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Pleasant Prairie Police DepartmentCrime Prevention The Village of Pleasant Prairie Police Department has a strong commitment to crime prevention. This is demonstrated by virtue of the department's involvement with numerous community policing and crime prevention programs including:
Identity Theft These programs are aimed at raising crime prevention awareness on the part of the community, while at the same time making life tougher for those who would commit crimes. Identity Theft
Identity theft is a serious crime. People whose identities have been stolen can spend months or years - and their hard-earned money - cleaning up the mess thieves have made of their good name and credit record. In the meantime, victims may lose job opportunities, be refused loans, education, housing or cars, or even get arrested for crimes they didn't commit. For more information on ID Theft and what you can do to protect yourself visit click HERE. If you are a Village resident and need to file a police report as required, please contact the Pleasant Prairie Police Department at 262-694-7105 or stop in at 8600 Green Bay Road and ask to speak to an officer. This can be done 24 hours day/ 7 days a week. Neighborhood WatchThe Pleasant Prairie Neighborhood Watch program is intended for anyone who would like to feel safer in their neighborhood. It is not a vigilante program, nor is it a program of citizens on patrol in their neighborhoods. It is a program that encourages neighbors to get to know each other, to watch out for each other, and to call the police when something just doesn't seem right.  You can have a safer neighborhood. Despite your age, sex, race, occupation, or past experiences, you can substantially reduce your risk of criminal victimization. Studies have shown that neighborhoods whose residents pull together and form active Neighborhood Watch groups and implement simple low-cost crime prevention programs can drastically cut their crime rates. Remember, the best crime prevention tool is a good neighbor! The driving force behind starting a Neighborhood Watch program is the prevention and reduction of crime. A properly implemented program will also serve other needs in the community. Once the program is in place, it can be used as a forum for training in other areas such as Fire Prevention and Disaster Preparedness, and it can also become the basis for block parties and other social events, truly helping to put the "neighbor" back in the word neighborhood. It really doesn't take a lot of work on your part. We'll put your first meeting on for you. From there, you set your own pace with respect to how active you want to be and how often you would like to meet.
If you are interested in bringing Neighborhood Watch to your area, please call
the Crime Prevention Unit at 694-7105, or E-mail us at info@pppd.info. Partnership with Business, voted Wisconsin Crime Prevention Program of the Year for 1995 by The Wisconsin Crime Prevention Practitioners Association, is our innovative Business Outreach Program. This program has two primary objectives: The first is to reduce the amount of retail crime, including retail theft and check crimes; the second objective is to maximize the effectiveness of each police response to a retail crime incident. Located in the Village of Pleasant Prairie is a large regional designer outlet center. In 1994, it became clear that this particular property was being heavily targeted by professional thieves from the Milwaukee and Chicago areas. As this problem continued to grow, so too did the strain on the department's resources. As officers dealt with the shoplifting epidemic on a daily basis, it became clear that there were two major problems, which, overcome, would reduce the frequency of retail theft incidents. The first was a lack of communication between the police and the businesses. The second was a lack of knowledge on the part of the employees of the businesses with respect to the basics of the law pertaining to the various retail crimes and what the department would require of them as complainants and witnesses. To solve the first problem, the department developed the Partnership Fax Network. This is simply a group of businesses on a broadcast fax list. When necessary, the department sends faxes to these businesses, providing them with crime bulletins and a quarterly newsletter. This has been a very successful program because it keeps businesses well informed at virtually no cost. The second problem has been addressed by virtue of quarterly training seminars that the department sponsors for employees of local businesses. Seminars that have been held include: Retail Theft; Recognizing Counterfeit Currency; Check, Credit Card and Document Fraud; and several others.
Since the inception of this program, the department has seen the number of retail
theft incidents decline dramatically. Further, the effectiveness of the police
response has risen if effectiveness is to be defined as number of arrests related
to number of known incidents.  The Pleasant Prairie Police Department is a participant in Operation Identification. Operation Identification is a nationwide anti-theft/anti-burglary effort aimed primarily at the identification and recovery of stolen property. The program provides a common sense approach whereby homeowners mark their property with an identifying number such as their driver license or social security number. Through the program, the department will lend engravers to citizens free of charge so they can mark their property.
If you would like to borrow an engraver, please contact the Crime Prevention Unit at 694-7105. The Pleasant Prairie Police Department has a unique way of letting you know if you're providing an unusually easy target for thieves or burglars. Its called the "OOPS! card", and if you live in the Village of Pleasant Prairie you may have already received a few. The OOPS! card allows the police department to point out to property owners those situations, which, if not corrected, could result in their property being stolen or damaged. Officers on patrol, typically at night, often note garage doors left open or bicycles left out on the front lawn. To correct the problem, the officer may complete and leave an OOPS! card as a friendly reminder for the homeowner, describing the problem and asking the homeowner to take appropriate action.
This has been a very successful program for the department and the community. |
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How can someone steal your identity? Identity theft occurs when someone uses your personal information such as your name, Social Security number, credit card number or other identifying information, without your permission to commit fraud or other crimes.