Hello Neighbors I received several emails to the list asking about the HPCC meeting Thursday, and what was discussed related to Public Safety. Present from the City were Officer Gay, the Community Relations Officer from Zone 5, and from the Mayor's Office we had Lauren Byrne, Neighborhood Initiatives Coordinator, and Christie Berger, Community Outreach Coordinator. Lauren and Christie brought maps of the neighborhood, which are available on-line at the City's web site, www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us. These included crime maps. Lauren also reported that the Nuisance Property legislation was passed and will start being enforced with a hire in December. You can find this legislation with this link: http://legistar.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/detailreport/Reports/Temp/101820086234... I was able to find the neighborhood maps, but I could not find the crime maps on the site. Of course it is going on 7 am on Saturday when I am writing this, and it is not a good time to call anyone for help, and I am not that good at searching for things on the internet. The meeting was focused less on complaints and more on what solutions there are. Here are some suggestions that came up from Lauren Byrne and Officer Gay (and from residents): Police Reports need to be filed for all activity. Call 911 to report crimes and suspicious activity. When you report a crime and are talking to the reporting officer, get the CCR number that the Police use. Sometimes it is better to not confront a criminal in the act. If you call 911, the officers may be able to observe and catch an act going on. If you yell at a person to stop what they are doing, and then call 911, that person is usually gone by the time the police show up. The Police would like to step up patrols, but there is limited time for patrols with the shortage of officers. They can patrol when they are not responding to calls. Get out of your house and interact with your neighbors. Turn your lights on, both inside and out, front and back. Get motion-sensor lights for the exterior, so anyone approaching your home is lit up. Put your lights on timers. Vary the rooms and the times that the lights come on. Criminals will case your house, looking for patterns of activity, and looking for folks not at home. Varying the times and rooms that lights turn on can disrupt their ability to target you. Write down nicknames if you overhear them. This information can help the officers identify and track crimes. Use the silent complaint forms for things that are not emergencies. This information of dates, times, descriptions can help the police track patterns. Talk to the kids in the neighborhood, and learn who they are. If you are friendly with the very young kids, when they grow up, you know who they are. They also know that you know who they are. Start Block Watches, and keep the activity up. Often, an increase in crimes will cause residents to take action. But then as the crime decreases, folks go back to old routines. Keep the watch activity up to keep the crime down. Sign up for the Citizen Observer at www.citizenobserver.com. This is a tool that can alert you to what is happening in the neighborhood. Drive and walk a different route; take different streets to learn the neighborhood. When there is no one walking, running, or driving down a street, and no one on their porch or in their yard, and no lights on, it is very easy to sneak around and not be seen. An audience is not desired when committing crimes. That is what my notes say, and my memory recalls at this early hour. We can not rely on the City and the Police to make our neighborhood better, we have to be involved. The former commander of Zone 5 was active on this list, and often responded to postings. The current commander does not seem to be as active on this. But Officer Gay and Lauren Byrne, and others, are getting these postings, and are aware of the issues we have brought up. So even though the commander is not responding to our list, it is being monitored by folks in the City and they are paying attention. I am sure there are things that I have left out, and many other good suggestions that folks have. If you are interested in starting a block watch on your street, now is as good a time to start as any. Invite your neighbors over and have a discussion. See if they will help you rake your leaves, or go help them with theirs. Bob