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Chief Perkins began the meeting by expressing his gratitude for the close relationship between the department and the club, specifically giving thanks for the First Responders Dinner we host annually. He also was proud to report that the Solon Police Department has had zero use of force reports in the past year, defined as a weapon striking someone or the use of tools to subdue. He also reminded us that the Solon Police Department can assist residents with many non-emergency needs such as lockouts.
He also told us that one of the biggest threats facing the Solon community are scams, especially given the fierce storm a few weeks back. He warned that the two most common recently are imposter scams and invoice fraud. Imposter scams occur when someone tries to impersonate a person with authority, friend, or loved one to extort money from the victim. Invoice fraud occurs when someone sends false invoices to an individual or business for items never received or services never rendered. He advised residents to watch for things like extreme urgency in a request, misspellings or grammatical errors, and demands for cryptocurrency, cash, or gift cards.
We heard about the success of the Hoops With Heroes event, which occurs on the first Sunday in March. Officers team up against 30+ kids to play a basketball game focused on teamwork and communication. We learned about the Visions of Policing initiative with the Solon Community Arts Center, which will highlight childrens' perspectives in honor of Police Memorial Day. He reminded us about the Cookie With A Cop program, where kids can share cookies with our police officers and foster community relationships. The department also provides crime prevention courses for children, and will be hosting a night out event showing Zootopia later this year.