Hello Neighbors, On Monday July 26, 2004, the Highland Park Community Club Public Safety Committee sponsored a meeting of residents concerned about crime in the neighborhood. As guests the committee invited City Councilman Len Bodack and Zone 5 Police Commander Brackney-Griffin to attend. The meeting consisted of attendees voicing their concerns about the crime committed in the neighborhood, questions presented to the Commander, answers responded by the commander and some tips and action items discussed by the attendees. Below is a short summary of the points of the meeting and some remedies for our community. Issues: - Motorized scooters and ATVs circling blocks and making noise, especially late at night - Vehicle break-ins and vandalism to vehicles (Tire slashing, window breaking) - Armed Robbery (one instance) - Kids out unsupervised either during the day or at night. - Kids who trespass or annoy residents - Lack of participation in Block Watch - Children violating property - Police complaints don't lead to anything. - Inability to enforce curfew Results: ----------- - Reputation of Highland Park has gotten worse - Increased perception of personal risk - Increased expenditures on protective devices (alarm systems, motion detectors, etc.) - Fear of confronting even very young children who exhibit antisocial or threatening behavior Possible Causes: ----------- - Lack of parent accountability for children�s' actions - Lack of enforcement of curfew laws due to closure of youth detention center Remedies: --------------- - Protective measures (locking doors, securing belongings) - Complaints: (a) Silent Complaint forms (online:http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/police/html/police_tip_form.html) or in hard-copy from HPCC or local officer) (b) Call 911, even if you want to report a possible crime without police response (c) Contact committee person (HPCC Safety Committee, Democratic Party committeeman) (d) Contact Mayor's Service Center (online:http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/mayor/html/mayors_service_center.html) (e) Attend city council meeting (schedule online: http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/city_clerk/html/schedule.html ) - Youth activities: YWCA, YMCA, Boys and Girls Clubs, Big Brother/Big Sister, Union Project, Education Innovations - Parenting programs: One Vision, One Voice, Salvation Army, other programs that police work with - Mediation programs: Pittsburgh Mediation Center (online: <http://www.pghfree.net/~pghmed/>) - Block watches (need to be revitalized in order to be effective) - Outreach programs: truant/parole officers in Pittsburgh Public Schools, Weed and Seed (http://www.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/weed&seed/) Some comments and items that are of interest as a result of the meeting: 1. Many of the concerns, and solution strategies of meeting attendees have been discussed and presented in the Highland Park Community Plan final report (online:http://communityconnections.heinz.cmu.edu/highlandpark/report.jsp) I encourage everyone to read it. 2. Alternative strategies to increased or more effective law enforcement that may address underlying causes of criminal or undesirable activity include youth activities, parental support, mediation, etc. as listed in the meeting notes above. Especially pertinent to how our community is dealing with these underlying causes is Highland Park Youth Group. Sal Wilcox and Marie Jackson of Education Innovations Inc. are co-coordinators (s.wilcox@educationinnovations.org and mv.jackson@educationinnovations.org, respectively). 3. I believe that local organizations could do more in the area of resident outreach activities to address some of the underlying public safety problems in the community. These outreach activities should focus on minority residents, low- and moderate-income residents, renters, youth and other groups that tend to be underrepresented in meetings of organizations such as the Highland Park Community Club. These sorts of activities are different from those sponsored by the HPCC Welcome Committee, the Membership Committee, or the yearly community-wide mailing of the HPCC newsletter. Instead, the community needs an effort to actively represent and advocate for the concerns of the broadest diversity of Highland Park as well as portions of surrounding areas that may share an affiliation with Highland Park. 4. The community needs to become involved in active Block Watch participation. The committee chair for the Block Watch committee is Jan Stayianos who can be reached at 412-363-8208. Please call her to find out more information and to join the Block watch program. 5. This important topic deserves ongoing discussions in order to share experiences, knowledge and solution strategies. One way to do this would be to have greater participation in the HPCC Public Safety committee, during or outside regularly-scheduled HPCC meetings. Another would be on-line discussions in a special forum dedicated to public safety, perhaps using the Public Safety discussion board already available on the Highland Park Community Plan website (www.highlandparkcommunity.com; click on �Community Plan Discussion Boards.�) I am open to any comments or suggestions regarding this meeting summary or next steps going forward. I (and the community) look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely yours, John Ciroli (jciroli@yahoo.com) __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - Send 10MB messages! http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail