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.

June 26, 2013 - Minutes as a file:  RochPresByt26June2013.docx

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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Public Safety Meeting – 19th Ward

Location: Rochester Presbyterian Home

Time: 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.

256 Thurston Rd

Rochester, NY 14619

(585) 235-9100

Minutes:

Moderator-John Borek

Agenda

I. Report from Crime Prevention Officer –Officers Lt. Hillman – Carl Dickerson (as of May 30-June 25, 2013)

Notes

Eleven (11) neighbors were in attendance. Sign in sheet attached.

160 Milton St – Shot spotter 10 shots nothing came out of that.

241 Wellington – Two 45 casings were found nothing appeared to be struck.

51 Wilbur St. – Found weapon- arrested people for this – found man on the roof

597 Sawyer St. Criminal Arrest for a loaded 38 revolver

1400 S. Plymouth Av – 4 p.m. – At the footbridge near Genesee Street, near Boulder 2 males approached the victim and the suspect grabbed her phone as she was trying to make a call and was shoved to ground and her phone was taken.

Notice was put out about this attack.

J. Borek questioned why this area, the southwest seems to always be highlighted when crime occurs around the U of R, and or when an incident occurs with students that attend the U of R. U of R Security put out 20,000 emails to their U of R constituents. He questioned why areas of the Southwedge, Park Avenue, Meigs, Monroe Avenue, are not reported in the same way—highlighted in the same way. He indicated that the crime reports appear to be prejudicial, racist. The southwest is the de-facto unsafe area. Can the reporting be the same for all areas of the City? Crimes against students on the west side are reported immediately, and crimes against students in for example, the east side are not reported. Why is this occurring? There seems to an inequity in reporting. Perception is everything. Perhaps a meeting with the media is warranted. It was revealed that while a neighbor was at an airport in Chicago, a conversation was overhead that indicated that the Southwest has great housing stock but that you risk your life by living in that area. Although, there have been tremendous improvements in crime within the southwest; it is because of these heightened media reports that the image remains tarnished. Public safety is also public perception.

What are the parameters for reporting? It seems the southwest is reported on all the time.

Officer Response:

The police will make press releases on patterns that are occurring. Crimes are reported because they are close to the university. The reports are given as a message to residents to be aware of their surroundings and take care when in the neighborhood. We see very few robbery reports in the Highland Avenue, Highland Park, Mt. Hope areas. The officers in the southwest want to know if there are robberies and other crimes in the area so the (police) can effectively deploy officers in the area.

U of R security are trying to make their population know that there are incidents that are happening and that one would need to be more safety conscious especially while they are on campus.

The officers and Mr. Borek agreed to e-mail each other and include the 19^th Ward President Lashay Harris to discuss how to handle the media’s reporting of the southwest area.

501 Genesee Street

Two high school kids walking down the street, suspects approached them to ask if they were members of a local gang, students replied no, they started fighting. There were stab wounds to the victims, to the upper torso, abdomen, right shoulder blade left chest, the other victim wounded in their head, left wrist and left forearm. They were taken to Strong by private vehicles. Both had non-life threatening injuries. Two gangs feuding may have started this ruckus.

119 Thurston and 164 Garfield -Arson

Two Molotov cocktails were thrown both victims are related. One was thrown at 3:00 a.m. and the other at 3:11 a.m. They were targeted for some unknown reason. There was fire but it was put out and no one was hurt. The first cocktail was thrown on front yard burning occurred. The second cocktail was thrown on porch and some damage to porch. Police have leads in this case on who was involved.

Question: Neighbor asked about why Penhurst Street was blocked off a couple days ago? - An elderly gentleman had collapsed so the street was blocked off. The police indicated the gentleman had a medical condition and he passed away.

Rite Aid Parking Lot- No calls about the parking area on Thurston Road. No shootings or robberies in that area as of late. We originally requested that the parking lot be lighted at night, but this was very costly (thousands of dollars) per their corporate office. The management at Rite Aid stopped securing the parking lot because the car owners would just ram the gates to get out. They hired a tow truck to remove any vehicles that attempt to park overnight. The area has improved.

Question: Is this meeting for the 19^th Ward only?

Answer: The meeting is open for the 7.5 neighborhoods in the southwest. Crime knows no boundary.

Question: (Neighbor) Why did Adam McFadden stop coming to the meetings?

Answer: (Moderator) Adam will be informed that the group asked about him.

Neighborhood Announcement: 19^th Annual Southwest Sector 4 National Night Out is August 6, 2013-begins at 5:00 p.m. Sponsored by Target-the national sponsor and the Southwest Common Council Sector 4’s Public Safety Committee

For more information please contact Frances N. Johnson at 585-328-4838 or Lt. Robert Hill (595) 428-8808

Question: E-mail about motorcycle club?

Answer: (Moderator) I received a call from the Alpha Wolves and they said they want to have a positive image and they want to be in the motorcade at National Night Out. The spokesperson indicated that they would like to do work with young people, public safety and work with the neighborhood. They were very pleasant to talk with and seemed very concerned.

Question: (Neighbor) Pioneer and Genesee Park Boulevard has quite a few accidents at that intersection. There is no crosswalk for the children to cross the street. There are a lot of accidents at that location. The children are being diminished because there is no safety for them. Why isn’t there a cross walk? The vehicles move very fast. There are many children that wait for the bus and cross the street at that intersection. No stop sign is there. The intersection is a cut through from Scottsville Road. The neighbor has heard many crashes with cars in that area and neighbors in the area are very concerned.

Answer: (Moderator) I will contact Paul Houlihan at the City of Rochester to look into the situation and coordinate with the County of Monroe. We need a survey of dangerous intersections in the Southwest. Any more concerns?

Neighbor: Thurston & Ravenwood Avenue -bus stop in front of the garden. They put a big poster up in front of the garden and it is in the way. Merchants did not want the stop there. It was taken down but was recently put back up.

Mini Mart intersection at Arnett Blvd and Woodbine – a 2 hour parking sign is there, very dangerous. (needs traffic calming)

Mini Mart at Magnolia and Jefferson Av- the cars stop in the cross walk. Is there enforcement for these problems?

Congress & Genesee –Corner store people will double park.

Frost and Epworth-Children do not look before they cross. The police come after the fact. Cars roll past stop sign.

Officer Response: I am familiar with the Magnolia and Jefferson Av intersection, I have spent time there doing enforcement and there have been other officers that do enforcement at that area. The Arnett Blvd and Woodbine area should be probably a no standing zone as opposed to a 2 hour parking zone. Should you see a Blocked intersection, and a parking situation, please call 911 to take care of the situation. They will send an officer.

Question: (Neighbor) - Did anyone get a notice about the meeting for the Elmwood Avenue Bridge?

I went to that meeting. It was from 6 pm-9 pm. The bridge will be down to two (2) lanes and it will be down for quite number of months. The neighbor was unsure of the exact dates. Redoing the surface, part of the sidewalk, removing light poles. (Moderator) This will result in more overflow of the S. Plymouth extension. There is a considerable amount of speeding in this area. Cars going into the hotel are speeding. Is there a chance of putting an officer in that location? The (Officer) The area is not highly traveled area, so an officer will not be put there. However, we can put a speed trailer to be put in that area.

New neighbors that attended for the first time (lived on street for 11 years)-live on Gillette Street

Gillette Street Neighbor – Has a problem with neighbors. They have Motorcycle on the lawn, grill, paper, trash, cars on the front lawn, dogs that chase their children. The neighbors have revved their motorcycle engines. What can we do to get rid of this problem?

Moderator: You will need to call 911 whenever there is a problem. Nothing will happen right away, but you will begin to build a story. Introduce yourself to David Hawkes, Administrator of the Southwest Neighborhood Service Center. Are there other neighbors that are annoyed? (Neighbor) Yes, we talk about these issues. It is hard work but you must endure for this to work. Let’s set up a meeting with myself, you and David Hawkes and crime prevention officers. We can also have neighbors on Gillette meet with us to figure out a strategy.

Officer: None of the issues are going away instantly. Your name will not be given out, but the landlord is contacted to inform him of the issue. Once the owner gets letters from the City there attention will be aroused and they will look into the problem.

Neighbor: We have called several times to the police but they never came to address the situation. They just drove around the streets and did nothing.

Officer: When you wait for one-half an hour and no response call back to find out what is going on. After over 3 – 4 calls have been made, ask to speak to the on-duty supervisor for the Southwest and they must respond to your call. The supervisor will have to come out.

Neighbor: We had our neighbors’ dog to chase my children for 30 minutes. My daughter was chased into the street. A police officer never came. Why didn’t they respond? My husband had to beat the dog with a stick. I filled out a deposition. The dog should have been put down. The pound came back with the dog and gave it back to the owner.

Officer: Police will not come to an Animal Control incident. That is just the procedure. We will get in touch with animal control to find out what happened. Tickets should be issued.

Moderator: Give me the information; I will follow up with Animal Control.

Officer: We can assist with that as well.

Follow up includes:

Ms. Frances will follow up with the motorcycle club for National Night Out.

Moderator and Mrs. Johnson will discuss publicity for National Night.

Traffic Issues at: Pioneer and Genesee PK Blvd (cross walk), Arnett Blvd and Woodbine, Magnolia and Jefferson Avenue Thurston Road and Ravenwood (RTS Bus Stop) Congress and Genesee and Frost Avenue and Epworth Street.

Decide on a course of action for 66 Gillette Street.

Officer: Announcement of an RPD Outreach to the community on July 22, 2013 –Will go door to door and speak to residents. We will be at Wellington Avenue and Arnett area, Library will be donating books so we can give to children, the mounted horses will be there. Previous outreach was positive and the interaction was very positive among residents and the police.

Location19.org was re-introduced to the attendees by J. Boutet.

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