SEV's Monthly SR2S Taskforce meetings featured fairly consistent participation from the Detroit Police Department's Northeastern District and representatives from other city and county governmental agencies that provide response to problems dealing with neighborhood safety. SEV's group also included the occasional participation of staff representing elected officials including city council members, county commissioners, and a U.S. congresswoman.
In preparation of convening its SR2S taskforce, SEV worked with its partner Wayne State University to organize the available data on neighborhood safety, including the results from SEV's summer youth mapping projects where students identified problems properties, such as burned out homes, locations where streetlights or signage needed repairs, and other issues, such as animal problems. WSU also worked with the Detroit Police Department Community Services Unit to analyze crime data for the neighborhoods served by SEV. The analysis focused on identifying and mapping crime "hot spots" and comparing those areas to the locations of the schools served by SEV. Traffic crash data was also analyzed by WSU and a mapping/statistical summary system for created for identifying the top crash locations.
Over the years, the Detroit Police Department has rightly earned a reputation for being very responsive to the community's desire to have police officers attend meetings and special events organized by the community. In fact, it is not uncommon to have several officers, who are assigned to perform community relations in the precinct, attend a community meeting. The responsiveness of the Department in this manner is appreciated by comunity organizations. At the same time, the community's initial good feelings have often been transformed into frustration when the police report that they were not able to take action (for example, due to manpower or legal constraints) or that the problems identified fall into the purview of another city agency -- not at the table. Often, addressing big city neighborhood problems such as gangs, drugs and prostitution require complex strategies involving multiple law enforcement actors: police, prosecutor, city attorney, and over a several week time period.
Some big city police departments have, in recent years, moved to adopt the "problem-oriented" model of policing, where a police department has trained teams of officers to take on and work on resolving persistent neighborhood problems with community-based organizations. The Detroit Police Department has not yet adopted this model. What exists is likely best described as a community-relations model of engagement. Consequently, police attention to specific crime and safety problems often only lasts as long as a community meeting and police officers play a limited role -- advising community groups or communicating information back to supervisors. In addition, the participation of specific police personnel is often not consistent -- where each meeting features a different officer(s).
Effective action on neighborhood crime and safety issues, part of a comprehensive SR2S action plan, requires consistent and accountable involvement from the key public safety agencies in a community. Community organizations , however, can overcome some of the realities of big city bureaucracy and politics through skilled facilitation. In short, the most effective facilitators will organize both the community (residents) and the likely problem-solvers (police, prosecutors, city agencies). Ultimately, SEV used its SR2S Taskforce to help set priorities, develop solutions, and advocate for attention and action from specific governmental agencies.
The Taskforce also served to foster a sense of competition among certain stakeholders, principally those representatives from local government, to commit to specific actions. When one agency made a commitment, the others would follow with their own commitment, not wanting to be shown up. The issue where SEV has had the most success has been in the area of code enforcement and nuisance abatement. Through its Taskforce, SEV was able to persuade the City's Building, Safety and Engineering Department to inspect some seventy properties located near schools where SEV had identfied safety concerns. Selected properties were also acted on by the Wayne County Nuisance Abatement Program.
A number of SEV's other SR2S activities also engaged the police department. Police officers joined SEV during its various community organizing and school-based events, including the walking school bus program at three schools and the "Unity in the Community Walk".
SEV sponsored a crime prevention workshop with the Detroit Police Department. It also received police support in implementing the Beacon of Light Program. This strategy asked residents in two neighborhoods to become a "Beacon of Light House" by pledging to turn on house lights in the morning and evening as children are going to and from school. Police accompanied community organizers who canvassed these areas.
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