Medford, Ore. –A skill usually reserved for criminals is helping Medford Police better serve the public.
MPD says 13 of their officers have been trained in lock picking techniques. The techniques help officers gain access to a home without having to break down a door and MPD says the skill was used as recently as Thursday night to perform a welfare check on an elderly woman who had fallen.
Patrol Officer Jason Wileman said, “we use it primarily for getting into homes where we have a medical problem, or somebody is down, or sick or hurt, and they can’t get to the door, we don’t want to add insult to injury and cause damage to the house.”
Police say an officer well trained in lock picking techniques can open a locked door in just seconds.
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