Some people in the Wheat Ridge community may have seen an alert on their phone, received a call or got an email on the afternoon of Thursday, July 11 about a shelter in place notice for the 4600 block of Vance St.
The Wheat Ridge Police Department will sometimes send out these notifications through Lookout Alert, an emergency notification system run through Jefferson County. These alerts can be customized and sent out to specific locations in the city and are crucial to maintaining public safety.
The Thursday incident was part of a West Metro SWAT operation, which is a partnership between Lakewood and Wheat Ridge Police Departments. West Metro SWAT was executing a search warrant in the area on behalf of the RAVEN (Regional Anti-Violence Enforcement Network) Task Force. The task force is a multi-agency team with departments across the Denver metro area that focuses on organized crime and gun violence.
When executing these warrants, the operation is meticulously planned to promote safety for both the public and our SWAT team members. Since these are pre-planned operations, we can plan in advance to issue a Lookout Alert once we know it is time to execute the warrant.
This is different from typical police activity. If our department is reacting to a call for service, we are constantly evaluating if that situation rises to the level where a Lookout Alert notification is necessary. Please understand that public safety is our top priority. There are times when a shelter in place is needed and there are times when we can use discretion.
We encourage every citizen in Wheat Ridge to sign up for Lookout Alert by visiting Jefferson County’s website. The process is easy and only takes a couple of minutes. You can choose options between a call, text, email or combination of notifications for any sort of emergency from weather to police activity.
We hope that you understand that we don’t take these orders lightly. If a situation warrants a shelter in place, we will issue one. When those conditions are safe to lift that shelter in place order, we will send out another notification.
It’s a privilege to serve this community and we are eager to continue the work to make Wheat Ridge the safest community in the Denver metro area.
