May 30, 2012

Best Foot Forward

Keeping our residents and visitors safe is a top priority for my Administration. This includes the safety as you are walking our City streets. Over the years the City has taken a number of steps to improve the streets, sidewalks and walking conditions.

Click here for more.

April 13, 2012

Orlando Police Department Staffing Changes

After 25 years of dedicated service to the citizens and City of Orlando, Deputy Chief Larry Zwieg will retire next month. On Monday during the City Council meeting, Mayor Dyer appointed Captain Robert Pigman to the Deputy Chief position effective May 1, 2012.

Captain Pigman was recognized as an outstanding officer, a respected leader and an excellent representative of the City and the Orlando Police Department. The City of Orlando thanks Chief Zwieg for his service and congratulates Captain Pigman on his promotion.

January 27, 2012

Neighborhood Watch Unit of OPD receives National Night Out Cup

The Neighborhood Watch Unit of the Orlando Police Department (OPD) received the National Night Out Cup. Thank you to all of the Neighborhood Watch Block Captains who participated in National Night Out and to all of the great sponsors. With their help, the OPD placed first in the nation for its National Night Out participation.

December 16, 2011

National Night Out

The National Association of Town Watch has selected the City of Orlando Police Department (OPD) as the National Night Out first place winner in Category 2, which are cities with populations from 100,000 to 299,000.

This past August, neighborhoods throughout Orlando joined forces with 15,325 communities nationwide for the 28th Annual National Night Out (NNO) crime and drug prevention event. OPD has placed in the top winning categories for the last 17 years. This is the first time OPD has placed first.

National Night Out is a great example of the partnership of citizens and police working together to combat crime. Congratulations to all of the neighborhoods that participated to make these events a success.

October 21, 2011

Grant for School Security

Monday, the Orlando City Council accepted a $64,000 Secure Our Schools grant from the United States Department of Justice.

Through the grant, the Orlando Police Department will work in conjunction with Orange County Public Schools to install security access control systems in five schools located within the City of Orlando. At Blankner School and Odyssey Middle School, enhanced perimeter door locks will be installed to ensure doors can be locked immediately in the event of an emergency, allowing access to authorized individuals only. Grant funds will also be used for the installation of camera systems in Ventura, Lake Como and Shingle Creek Elementary Schools.

October 7, 2011

Bryan Sharp honored with Good Citizenship Award

During the City Council meeting on Monday, Mayor Dyer presented Delaney Park resident, Bryan Sharp, with the Good Citizenship Award for assisting the Orlando Police Department with information that lead to the arrest of 8 suspected burglary criminals.

September 30, 2011

Police Chief Rooney, Harbor House and Volunteers Distribute Door Hangers as Part of the It Takes Courage Campaign

As part of the It Takes Courage campaign, Orlando Police Chief Paul Rooney joined Harbor House and more than 100 volunteers as part of Heart of Florida United Way's Days of Caring on September 23 to distribute 15,000 door hangers among 24 apartment complexes in the City of Orlando to raise community awareness about the signs of domestic abuse. In just over 3 hours, volunteers placed 8,488 door hangers in the community and as a result of the campaign, Harbor House saw an increase in victims to their shelter with more than 110 people in the shelter on Friday afternoon.

The It Takes Courage campaign was launched on August 23 by Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, Chief Rooney and Harbor House in an effort to address the dramatic rise of incidences of domestic abuse in the City of Orlando over the last three years. This campaign seeks to educate the community on the warning signs of domestic abuse to empower survivors to take control of their lives and create safer communities.

To help, make a call to the professionals at Harbor House at 407.866.2856. If you see or hear someone in immediate danger, always call 9-1-1 first.

September 23, 2011

Delaney Park Burglaries

In recent weeks, Delaney Park and surrounding neighborhoods have experienced daytime, home burglaries. In response, Mayor Dyer met with Orlando Police Chief Rooney and the Orlando Police Department’s (OPD) Community Relations Officers to ensure that a proactive approach to this problem was being taken.

In less than a week, OPD was able to make arrests of multiple suspects that not only impacted this criminal activity, but also recovered some of the stolen property. Just last weekend, OPD conducted covert operations in the Delaney Park neighborhood and made two more arrests of suspects for Grand Theft and a Traffic Offense.

August 26, 2011

Kicks for Guns

The Orlando Police Department and 12 additional police agencies partnered with REAL Radio 104.1, 102 JAMZ and Power 95.3 for the 13th annual Kicks for Guns event on August 19. Kicks for Guns trades new tennis shoes and gift cards for guns in an effort to remove firearms off the streets and keep them from falling into the hands of criminals.

The event yielded 2,230 total firearms, 10 of which were stolen. Firearms collected by each agency were as follows: Orlando Police Department 135, the Orange County Sheriff's Office 197, Daytona Police Department 174, Ocoee Police Department 113, Lake County Sheriff's Office 398, Cocoa Police Department 259, Winter Park Police Department 44, Volusia County Sheriff's Office 143, Seminole County Law enforcement Sanford location 194, Seminole County Law Enforcement Casselberry location 202, Osceola County Sheriff's Office 70, Kissimmee Police Department 107 and Palm Bay Police Department 194.

Thank you to all who participated and helped to make Central Florida's streets safer.

August 23, 2011

It Takes Courage

On August 23, 2011 Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer joined with Police Chief Paul Rooney to announce It Takes Courage, a new partnership with Harbor House aimed at curbing domestic violence.

Over the last three years, incidences of domestic abuse have risen dramatically in the City of Orlando – more than 26 percent since 2008 with nearly 3700 domestic-related incidences.
And already in 2011, the number of domestic murders is double the number in all of 2010. To combat this troubling trend, Mayor Dyer and the Orlando Police Department have partnered with Harbor House to launch It Takes Courage - a domestic violence community education campaign to dramatically stem domestic abuse.

Click here to read the press release.
Click here for the printable flyer.

August 5, 2011

National Night Out

On Tuesday, Mayor Buddy Dyer, City Commissioners, Fire Chief John Miller and Police Chief Paul Rooney joined several neighborhoods to celebrate the 28th annual National Night Out.

This annual event is a fun way for Neighborhood Watch groups to bring neighbors together as they work to improve crime and drug prevention awareness, generate participation in local anti-crime programs, increase neighborhood spirit and strengthen police-community partnerships.

The City of Orlando had another great year for participation with 72 registered neighborhood parties, 10 National Night Out Goes to Church parties, 6 National Morning Out parties and 6 National Night Out Goes to Summer Camp parties. Thank you to all of the neighborhoods who participated this year.

Chief Paul Rooney Sworn in as 37th Chief of Police of the City of Orlando

On Thursday, June 9, 2011, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer swore in Chief Paul Rooney as the new Chief of Police of the City of Orlando at the time-honored Change of Command Ceremony at the Amway Center. Chief Rooney will oversee the day-to-day operations of the department and serve as chief counsel to the Mayor on matters of public safety. Chief Rooney has served the Orlando Police Department for 24 years and was appointed Chief of Police in May 2011 by Mayor Dyer. Watch a recap on YouTube.

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