PAC2 Meeting Minutes: October 13, 2003
Community concerns
Citizen Observer Program (COP)
PAC2 grant funding
More community concerns
Community concerns: In a reversal of the usual agenda, we began the meeting, after the introductions, by opening the floor to community concerns.
Risa Foster, head of the Trinity Heights neighborhood association, announced an upcoming community meeting regarding the new Duke-Durham policing agreement, which is still being hammered out. DPD chief Chalmers, acting DPD chief Tiffin, and Duke Police chief Birkhead will meet with interested citizens from the neighborhoods around East Campus for a Q&A session. This meeting is currently being arranged; the time and place will be posted to the PAC2 listserve as soon as they have been determined.
Someone raised the question of the habitual felon whose activities have been discussed recently on the PAC2 listserve, and asked what we can do about this type of situation, where a habitual criminal is repeatedly released to commit further crimes. Capt. Sarvis advised us to keep raising the issue, but said that it’s ultimately beyond the power of city government to deal with it. The police are doing their part in investigating crimes, gathering evidence, and arresting these individuals, and the police have been raising the issue for some time about criminals who have their bonds reduced and are released to commit more crimes. Sarvis also suggested that one avenue for us to have some influence could be through the Courtwatch program. Modeled after the success of MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving), Courtwatch helps to raise public awareness and keep the pressure on judges. The judges whose decision it is to release habitual criminals back into our community are elected or appointed at the state level, so this is really a state issue.
A representative from the North Durham Branch Library, located in Riverview Shopping Center, asked for increased police presence there. Gang activity is on the rise in that area, and they want to keep the library a safe place for everyone, especially kids, senior citizens, and handicapped folks, who may be more vulnerable. The library can’t afford a security guard, but their patrons pay taxes, and they’re trying to prevent the library from becoming a gang meeting place. She asked to have patrol officers stop by the library more often, not necessarily every day or on any regular schedule, but unpredictably, just to increase police visibility at the library.
Glennis reported on a meeting last Friday of the various PAC facilitators with Rep. David Price, at which gang problems were discussed. The breakup of Few Gardens has resulted in its former residents being moved around town, particularly into the Carriage House apartments in the Old Farm area. This redistribution has mixed Crips with Bloods in some of the same neighborhoods. There’s also an upswing in Hispanic gang activity, particularly the Latin Lords.
Capt. Sarvis said that much of the crime the DPD is currently seeing is driven by gangs and drug sales. Chief Chalmers has always favored aggressive law enforcement, and the new crime profile calls for a new approach. Consequently, Sarvis informed us of some administrative & organizational changes being made in the DPD. The four district CATT teams are being consolidated. This involves about 35 positions, some of which are being shifted into special operations, mostly the gang unit. The rest will form one citywide CATT team, which will be based at Palm Park in District 2. The new CATT team will be headed by our own former District 2 commander, Capt. Duane Clark, and Sgt. Wanda Givens.
The library representative asked whether the library could get someone from the gang unit to come talk to their staff, to inform them about possible gang activity, what to be on the lookout for, and how to handle it. Sarvis said that could certainly happen, and he’d have someone from the gang unit contact them.
Someone asked whether the DPD has auxiliary volunteers. Capt. Sarvis replied that they do have a reserve force of about 20 volunteer officers. These volunteers must work a minimum of 8 hours/month to remain certified. They mostly do special projects.
A recent event brought together leaders from the NAACP, Durham Voter Coalition, and many other organizations, who gathered on the steps of the Durham County Courthouse and called for an end to plea bargaining in gun crimes. An upcoming meeting will bring together many of these same organizations, with local judges, the District Attorney, and mothers of murder victims. Everyone is welcome to attend; the meeting will be in the county commissioners’ chambers, on Oct. 31 at 3 pm.
George Carter of Housing warned us about a possible scam that his own family had recently encountered. A caller (who registered as anonymous on their Caller ID) told his wife their household was not on the “Do Not Call” list for telemarketers, and offered to sign them up for it. When she expressed interest, the caller asked for her bank account number, and very insistently tried to pressure her into giving it to him.
Katherine suggested that block captains should put identity theft on their agenda, and that everyone should discuss it with their families, and be aware of what to do and what not to do to try to avoid being victimized.
Someone else reported an odd sequence of events that might be a scam of some sort. They were in the process of building a new house, and at that address (where they hadn’t moved in yet, and the house was still under construction) they had received via UPS some packages from Deluxe, the check printing company. The packages contained withdrawal slips on a CCB bank account, at that address, but in the name of another couple unknown to them. They looked up that couple in the phone book and found a listing for them elsewhere in town, but the phone was disconnected. They were going to take the slips to CCB and ask them about it. Katherine asked them to report back whatever they found out.
Citizen Observer Program (COP): Tonight PAC2 welcomed and thanked a contingent of volunteers from the Citizen Observer Program (COP), a pilot of which was recently launched in District 2. The COP patrol car is currently on display at Northgate Mall through the weekend, as part of a crime prevention exhibit. Also available there is free ID for kids. This does not involve either the DPD or any other agency keeping records on kids; they simply provide the service of taking photos and DNA samples, which are then given to the parents to keep in a safe place for use if ever needed.
The COP volunteers present spoke about their experiences with the program to date. They all went through an initial training session, which included operating parameters, what volunteers can and cannot do, defensive driving, and observation techniques. One volunteer said that he felt he was developing a new way of seeing, and learning to notice things that we normally take for granted. In the course of their patrols, volunteers had helped a motorist change a flat tire, and found the owner of a lost dog. They also do house checks (for people who are away on vacation) and infirm checks (stopping by to visit elderly or homebound residents and make sure they’re OK). COP volunteers said they could help by including the North Durham branch library on their patrols. COP volunteers function as observers only, and are not supposed to get any kind of confrontation with anyone, but their presence nonetheless serves as a deterrent to crime. One volunteer reported an incident where a woman was being harassed by several men in a convenience store parking lot; at the sight of the COP car, the men backed off.
PAC2 grant funding: Lt. John Mozart of the DPD, who handles the administration of PAC funds, was tonight’s speaker. Mozart works in administrative services at the DPD, which means he is involved partially with the budget and partially with operations.
The DPD funds the five PACs out of a Local Law Enforcement Block Grant. The LLEBG is a federal grant that is given to jurisdictions based on their UCR crimes. Because the City of Durham is the sole city in Durham County, and Durham County provides for incarceration, they have to split the money. It’s approximately a 67/33 split, with the city getting the lion’s share.
The DPD’s spending plan is reviewed by a citizens advisory board, then approved by the council. In recent years, it has included $5000 per year for each PAC.
The PACs tend to have available overlapping funding from different years at the same time, each of which expires at a different time. The money from each year must be spent by the deadline. Mozart looks at whether any PACs have unspent money that will expire soon. He doesn’t want to tell the PACs how to spend their money, just to provide guidelines on meeting the federal requirements.
At the last round of Coffees With Council, the PACs all asked for city funding. Mozart said that, since it wasn’t made clear that they wanted city funding to replace the grant funding through the police department, it sounded as if the PACs wanted to double their funding by getting it from two sources. He also said that there would be fewer constraints on PAC spending if their funding were a city budget item. That would seem like a good idea until someone in one of the PACs misspent funds; then the city would be raked over the coals for it, with the Herald-Sun writing articles asking why the city didn’t oversee PAC spending better.
Mozart opined that PAC2 was the “most proactive, best managed” PAC as far as how the money is spent.
Mozart helps the PACs write grant proposals in a way that will make them federally acceptable. As an example, he talked about the recent PAC2 grant for a publicity campaign about the leash law. The initial proposal, Mozart said, sounded like it was just about protecting cats—not that that isn’t a worthwhile endeavor, but it needs to be about preventing crime or apprehending criminals. Mozart worked with PAC2 treasurer Fred Lamar to revise the proposal in a way that emphasized the law enforcement angle, bringing out the fact that the PAC2 Animal Control Task Force would be working with the appropriate law enforcement agency and that they would actually be citing offenders.
Other recent PAC2 expenditures Mozart mentioned were the printing of the COP manual, which is done, and the peace march, funds for which he said were “encumbered and available”.
There are seven allowable purpose areas for block grant funding, as follows:
(1) Supporting law enforcement: hiring, training, or employing officers; paying overtime; procuring equipment, technology, etc. to assist the police in their basic functions.
(2) Enhancing security measures in and around schools and other places that local government considers crime-prone.
(3) Establishing or supporting drug courts.
(4) Enhancing adjudication of cases involving violent offenders, including juvenile offenders.
(5) Establishing a multi-jurisdictional task force to prevent or control crime.
(6) Establishing crime prevention programs involving cooperation between community residents and law enforcement personnel to control, detect, or investigate crime, or to prosecute criminals.
(7) Defraying the cost of indemnification insurance for law enforcement officers.
PAC2’s activities usually fall under funding area #6, although we have also done some things that fell under #1, like buying the speed trailer.
When a funding proposal is written, it comes to the DPD for review. If it’s for services, the DPD gets invoices from the contractors. They contact them with the approval of the proposal, and the goods are shipped to the DPD. Although it’s PAC2 money, the DPD is the custodian of the funds, and has a duty to make sure that we got what we paid for.
The fiscal services unit is shortstaffed and overworked like everyone else, but in the crunch at the end of a reporting period, they try to make sure any money left gets spent.
Mozart opened the floor to questions, and was asked about the COP car. In order to provide the car, they had to get the city to increase the size of their fleet by one, and also had to get insurance for it through risk management.
Someone asked whether the PACs could get each other’s leftover money, in the event that one PAC had not spent all of their allotment for the year by the deadline. Mozart said he’d be very leery of getting into that, as it might tend to promote turf wars among the PACs.
Someone else asked about whether and how the leash laws applied to cats; they received different and conflicting responses from various others present, and unfortunately there was no one from Animal Control present at this meeting to settle the question.
Katherine suggested that we think about possible projects, both at the individual neighborhood level and district-wide, that might be fruitful uses of PAC2 funds. Someone asked whether we could see some of the past grant proposals that had been approved, in order to give people an idea of how to effectively write new proposals for their neighborhoods. Katherine is going to work on making these available on the PAC2 website.
More community concerns: PAC2 has bought porch light beacons, and Katherine says we’ve just received a consignment. She’ll talk to Eric Hester to see whether COP volunteers could help hand these out to the people who need them.
Glennis spoke about the importance of recognizing volunteers and reminded us of the Neighborhood Hero awards given for the first time this year by the Inter-Neighborhood Council. One of the honorees, and the only one to have received two separate and unrelated nominations, was PAC2’s own Katherine O’Brien.
On Thursday, Oct. 30th, there will be a public forum held at Duke to meet the candidates for city council. It will be at the Bryan Center, at the corner of Science Drive & Towerview on Duke’s West Campus, from 7 to 9 pm.
On Wednesday, Oct. 15th, Self-Help will have an event in Walltown from 4-6 pm, celebrating their 50th house sold. House #50 was 922 Onslow, between Green & Knox.
COP patrols in Walltown have noticed a lot of debris and junk at the curbs, and want to know why the city can’t pick up the trash. The question should be directed to acting head of Solid Waste Billy Smith. Smith has thirty years’ service with the city, and will likely retire once the new director is chosen. It was suggested that PAC2 should try to meet with the new Solid Waste head and try to raise the bar in establishing new standards. Another Walltown resident added a complaint about a house at Berkeley and Knox. The property is owned by notorious slumlord Lee Ray Bergson, and has a chronic problem with very bad litter and overflowing trash cans.
On Wednesday, Oct. 15, at 7 pm, there will be an open house at the Museum of Life & Science. This is the third in a series of public meetings on the Durham cultural plan. Come and bring your input about your hopes for the future of Durham’s cultural scene.
On Tuesday, Oct. 21, from 2-4 pm, at the North Durham Branch Library, the Health Dept. will be giving free flu shots for seniors with Medicare Part B (bring your card). There will also be information available for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This is the first time they’ve done flu shots at the library. These are free to seniors only, but anyone else can get a flu shot at the Health Dept. for $17. The CDC is encouraging people to get flu shots this year because of the SARS virus.
Thanks to all who attended and supported the recent Community Day in Walltown.
