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In 1859, Charles Lincoln Wilson acquired dry grassland in western Placer County that
spread toward the hills of the Sierra Nevada. The land was abundant with expansive oak trees and wildlife
provided by the availability of water to support life. While nearby towns flourished from the Gold Rush,
this land was designated as a railhead. As President of the Sacramento Valley Railroad, Wilson knew it
was only a matter of time before the first train arrived. Within weeks of his purchase, he laid out
streets and sold lots at auction. Only 46 lots were bought at the initial offering, but these new
landowners would become the foundation for the City of Lincoln.
When the first train arrived in 1861, the town was a hub of activity. Passengers arrived from all
points of the compass to transfer from stage to rail. Layovers could last for days and business in
Lincoln boomed. The business boom dried up almost overnight when the railroad extended its line
northward, however, Lincoln wasn't meant to be a ghost town. Civil War veterans arrived seeking
productive farm land. They planted orchards and grazed cattle upon the neighboring hills. Coal was
discovered in 1873 and carloads of the substance fired furnaces in towns throughout the valley. The
biggest discovery came in 1875, around the time Chicago resident Charles Gladding was visiting in
San Francisco. With 25 years in the pottery business, his interest peaked when he heard about the
discovery of a layer of clay near Lincoln. It proved to be of a superior quality. Gladding, along
with partners Peter McBean and George Chambers, founded Gladding McBean & Co. the same year. The
company whistle has blown at 0600 hours every morning for over a century.
The City of Lincoln is still the perfect place for community events-summer farmers' markets, the
Fourth of July parade (which has been going on for over a century), the Portuguese Holy Ghost
Festival and Carnival, the Holiday Parade and tree lighting ceremony, and Feats of Clay (Lincoln's
annual arts festival and competition, which attracts artists and art aficionados from all across
the nation).
Recently, the City of Lincoln has been booming with both residential and commercial development.
Many new businesses have come to town such as the Raley's Shopping Center, the Safeway Shopping Center,
Kaiser Permanente Medical Offices, Home Depot, Staples, Target, Original Pete's, Applebee's, Waffle Barn,
Panda Express, Chili's, and Panera Bread among many others. There are also other notable commercial
developments proposed and under way such as Lowes, PetsMart, Holiday Inn Express, Kragen Auto Parts,
Old Navy, Ross, TJ Maxx, and Mimi's Café. Although Lincoln has had dramatic increases in
residential and commercial development, it has been able to keep the small town atmosphere. Often
while attending local events, you will run across the same friendly faces. The City of Lincoln has
proudly been nominated as a 2006 All America City.
The City of Lincoln Incorporated in 1890, and has once again been named as the fastest growing city
in California. A recent survey shows the City's current population at approximately 36,800. This exceeds
a 28% increase from 2005 and a dramatic increase from the year 2000 population of 11,205. The current
population build out of the City is estimated to be approximately 130,000 residents. At build out,
Lincoln is projected to have thirteen new elementary schools, six more middle schools, and four high
schools. The city of Lincoln currently encompasses 19.7 square miles. The Lincoln Police Department
operated on a 2005-2006 annual budget of $5,301,398.
The main access through town is South Highway 65. South Highway 65 becomes G Street between 3rd and
7th Streets in Historic Lincoln, which houses many businesses in buildings that were constructed in
the 1800's. North of Lincoln is Wheatland, Sheridan, Olivehurst, and Marysville. To the south and west,
Lincoln is just minutes from Rocklin and Roseville and about thirty miles from Sacramento.
The Lincoln Police Department is led by Police Chief Brian Vizzusi. Chief Vizzusi is a twenty-three
year veteran of law enforcement and previously held a position of Police Lieutenant with the Lincoln
Police Department prior to being selected to his current position.
The Lincoln Police Department's staffing currently consists of two lieutenants, three Patrol Sergeants,
one Administrative Sergeant, one Detective Sergeant, one Traffic Sergeant, three Corporals, three full
time Detectives, two rotational Detectives, two Motor Officers, one Youth Services Officer, nineteen
Patrol Officers, one Community Service Officer, seven Dispatchers, one Records Clerk /Supervisor, one
Dispatch Supervisor, and approximately fifty volunteers, otherwise known as Citizens on Patrol or COPS.
Citizens on Patrol volunteers perform a variety of functions and are on duty seven days a week. Among
other duties, several times weekly, COPS volunteers complete a security checklist on each home that
has an "active" Vacation Check request on file. A few of the items on COPS security checklist
include; a physical property inspection to check for unlocked windows or doors and any evidence of forced
entry or other suspicious activity. The COP volunteer will look for signs on the property that may
convey, "no one is home," such as accumulating newspapers and door hanger ads. The Citizen on
Patrol checks for obvious mechanical malfunctions such as flooding due to broken water lines, etc.
COPS also assist by taking crime reports that have no suspect information, registration of narcotics
and sex offenders, and Live Scan finger printing.
The Lincoln Police Department has experienced some significant advancement over the past eighteen
months. There have been nine new Police Officers hired, three sergeant promotions, along with the
creation of an Administrative Sergeant, Detective Sergeant, and Traffic Sergeant. Two Officers have
been assigned to the Motor Unit and the detective division was also created.
A Youth Services Officer position was created to assist all the local schools and with the City youth
programs, a Community Service Officer has been assigned to evidence, which was previously assigned to
a Motor Officer. Other changes include, but are not limited to, all Officers of the department
assisted with a new black and white design for the Patrol vehicles, two Dodge Charger Patrol
vehicles are in service with two more on the way. Touch screen Mobile Dispatch Terminals (MDT)
have been put into Patrol vehicles, Patrol vehicle MDT's now have CLETS access, a state of the art
dispatch and report writing system (RIMS) has been implemented with shared access with Rocklin PD,
a Recruitment Team has been formed and has gone on recruitment trips as far as Napa for Dispatcher
and Officer candidates, a Professional Standards Committee has been formed to address the needs of
the department, on duty work outs have been encouraged, the mission and value statement has been
updated and re-written by department members, a police webpage has gone online
(Lincolnpd.org), a neighborhood electric vehicle that was
sitting un-used in the department warehouse has been outfitted for parking enforcement, and Officers
are responsible for organizing and hosting community Meet Your Officer meetings to meet citizens,
gather information and address issues or concerns in their beat.
The current Police Facility has approximately 6,500 square feet of work space. The City of Lincoln
is currently accepting bids for a new state of the art 90,000 square foot police facility. The
Lincoln Police Department is currently working a 3/12, 3/12 and an 8 hour patrol schedule. The
Lincoln Police Department also created a K-9 Officer position and its first dog "Whisk"
is now in service. The Lincoln Police Department will soon have members test for participation in a
regional S.W.A.T. team with other agencies located in Placer County.
The Lincoln Police Department currently has two Training Officers and will be soon selecting
additional Officers as Police Training Officers in the near future to assist with the rapid
growth of the department and the community.
The Lincoln Police Department will soon be implementing the Pilot Police training Officer (PTO)
training program. The Pilot PTO program gets the Officers to think more and interact more with
the public. Instead of just noting some of the things that a trainee does wrong in daily and
weekly evaluations as with the POST Module, the PTO program actually consists of daily journaling
by the PTO and the trainee. Daily evaluations are not part of the PTO model. There is a Coaching and
Training Report (CTR) that is done on a selected incident out of the daily journals. The CTR will
cover the 15 Core Competencies. The trainee will write about what they learned and what they still
need to learn in each category. The PTO will then add their own input and discuss it with the trainee.
The CTR can be done weekly, monthly, or by phase. The PTO training program lasts approximately fifteen
weeks for each trainee.
The PTO acts as more of a facilitator, guide, co-learner, mentor, coach, and professional consultant
compared to the FTO, who acts as more of an expert and formal evaluator. An FTO more or less simply
transmits information to a trainee where in the PTO Model; the trainee takes responsibility for
learning and creates partnerships with officers, governmental partners, and the community. Instead
of just memorizing or absorbing repetitive information, the PTO will evaluate the trainee's ability
to work through learning processes, problems, and develop critical thinking and problem solving
abilities. The PTO program get the trainees to not just seek the right answer, but to investigate
alternatives to the right answer by framing questions, exploring alternatives, and developing
effective courses of action.
The PTO model encourages problem based learning while forming partnerships with members of the
department and community. I saw the PTO model as a new progressive training program that will be the
training program of the future. The Lincoln Police Department is a progressive and rapidly growing
police agency that wants to provide all the best training and equipment to its employees while
developing better partnerships with members of the community.
