City police department wins competition

For now, the Lynchburg Police Department can claim supremacy over its counterparts in Roanoke and Portsmouth when it comes to traffic safety and enforcement.

The Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police awarded Lynchburg’s department first place in its size class for the 2008 Law Enforcement Challenge.

The Bedford Police Department also placed first in its class.

The challenge grades state police departments on their yearly statistics related to traffic safety education and enforcement.

Lynchburg, with 166 officers at the time of last year’s challenge, competes in the category of departments staffed with between 120 and 300 officers.

Bedford competes against agencies with between 11 and 25 officers.

“We’re competing with some pretty decent size agencies … and doing pretty well,” said Capt. Brandon Zuidema, LPD’s public information officer.

The Roanoke City Police Department came in second to Lynchburg, with Portsmouth Police Department placing third.

“We’re at the bottom of the (class) level for people actually doing the work, yet we’ve produced … (results) that compare to larger cities and people that have the staffing,” said Officer Ronnie Sitler, one of Lynchburg’s traffic safety officers.

Lynchburg’s first place, Sitler said, reflects well on the dedication of its officers.

“They guys in this unit,” Sitler said, “they work their tails off all year round to do those programs, going to the schools,” he said.

“They gave up their own personal time and took the initiative to go out and do all these things to make the city of Lynchburg safer from a traffic standpoint.”

Zuidema said the award reflects well on the traffic safety unit, but also on the department in general.

“It’s really an overall department effort, in terms of enforcement and education, so it’s something to be proud of, I think,” Zuidema said.