POLAR PLUNGE Members of the Mt. Lebanon Police Department will again participate in the Polar Plunge, to benefit Special Olympics, on December 6. The charity has all sorts of cold-water challenges during that weekend, all of which sound extremely painful. If you’d like to donate to this worthy cause, which provides sports and competitive programs for people with intellectual disabilities, go to www.mtlebanonpd.org.

HOLIDAY THEFT Police remind to you keep yourself, your car and your gifts safe while you’re shopping this holiday season. Do not leave gifts in your car where a thief can see them. Even if you lock the doors, a thief may break your window to get what’s inside. Then, you have no gifts and a heck of a chill driving home.

TRANSFERS The department has several personnel changes that will become effective January 1. Cory Nolte will move to the traffic safety unit from patrol. Jeff Bileck will leave traffic safety after seven years of service and move to patrol. Cpl. Paul Petras will leave the investigative services unit after seven years to move to patrol. Cpl. Dan Hyslop will move from patrol to investigative services.

DO YOU HAVE A COAT TO SPARE? Cpl. Jamie Hughes is spearheading a coat drive from December 1 through 19 to benefit the Salvation Army. A dropoff box for gently worn coats for any age wearer will be on the ground floor of the Public Safety Center, 555 Washington Road, which can be accessed from the parking lot around the back.

PENNDOT GRANT The Mt. Lebanon DUI Task Force, which includes the Mt. Lebanon Police plus units from nine other neighboring communities, has received a $50,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to administer its sobriety checkpoints and patrol programs for 2015. The grant will fund a minimum of three fixed sobriety checkpoints and nine roving DUI patrols.