Minutes were taken by Greta Mosley of the 19WCA.  After approval the minutes are to be posted at:  http://www.19wca.org/home/committees/public-safety-documents.  I am reposting here for your convenience.

February 26, 2013 Minutes:  PresbHmPubSftyFe262014.doc

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Public Safety Meeting – 19^th Ward

Location: Rochester Presbyterian Home

Time: 6:30 p.m. – 8:15p.m.

256 Thurston Rd

Rochester, NY 14619

(585) 235-9100

Minutes:

Moderator-LaShay Harris, 19^th Ward President

Scribe-Greta E. Mosley

Agenda

1. Report from Crime Prevention Officer – Carl Dickerson and Andy Dimaria-Southwest Neighborhood Service Center (SWNSC) (as of February 25, 2014)

2. Guest Speaker – Commander Wayne Harris – 809 Chili Avenue—Triple Homicide-February24, 2014

Notes

Forty-one (41) neighbors were in attendance. Sign in sheet attached.

Per Officer Carl Dickerson-(As of February 25, 2014)

Announcement-

Adam McFadden, SW Council person is holding a special community meeting to review the proposed Thurston Road improvements (Thurston Road Village) on Wednesday, April 2nd at 6:30PM at the Presbyterian Home. The City planners and Norm Jones, the Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Services, will be present. It is a very important meeting that will define Thurston Road for the next 75 years. It is the culmination of years of Thurston Road Street Watch discussions and planning. Should you not be able to attend, please send all comments to John Borek at jborek,

John Borek-absent- and -Conducting meeting on East Side of Councilman McFadden’s District-regarding traffic calming and street safety. Adam McFadden sends his best as he was unable to attend tonight’s meeting.

I. Neighborhood Crime issues: (Major Incidents)

1. Prohibited use of a weapon- February 22, 2014-351 Post Avenue- Officers respond and victim indicated that he was originally shot and robbed but he actually shot himself by accident.

2. 179 Penhurst Avenue-February 24, 2014-Prohibited use of a weapon –Two females were sent home from school for fighting and a short time later a crowd of people showed up and one of the females’ home and began fighting again. As this was ensuing, someone shot in the air with a 45 caliber weapon and everyone dispersed immediately. Casings were found. Still working on finding who shot the weapon.

3. 219 Warwick Avenue-Feb 24, 2014-Officers respond to Frost and Rugby Ave area where a male was beating a female-with a shotgun-Victim went in house to drop off some items in her house. As she returned to her car at the garage behind her house, she was met by a male with a shot gun who demanded her purse. She refused to give it to him and they fought. He was able to obtain the purse and fled. Victim’s son chased man to no avail.

4. 53 Woodbine Avenue-Reckless Endangerment-Husband and wife, wife has been sleeping in basement of house, found another car in the driveway and assumed that it was a male –husband fired a round into the basement. The husband was found on Frost Avenue taken into custody and arrested. Handgun was recovered.

5. 809 Chili Avenue-Commander Harris-(Assigned to the Southwest for the past five (5) months before that I was the Northwest Quadrant Captain.)

Commander Harris

Let’s talk about 179 Penhurst Street, two ladies had an altercation and were fighting first at a school on Ridgeway Avenue in the area. Upon arriving home, the fighting began again on Penhurst Street. One of the family members produced a weapon and fired into the air. We have not had a chance to talk to individual that fired the gun. Police do not know if the weapon was illegal or not. In addition to the Penhurst fighting, another fight took place regarding this incident on Colvin Street. For whatever reason, our children are resorting to violence to settle their differences and are using levels of violence that I had not seen before in my career and that is unfortunate.

809 Chili Avenue-Individuals went to this address found a deceased body and called the police. Upon arrival, the officers did a systematic run through of the house and found three (3) bodies and found evidence of gunfire on the inside. We believe at this point that the gunfire is the cause of the deaths. Why it occurred? We do not know. Right now this is early in the investigation. I cannot tell you about our investigative steps. It is very early in the investigation. I can tell that this is not something that poses a threat to the rest of this particular neighborhood. I don’t believe that this is going to spread to the nearby school. What happened was meant to happen right at that location. It is a multiple dwelling; bodies were found upstairs. No other problems at this house, no previous calls for service.

Resident—There is a Facebook page where one of the victims put information on the Facebook page with regard to an incident that happened to her a couple of weeks ago. Is RPD familiar with it?

Commander Harris—I am aware of the Facebook page but I have not seen the page personally.  I am aware that one of the young ladies that the paper has reported on did have a Facebook page. I cannot comment anymore on that.

Resident: Regardless of this being an isolated incident as you seemed to share, it is an insult and disrespect to the community. But, proactively what are RPD’s plans for curbing the violence this summer? I don’t see it getting any better.

Commander Harris: Let’s talk about last summer. We had quite a lot of activity at Chili and Thurston Rd., most of that involved two street groups that had a lot of back and forth between each other. And lot violence resulted because of it and it ultimately impacted and eleven (11) year old child while walking down the street. To repeat the question, “What are we going to do about that?” Part of that starts right here, we must dialogue with the community. To be honest with you, I do not have the resources to put an officer on the corner everyday. There is not a law enforcement agency in the country that can put an officer on every corner. We must work smart. We must come up with solutions to these situations. We have cameras throughout the city. In viewing the footage of the situations that occur around the city, the actions remind one of animals attacking each other. We must reach the children. Officers will be put back on the street to get to know the people and build relationships in light of recent activity.

Other things include: reaching out to Narcotics division,-- there is activity on Depew Street, Van Auker, West Avenue, Jefferson Avenue, Chili, Genesee, West Main Street, King Street, & Ringle Street. I have cameras that I can utilize, that are overt and covert. Different forms of technology to assist with reducing the violence and other resources. I do not want what happened last year to occur this year (2014). We will put the necessary resources in place now to ready ourselves for the summer months.

Resident: When you have the taped footage of the crimes that are near the schools and different businesses, there does not seem to be a sharing of what you see on the footage to the community. Why not? The information would be helpful. The circles are

Commander Harris:  As the images are clear to identify the suspects, we relay information report to the community.  We have in the past, for example, all businesses have video equipment and they provide us with the footage of crimes and have helped in our investigation of crimes. It helped with Sam Gibson was killed in a store on Lyell Avenue; the shooting on Genesee Street during the middle of the day.

Resident: How close are the cameras to show clearly the images? As the camera is seeing this why aren’t the police responding instantly? What is taking so long for the police to arrive at the scene?

Commander Harris: There are 120 cameras throughout the city. All of the cameras go into one room and we have retired police officers and interns that monitor these cameras. All of the cameras cannot be direct at the same time. They are on scan. The focus of these cameras comes into play as the 911 calls come in. 911 can direct feed a camera once calls have been made to raise the importance of the incident and take action accordingly. When you call and identify weapons involved this will direct attention to it. Why it takes police a long time to get to trouble? This is a question that is often asked. Calls are prioritized. Suppose a job comes in for a house that has been broken into and property is stolen property and this is an immediate problem to them. At the same time, the next call is one where a fight has occurred behind your house and there are weapons being used, this is now a priority call 1. This other call, stolen property is a priority 2 call. Dispatch time takes into account the time you call, the time it takes to go to dispatcher and the time the dispatcher gets it to a police officer. From the time that 911 is called, to the time an officer arrives can be anywhere from 20 to an hour in response time. This is not an easy thing to say. It is something that everyone recognizes, is being reviewed and is one of the reasons why the RPD is being reorganized.

Resident: How can we make it such that the officers handling a situation in a section of the city can have the new emergency on that side of town handled by another group of officers? It seems that when the officers are on the scene they are not always fully aware of the situation and have it under control before they are pulled to another problem. As a result nothing gets done.

Commander Harris: This is one of the reasons for the reorganization, to alleviate the burden on the community of long delays. It is difficult for a police offer to hear another call and not respond.

The Family In Crisis Intervention Team (F.A.C.I.T) - Civilian employees that work with the police officers to assist the police with domestic situations. They help with mediation for certain situations.

19^th Ward Association President-La Shay Harris

We need to expand the F.A.C.I.T. program to include citizens to assist the police department. There should be some of the other programs that have worked in the past but are now defunct, they need expansion.

Commander Harris:  We have a clergy response team to assist with incidents like we just had on Chili Avenue.  I would like to see PAC TAC have more emphasis. The way it has worked is that an officer and two citizens in problem areas in which they lived, so they could address the problems specifically and directly. They had radios and dispatchers were trained to respond to the citizens and take care of issues and respond quickly. Unfortunately, we have PAC TAC members that do not match the demographic that is responsible for the unrest. I appreciate those members but the PAC TAC members should reflect those that are imposing their will on the community. They are older and may not get the respect deserved. Younger people that have changed their lives will be able to better relate to the teenager that is causing the unrest.

Resident: Is there a way that we can pay people for doing PAC TAC? You are asking people to go into the streets and it is dangerous, their time should be worth something. What can the citizens do? The young teens and adults don’t respect you anymore. I would like to see employment for this because we need them.

Commander Harris:  I can’t give you an answer on that, not my area of responsibility. What I do know is that as a community we must take our streets back. The community has to get to the point of “being sick and tired of being sick and tired” and reach out to our youth. As an example, there is a resident in the Arnett Blvd neighborhood does not tolerate the negative behavior deeds that they are doing. And she gets respect for it. They tend to move along and not hang around when the resident appears.

Resident: Please know that the problem that we have is because we have failed to provide for the young people. They are doing the only thing that they know how to do. Because the educational system, the political system the economic system has failed them, we have these problems. As a community we must take responsibility for what we have failed to do. We have neglected to have a relationship with them. As you develop a relationship with them, this will allow them to begin to hear the guidance that you are trying to give them. When people know you care they tend to want to know (listen) to what you have to say. Teach conflict resolution. Disrespect is an issue for the young people. There should be situations set up so that we demand from them to “not to take another life”, “need a job call xxx-xxxx”, we can help you find a job”, posters or billboard, “you have a problem let us help you” should be put up that guide them to respect themselves and others. Let us show love to the young people. Teach with love in mind. Please let us be proactive so that we can teach them how to be decent citizens. Let them know you care.

Commander Harris:  Those comments are brilliant. Until we start getting the message out there to have self respect it’s not going to change. One of the reasons why young men wear their pants below the waist is because of the media. This is having a demoralizing effect on our young people. It may be done on radio, television, poster, billboards. The resident’s comments are brilliant.

Resident: Concerned about drug dealers on Ringle Street in front of his house. There is a lot of traffic back and forth. Recently there was a shooting. Ten gun shells were near my property. It prohibits me from entering my driveway. I call the Mayor’s office, Police Chief’s Office but no relief. I have not gotten a call from police relating to that shooting yet. I have called back numerous times but nothing. One of the officers told me that did get the shooter. But last week I saw this person in the car that usually sells drugs. Can you help me this is not a good situation? I am worried about what will happen this summer. How can you help?

Commander Harris:  Unfortunately, the fact that no one has responded to you is not acceptable to me. We will work to correct that situation. Once an arrest is made they go into the system and a prosecution results. As it gets into the hands of the judges and the lawyers the case is evolving. The judiciary system is overburdened as the police are. They do their best to prosecute and incarcerate as necessary. It doesn’t always happen as we would like for it to happen or for as long as we would like. One of the things ways that we have introduced in the city is Court Watch. The Beechwood neighborhood about 2.5 years ago had excessive burglaries to homes. After the arrest has been made, and it was determined that the case would be tried as an adult, the name of the person and the court date would be forwarded to the neighborhood association. The association would have concerned neighbors go to court wearing t-shirts that said “Court Watch” on them to indicate to the court system that the community was not going to tolerate the burglaries anymore. Letters are sent to the district attorneys’ office, to the courts as well as a phone tree to indicate the neighborhood’s frustration and with these criminal actions. As a result, the burglary numbers have come down. The same process can be carried out in the 19^th Ward for any criminal issue that is plaguing the area such as selling dope, shootings. This has worked in the Dewey Avenue corridor where there was a “shooting gallery” and drug activity (selling drugs and killing people). Court watch worked in that area. Should that be something that you are interested in I can help you get that set up.

Resident: There is Court Watch in Southwest Rochester but it is not very active. We will be following up on the latest shooting of a Mr. Gibson as indicated on the 19^th Ward Facebook Crime Alert page. When we know of a court date we will be looking for people to show up on that date in court to show support and put pressure on the judge to make the appropriate decision on this case. The series of court dates will be posted on the 19^th Ward Crime Alert page. Please volunteer.

Resident: I would like to stress that the parents in the community to appeal to your sons and your daughters to reveal the information about what is going on in the streets. The sons may be selling drugs, the daughters dating these perpetrators. It is up to the parents you to stand up and question them so that you can take back your home, take back your kids. This criminal activity can no longer be tolerated.

Commander Harris: On that note, let me tell you about a surprising statistic, the United States Department of prisons, the body that determines how many jail cells prisons we will need in the future uses third grade reading scores to make those predictions. Think about it for a minute. The seventeen year olds might not be open to changing their behavior. But the third grader, we still have a better chance of changing his or her circumstance. One of the things I know that Chief Ciminelli will continue is the Police Activities League that will communicate with the youth to build a relationship and let them see police officers in a better light and understand how to relate to the officers.

Resident: Someone mentioned F.A.C.I.T (Family In Crisis Intervention Team) and I would like to announce that we have an organization called We Care and we meet the second Thursday of the month at The Southwest Neighborhood Service Center 923 Genesee Street at 9:00 a.m. We need your help to address community issues.

Resident: I have been listening to several people talk about not getting a timely response from the police in their time of need and this is troubling. I have not called the police for a long, long time but I remember that when I did need their help they would haphazardly respond or not at all. You have mentioned the bureaucracy of how the calls are given to the police officers and the length of time it takes before they respond. I am not hearing that we can change that? Can we change that process to effectively serve the community? It makes me feel like I couldn’t get a police officer if I really needed one.

Commander Harris: This was addressed earlier and the RPD is reorganizing for that very reason. We want to ensure that we are timely in our arrivals to situations. I agree we could do a better job. The department only has a finite number of police officers and that in itself is limiting. There are areas in the city that are more crime prone than others and require more officers. We will use data and research to fashion the restructuring. It will take time, possibly a year to accomplish this but I am not certain of the timeline. The restructuring will have more offices in the community. This will be based on data and

Resident: Why did the city do a restructure from multiple locations to the current two division system, east and west?

Commander Harris: Part of the reason was financial; we had 8 separate offices around the city. At that time there was also concern about response time that is how long it took police officers to the scene. So, it was decided at that point to restructure to our present system. They thought there would be more flexibility and better response times.

Resident: My concern is about the children at the school across from 809 Chili Avenue where the triple murder occurred. These children will be damaged from these murders. I have taught 3^rd grade for 37 years and taught where the children were exposed to murders and other violent acts and they are traumatized. There will be those kids that are not traumatized at all. Those are the kids you will have to worry about.

Commander Harris: I agree with you at all, my point was that this situation was not an immediate danger to the school children. However, what I meant was that the violence that occurred in the home would not go beyond that point. Those children that were looking out that window were traumatized.

Resident:

I was glad to hear that the police will be reaching to the students to create relationships while they are young.

Resident: What is the criterion for how many police cars come to a scene (situation) that has occurred? And why is it there is only one policeman in a patrol car?

Commander Harris: The idea of having one police officer per car is to have more police out on the streets. With two officers in a car you won’t have as many police out on the street. We have a tactical unit and they are assigned two men to a car to handle certain situations.

To answer your first question, let’s go through a scenario for me to explain. Two people are having a heated argument on the street and two officers arrive. As we are talking to each other another person arrives, my brother comes and gets physical and the argument is escalated and a knife is drawn. We call for help and more officers arrive on the scene. There is no set criterion it depends on what is transpiring at the scene. As back up is needed, it is requested.

Resident: I would like to make a comment. I was a nurse in the schools and it is my request that the police officers should go to the school and do a debriefing at the school. This will give the children a chance to share and help them work through this with professionals. Perhaps this is something that the community association can participate in with the professionals. This will help the children to adjust to what has happened, they are traumatized. Lets do this before too much time elapses. The children take on a tough guy attitude in order to cope with the violence. It is actually just fear. We need to help heal and love these children.

Commander Harris: I agree with you 100%. I sit on the board at the University of Rochester a hospital based initiative called the Youth Violence Partnership. Children come in that are the victims of trauma. There is a social and educational component to assist with their treatment. We talk about vicarious traumatization. He’s my brother, and a gang member and he has been killed. I am affected so I develop a swagger to help protect myself. My brother is 14 and I am 12, this has had an impact on the child remaining. The child is traumatized. So, they act tough to survive.

Let me tie this conversation up to respect your time. I am willing to sit down and talk with people to resolve these community issues. But I cannot help if you are not willing to dialogue and help with the solutions to these problems. In order for us to change the situations we must do what we have suggested in this meeting.

Monroe County Legislator-Tony Micciche

I understand that there are limited resources to solve the problem in the streets. I have been working with the new Mayor to find new resources and make available to resolve the issues affecting the community. It doesn’t matter what political party you are we will work together as one to come to a solution.

Resident: Announcement- I work at the Rochester City School District and the district will be a Truancy blitzes in the neighborhoods, that is, going door to door to find out why our children in grades K-6 are at home instead of in school. Volunteers are teamed up with district staff. Light refreshments are served and the canvassing begins at 9:30. Parking is allowed in Lot B. The truancy blitzes are held once a month. We have found that parents are using the children to take care of the younger children in the home. Studies of this have shown that 50% of children in the K-6 grades in the Rochester City School District miss 20+ days of school. District staff will partner with people in the community. It begins tomorrow, Thursday, February 27, 014 at 9:00 at central office on Broad Street. For more information call 262-8100.

Resident- I am a pastor and my plea to the community is that more pastors become involved with their members and do home visits, school visits and show up in the community to help people cope with their situations.

Resident:

The entertainment industry has violence as a means to take care of problems and this affects the children. Videos, phones etc., are affecting our children. Until parents decide what they want for their children to accomplish in their lives, nothing is going to happen. We will continue is this circle. The current violence is unacceptable.

Resident: What can they do about the loitering on the streets?

19thWard President- There has been legislation on the table, for a Drug Free Zone and it is currently with City Council. Concerns were raised about people’s civil liberties.

Resident: Our safety is involved. One has to monitor the street before you get out of your car at night.

Commander Harris: There are places, businesses in the city where people congregate and someone is doing something they shouldn’t be, selling dope for instance, the police will go in and see the property owner and start to document the activity and will give tickets to the property owner. It is a lengthy process. The documentation goes to the NET office and hearings will be conducted. The property owner could be suspended for six months or a year.

Meeting Adjourned