Garland PIO Lucina Pedro Baranello outlines neighborhood safety and outreach programs

Lucina Pedro Baranello, public information officer for the Garland Police Department, presented an overview of the department's community relations and neighborhood policing programs, saying the department runs a set of free and volunteer-supported services intended to help vulnerable residents and improve response times. "It's a free program that the the city offers," Baranello said of the residential lockbox effort, stressing that the service and many volunteer programs are designed to reduce unnecessary property damage and speed emergency access.

Baranello described eligibility and operations for several programs: a residential lockbox for older adults or people with incapacitating medical conditions that stores a home key and a PIN entered into dispatch; a Safe at Home registry (screened by a police mental-health clinician, Katie Gorski) that places caution notes on an address; a vacation-watch volunteer program that uses identifiable volunteers to provide visible deterrence; and a 14-week Citizens Police Academy that familiarizes participants with department divisions and training. She also summarized the Neighborhood Police Officer (NPO) role and the department's volunteer screening and training processes, recommending residents contact the police department's front lobby or use the department's website for applications and information.

Baranello took residents' questions about services — including fingerprinting for children, captioning on social-media videos, and special-needs planning for group homes and schools — and directed people to follow-up contact via her office email. The presentation highlighted both practical enrollment steps and how the department logs information so first responders see relevant notes during a call, while keeping camera access and personal data limited to voluntary metadata entries.