CITIZENS AND LAW ENFORCEMENT WORKING TOGETHER • DURHAM, NC • DISTRICT 2
Home • Minutes • Resources • Forms • Outreach • Grant Information • City of Durham
CITIZENS AND LAW ENFORCEMENT WORKING TOGETHER
• DURHAM,
NC
• DISTRICT 2
Home
•
Minutes •
Resources •
Forms
• Outreach
•
Grant Information
• City
of Durham
Monday, November 20, 2000 * E.K. Powe Elementary * 6PM
Notes from the lunch meeting with the Mayor:
Thursday October 26, 2000
The PAC leaders have been having working lunches with Mayor to talk about issues regarding crime. Thursday was the third of these meetings. The first meeting discussed the initiation of the Town Hall Meetings and the PAC involvement in such. During the second meeting the Mayor presented the results of the Town Hall Meetings. The third meeting was to discuss the collated information and direction.Ý The following are topics discussed.
The Mayor agreed that many of the topics discussed at the pervious Town Hall Meeting are items that the PACs are constantly working on. Basically the PACs are part of the solution. This said the topic became what is the relationship of the PAC system to the city? How do the PACs fit into the city structure and what structure are the PACs operating under that will allow the city to connect.
All four PAC are district homegrown this creates a situation in which the PACs have different operating structures. There seems to be a need to standardize the operating structure to allow the city to extend help. This operational structure would include bylaws, operation process, definition of succession plans and functional units.Ý Basically what this means is that it is written on paper how we operate. All four PACs agreed that a standard operational structure was achievable.Ý The Mayor agreed to solicited the aid of Duke students from the public policy area to gather the information from all four PACs, collate it and define the state of where the PAC are structurally.Ý The PACs will then define the structure under which
all District PACs will operate. Individual PAC members will have input into any structural changes. Target date for completion is April. This target date should coincident with budgeting sessions of the city and would place us in a good situation for obtaining administrative support from the city. One of the goals of PAC II has been to get the city to give administrative support in ways of mailings, knowledge of grant opportunities and other items that would allow for the continuation of PAC as citizen volunteers take-over, and step down from roles.Ý It seems that the first step in this process is to define a PAC structure that the city can understand.ÝÝÝ
PAC II has good neighborhood representation through liaisons, but the problem is that those reps have responsibilities in their neighborhoods and cannot commit time to PAC. Cynthia Mebane-Watts: talking to her counterparts at the other PACs they think that we care more organized and have it together. No other comments from the floor.
Brooke discussed a statement from the DPD:
Message from Major Tiffin:
Thank you for adding me to your group service. It was my pleasure visiting your meeting last night and seeing how effective your group has become. I have always taken a personal interest in Pac2 as I was the founding commander years ago. It is nice to see how far you have come. Congratulations. Please don't hesitate to contact me if I can be of any service to Pac2. Thank you.
Major Charles Tiffin, PhD
Administrative Services Bureau Chief
Durham Police Department
During the Trinity Park rapes, the primary means that the substation used to communicate with the citizens was the phone and the newspapers.
The information that Newman Aguiar (Trinity Park, caramia@ix.netcom.com) is sending out is the result of seven months of work between the Durham Police Department and PAC II. The original intent of this project was to get crime information into the community quickly through the use of technology. After the idea came up at a meeting Newman Aguiar, Pam Spaulding and myself laid out the direction for what we referred to as the Crime Information Task Force. Pam and Brooke laid the ground-work with the police through conversation with Captain Morris and then finally receiving permission from the fifth floor downtown police headquarters. At that point Newman took the reins and with his knowledge of technology pulled this together. A special thanks needs to go out to the District II sub-station and Newman for making this happen.
ÝÝÝÝÝ During the initial meetings with the Task Force members and then the police department many issues were looked over as we tried to find a way to get this information from the police department in other ways than their ASA 400 system which runs a month behind in releasing information back into the community. Some of the main issues that were discussed were protecting victims safety, protecting the officers involved and doing nothing that would hamper the investigation. There is a limit to the information that we can release further information will need to come from the District II Sub-station. The system that Newman has been working to set up has taken into consideration all of these issues.
Brooke then introduced Newman, who gave thanks to Brooke, Pam and DPD substation 2 staff in facilitating the process of making the initial steps in order to get a system in place.
Priorities of this information distribution system:
1) Getting info out to community
2) Protecting victims privacy
All means of getting info out in the past involved time consuming and manual efforts. The AS/400 was difficult to use and inefficient. District 2 needed something that was quick and efficient and timely, that involved the least amount of effort by the police. Newman wrote a program that:
1) keeps track of every crime, can generate statistics for the public and themselves, and
2) generates a direct report to email listserv. The report contains: IR number (incident report), date of crime reported, time of dispatch, block number, street name, and stolen property. Issues raised: use of block number.
The concern, specifically for sexual assaults, was that it would not sufficiently protect privacy of the survivor. The choices the program allows for "randomizing" addresses: Block numbers or block ranges. Since the computer does it automatically, so it is easy to convert to a range. If a street has blocks from 100-500, the computer would convert it to 300-700, it cannot determine it accurately. If you choose the ranges, then only residents know that it's wrong. Some crimes were listed in the reports that didn't show in the newpaper log and vice versa.Ý Officer fills the report, it goes to the Sgt., if approved it goes to records (AS/400) and a copy is forwarded to the substations. It eventually gets to Van Clinton, who enters it into the database. If a report is filed by an officer from another district, it gets filed downtown, not to the substation. We have to accept these problems in the system.Ý
At present, there are no neighborhood names in the system. We need to give the DPD a list of neighborhoods and boundaries so that they can fill this out in their reports. Captain Morris approves of this measure. PAC must also resolve where do we want to post the reports. Each community should create a listserv if they have none, and a point person to be in contact for that. Newman is willing to take names and emails of neighborhood liaisons. Cynthia has access to print version of neighborhoods in district 2.Ý Tony Scott has a photocopy of all the neighborhoods from City County Planning. Plan is to reproduce the map and approve the boundaries at the next meeting so that it can be used officially and placed on the web site. Cassandra will scan the map. Brooke will help coordinate contacts in neighborhoods.
… Non connected communities
Auto-dialer: it is more complicated than the listserv. Need to have access to the machine to set it up. One problem is how to handle many crimes are posted? Multiple phone calls, who wants on or off the dial list. Can it be set up to broadcast where people can call in and retrieve a message? Pam: It is possible. Capt. Morris: Newman has put hours and hours programming into it, putting more time and effort into it and put it light years ahead of all the PACs. .Applause and thanks to Newman for his hard work.
Any possibility for sharing the system with other PACs? Cynthia Mebane-Watts said that there may be interest, but from her discussions with her colleagues in the other PACs, the wasn't interest in even a listserv at this time.
Newman says that the system is built in Access and Quick Basic and can be used in other systems.
Brooke: any further discussion? There was a vote:
… Blocks will be named in the report for all crimes except sexual assault, which will be posted as block ranges.
Urban Forestry:
James T. Mitchell and David McCary. They will be pruning in alley ways in Trinity park so that solid waste vehicles and workers can maneuver safely in alleys. The first project will be to clear the alleys between Trinity and Urban Aves. A slide show was given to illustrate:
Reasons for Vegetation management:
1) Increase crew safety by increasing crew member visibility;
2) Increase crew productivity,
3) Reduce equipment damage. Several slides of poor visibility and safety concerns. A lot of the overgrowth is just "volunteer" vegetation that is wild on the right of way and overgrown trees.
What will be done: 1) Vertically: 13 feet worth of clearance, set by ordinance. 2) Horizontally: 2-3 feet on either side of pavement (there is a 15 foot right of way in these alleys), 11 feet is paved.
Any questions about this?Ý Only one person from Trinity was in attendance to comment. A Walltown resident who lives off of an alley strongly advocates for pruning and cleaning. There are ordinances about tree height. How often is the pruning?Ý 3-5 year cycle. Will be notified by can hangers on garbage cans; letter will be sent to TPNA and absentee landlords. Plans to do this in the majority of neighborhoods (TP, DP, WH, TH). The criteria for the city to clean an alley is whether garbage pickup is occurs on the alley. What about other contractors seen in the city clearing overgrowth and cutting trees: a resident near Glendale noticed "hack job" by an Asplundh crew. Mr. Mitchell said that these crews are contracted by Duke Power to clear their lines and have little supervision by the city. No decision has been made on who will do this particular alley work. It could be a city crew, or Asplundh under city management. Brooke: who does a citizen call if there is overcutting (James Mitchell, 560-4105). Chuck Harris meets with the Duke Power folks regularly to help negotiate the kind of work that they are doing.
Brooke asked question about trash collectors on Mangum St., with speeding vehicles that have to avoid running into the trucks. David McCary says he will look into reroute pickup to ensure safety.
Captain Phil Wiggins, DPD chaplain. Works with the crime analysis unit.
Wants to meet with church leaders in PAC II to see if they can develop programs for crime reduction. Ministers can do ride-alongs with the police into the community to help identify and counsel youth that may be heading into gang activity. In places where this has been implemented (Chicago), it has been quite successful in getting the community involved after a killing occurred in a church. He is trying to develop this citywide.
Cynthia Mebane-Watts. (Housing and Community Development)
Officer Mark Sherman who handles these permits for District II stated that the community response rarely prevents these permits from being issued. Even if DPD can prove a case of crime related activity permits are normally given. That leads me to believe that adding the PACs to this process is a method to give us a heads-up as to what is happening in our District II community. Officer Sherman has informed me that comments on the basis of moral opposition is not merited as alcohol is legal.Ý
Since these permits need to be turned around quickly there may not always be time for a meeting before the permit verification paperwork needs to be submitted back to the ABC Board.Ý We can discuss any method in which the community feels they need to respond but until we can put it on the meeting agenda I will simply post notices of these ABC permits request as they come to PAC II on the listserv.Ý There are two new requests that Officer Sherman has submitted for comment.
1) Mexican Restaurant, (El Cordels (?)), 1821 Hillandale, Loehmann's Plaza
Plaza. A request for an on premise beer, wine and mixed.
2) Eckerds Drug, 1500 Broad Street. A request for an off-premise beer &
wine.
3) Lighthouse restaurant, 5300 Roxboro Road
PAC had no compelling reasons to deny these permits. Mitchell Archer says that PAC 4 has been successful in getting permits denied, so if PAC II wants to be vigilant on this we can act. Might want to open a dialog with PAC I on this about Little 5 Points. Alcohol and Law Enforcement (ALE) has been working with the DPD and the PACs. They try to correlate the statistics of crime and types of calls and quality of life in the neighborhood to help negotiate the viability of the renewal. Question about Eckerd change of location, will it improve the circumstances? Mitchell Archer says no, in reference to chain stores like Eckerd or Kerr. Is there a limit of number of licenses can be granted? No. An example of being able to get a permit denied: If you have 5 established nightclubs in a neighborhood, according to Captain Morris, they will get renewed if there is no increase in crime that can be proven statistically, based on the number of calls. A sixth establishment that opens and attempts to gain a license may be denied, however, if the community can maintain that it will reduce quality of life. No additional comments on this from the room..
* U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno was here to discuss STARS. They didn't mention any of the community groups involved in crime reduction. Next notification for STARS is Nov 30.
Next meeting: Tony Scott will check on community room at DPD HQ for December meeting, which falls when school is out. There was an informal discussion on whether to skip the December 18 meeting and resume in January.
Additional Information distributed at the meeting, not covered in minutes:
Update on 911 Calls: Prioritization
PRIORITY 1:Ý Calls for service in this category are a life-threatening or property threatening situation in progress or an officer needing emergency assistance.
PRIORITY 2:Ý Calls for service in this category are life-threatening or property-threatening situations that have just occurred.Ý Calls in this category may include, but are not limited to, traffic accidents with no personal injury, belated break-ins, barking dog (possible prowler), belated disturbances, etc.
PRIORITY 3:Ý Calls for service in this category are minor in nature and may include but are not limited to, belated property-damage, belated petty larceny, traffic control sign damage, report of malfunctioning signal light, abandon vehicle causing no hazard, parking violations, noise complaints, police advice, animal control complaint, etc.
Crime Prevention Tips:
This information has come by the way of one of our county sheriff's officers.
*Ý To minimize the amount of information a thief can steal, do not carry extra credit cards, your social security card, birth certificate, or passport in your wallet or purse, except when needed.
*Ý To reduce the amount of your personal information that is in circulation, you may wish to consider the following:
ÝÝÝ Removing your name from the marketing lists of the three credit
reporting bureaus
|
CSC Credit Services Equifax Regional Office P.O. Box 674402 Houston, TX 77267-4402 1-800-759-5979 |
Experian (TRW) P.O. Box 919 Allen, TX 75013 1-800-353-0809 |
Trans Union P.O. Box 97328 Jackson MS 39738 1800-567-8688 |
ÝThis will limit the number of pre-approved offers of credit that you receive in the mail.Ý When in transit or tossed into the garbage, such solicitations are a potential target of identify thieves who can use them to order credit cards in your name.
I will attempt to get more helpful tips and post them periodically if you think they would be helpful.Ý This information I get through the TRIAD network.