Pitching VIPER

Published June 27th, 2008

By Dale M. King
CITY EDITOR

Boca Raton police are in the market for a company interested in promoting its new VIPER crime prevention program.

The firm, said Assistant Chief Edgar Morley, will “brand the program as our own.”

The city has already advertised bids for companies interested in coming up with a marketing and branding effort.  Bids will be opened in mid-July.

Police Chief Dan Alexander recently announced the creation of the enhanced Visibility, Intelligence, Partnerships, Education and Resources program – or VIPER.

“This program highlights aggressive short-term and long-term initiatives which support our community-based approach to policing Boca Raton,” said the chief.

Morley said the city wants to work with a company to make VIPER its own.

Since 1990, the population in Boca Raton has grown 39 percent and crime has dropped 29 percent, he said, “demonstrating that the city remains a great place to live and work.”

High profile

“However, certain crime increases and high profile events have caused us to consider how we can be more aware of the issues and involved in maintaining the quality of life in our community.”

With two killings and an abduction, all with apparent ties to the Town Center mall, security cameras are high on the VIPER list, he said.

“The city plans to establish a network of cameras serving as a deterrent to crime, a source for immediate event information and a resource for investigations,” said Alexander. “This network would expand to include participants in the private sector, bringing a massive amount of information into a data fusion center.”

The marketing effort may focus on consistency.  The chief said VIPER project “will include enhancements to patrol vehicle design and a consistent theme in all materials related to our community policing programs,” he said.

Through the use of computers, he said, police will give residents the opportunity to track crime and crime statistics in the city.  They will also be able to create maps of where incidents are taking place. 

He said other communities are also putting BOLO (Be on the lookout for) notices online.

The chief emphasized that much crime is caused by out-of-towners. “Nearly 70 percent of the people arrested in Boca Raton do not live in the city, making prevention and the gathering of intelligence a major challenge.”

“The growth of technology has opened a huge market for criminals,” he said, “Close to 94 percent of Boca Raton crime is property-related and most of the offenses can be averted through simple prevention measures and awareness.”

The VIPER strategy, he said, “includes improvements to facilities,
training and aggressive operational tactics to make us more efficient and effective.”

Dale M. King can be reached at 561-549-0832 or at dking@bocanews.com.