‘An extremely safe community’: Lander Police Department chief presents final annual report before retirement

(Lander, WY) – Retiring Lander Police Department Chief Scott Peters used local crime data to argue that Lander is among the safest communities in the state last month.

“Lander is an extremely safe community,” Peters said during a Lander City Council work session in March. “I will argue that there is not a community safer in Wyoming than Lander right now … and you’ll see (that) in the data.”

He pointed in particular to “part one” crimes, which he described as “dangerous” – things like murder, sexual assault, aggravated assault, robbery, human trafficking, burglary, and larceny.

“Part one crimes are what scares you,” he said. “When you think of crime in a community, you should be thinking of part one when it comes to your safety.”

The number of part-one crimes recorded in Lander decreased “dramatically” last year, Peters said, falling 18 percent – from 218 in 2023 to 177 in 2024.

He also noted that the overwhelming majority of those part-one crimes involved theft (199 in 2023 and 160 in 2024), so the number of “true” part-one crimes in Lander was actually 19 in 2023 and 17 in 2024.

“Theft is our No. 1 crime (in) Lander, by far,” Peters said. 

But thefts are down too, he pointed out, calling that achievement a “fluke” caused by an increase in patrols that was initiated along Main Street to prevent traffic crashes in the area.

“We hit Main Street extremely hard because … like 68 percent of our crashes occurred between Seventh (and) the junction on Main,” Peters explained. “So we pounded that area, (and) I don’t think it’s a coincidence that shoplifting went down 29.3 percent – because all our businesses that were getting hit were on Main Street, and guess where all our officers were?”

The situation demonstrates the benefits of “high visibility” policing – a strategy “everybody in our community knows” the LPD has adopted, Peters said. 

“I get it all the time from folks saying, ‘My gosh, when I come into (Lander) I never don’t see an officer,’” Peters said. “I actually take that as a compliment, (because) that’s actually what we want.”

Lander’s high-visibility officers are also “very active,” Peters said, recording a total of 13,949 self-initiated calls in 2024 – that’s up by 56 percent compared to 2023, when the LPD recorded 8,935 self-initiated calls, and up by 190 percent from 2021, when the LPD recorded 4,807 self-initiated calls.

Many those self-initiated calls involve traffic stops, Peters said, but he pointed out that local officers aren’t “just trying to make money for the city” by handing out traffic citations – instead, they’re working to “educate” the public, as evidenced by the data, which shows that, out of 7,001 traffic stops the LPD completed in 2024, only 30 percent resulted in citations, compared to the “industry average” of 50-55 percent.

“What that shows is that our officers are not only active out on the streets, (but) also they’re fair – extremely fair,” Peters said. “We’re educating the public instead of punishing the public when it comes to citations.”

LPD officers are also “fair” when it comes to use of force, Peters said, noting that, out of 18,450 contacts with the public in 2024, only 17 resulted in an officer using force.

“That’s unheard of,” Peters said, attributing the accomplishment to an increase in training that has gotten local officers “skilled up to a level that they don’t have to revert to (using force) unless it’s absolutely needed.”

As he concluded his presentation, Peters thanked the city council for supporting those training efforts as well as the other projects he has spearheaded at the LPD over the past four years.

“You’ve never stood in the way of any of the initiatives or philosophies that I put in place,” he said, encouraging the council to “stay the course” as they embark on the process of hiring a new LPD chief, because “when you look at the numbers and you look at what we’ve done in the last four years together, you can tell that this system works.”

“We’re a very professional agency when it comes to our philosophies, how we operate, and how we treat people,” Peters said. “And in turn, I don’t feel bad walking away, because (I know) the operation is going to operate the same. … 

“This place is going to flourish without me when I walk out this door, and to me, that’s the ultimate accomplishment when you lead a department.”

For more information, call the LPD at (307) 332-3401.