!  Our dispatchers currently have (6) monitors to keep an eye on!

In accordance with the Commission for Florida Accreditation Version 5.05 standard 2.06M and
Vero Beach Police Department general order #79.25 Traffic Stops and Profiling, an annual
review concerning bias based profiling for the period of January 1, 2017 through December 31,
2017 has been conducted.

CFA V5.05 Standard 2.06M requires that the agency have a written directive that prohibits bias-based
profiling in accordance with Florida Statute and includes the following provisions:

A. Training agency enforcement personnel in bias based profiling issues including legal aspects; in
accordance with CJSTC guidelines.
B. Corrective measures if bias based profiling occurs.
C. Definitions to include bias based profiling and reasonable suspicion.
D. Community education and awareness efforts.
E. A documented annual administrative review of traffic stop procedures related to bias based
profiling.
F. Handling of complaints from the public.

You can check out the full report HERE (and our past year reports).