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I'm meeting the Chief of Police to voice concerns. Help?
powerss
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So, I live in a Bay Area, California city (300k people) in a 'burb that up until the last 3 years or so has been very, very quiet. But slowly and surely, crime has gone up. Examples of crime, which are MOSTLY quality of life issues:
- Vandalism (Graffiti, Cars vandalized, Windows shot with pellet guns, eggings, local park was 4wheeled - grass destroyed, bleach bombs on people's doorsteps, etc)
- Traffic Issues (Blatant speeding, ignoring of stop signs, crazy accidents in 25mph zones)
- Drug Dealing (Small shopping center in the middle of the neighborhood is utterly ghettoized, graffiti, loitering)
- Breaking & Entering (Car break-ins, houses broken into, etc)
There's an utter lack of Policing in my neighborhood. You could go 3 days without seeing a patrol drive by. Also, the neighborhood is majority Asian/Indian, and I've found them to be unreliable at best for reporting issues to the Police. When the park was completely torn apart by some guys in trucks, I called the police department and no one had reported it - and this was a couple days later.
What can I ask/demand/say that will make me seem not like an asshole, not like blaming the police, but wanting something to be done?
- Vandalism (Graffiti, Cars vandalized, Windows shot with pellet guns, eggings, local park was 4wheeled - grass destroyed, bleach bombs on people's doorsteps, etc)
- Traffic Issues (Blatant speeding, ignoring of stop signs, crazy accidents in 25mph zones)
- Drug Dealing (Small shopping center in the middle of the neighborhood is utterly ghettoized, graffiti, loitering)
- Breaking & Entering (Car break-ins, houses broken into, etc)
There's an utter lack of Policing in my neighborhood. You could go 3 days without seeing a patrol drive by. Also, the neighborhood is majority Asian/Indian, and I've found them to be unreliable at best for reporting issues to the Police. When the park was completely torn apart by some guys in trucks, I called the police department and no one had reported it - and this was a couple days later.
What can I ask/demand/say that will make me seem not like an asshole, not like blaming the police, but wanting something to be done?
powerss on
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Does your neighbourhood have a community association at all? I know my community assoc. works closely with police, and even does community neighbourhood walks in the summer evenings to keep an eye out for mischief
It helps to suggest a solution. something like, "can we have an officer patrol the area more often?"
I'd say that what you have there is a pretty good start.
I might leave out the bit about Asians and Indians being unreliable when it comes to reporting stuff though. Regardless of if it's true or not, it could come off as racist and that may count against you (especially if the police chief is Indian or Asian).
You may want to offer some solutions beyond "The cops should be doing something". Maybe a neighbor hood watch program, some speed bumps to slow people down etc... Also, decide in advance what you actually want from the cops. Do you want them to do a drive through of your area every day? Twice a day? Three times on Sundays? Really, you should have some quantifiable idea of what you want from the meeting.
Also, have you talked with your neighbors at all? Encourage them to call the police when shit happens. If the cops don't get any reports then your neighborhood is on the map as a nice place with expensive homes that doesn't need to call the cops. Not really a place a (likely short handed and under funded) police department is going to detail a lot of manpower to.
Also, if I had the chance to ask, I would see if maybe you could convince cops to hang around pulling over speeders and the like if you expressed the monetary benefits of doing so to the police/city.
Exactly. What benefit do the police get? Or less cynically, what will offset the cost of increasing manpower/equipment in your area over another? If you can find out roughly how much a beat cop makes in your area, that would help too. Cost of signs/bumps might be harder to come by, but maybe not.
Also as mentioned earlier, if no one is reporting these things, then of course they're not going to be around. Yes, they (police) should have an idea it's going on, but more calls = more response, hopefully. Of course also means potential new buyers scared away from your fancy houses too.
Look, police forces have extremely entrenched anti-reform momentum. Everywhere. The chances are they know about the problem and are ignoring it because they have "better things to do."
You've also not said in what capacity you are meeting with the chief, or what the size of the chief's jurisdiction is. If you're a private citizen and you're getting a courtesy meeting, you're unlikely to get anything other than a "I promise to look into your concerns" and then zero action whatsoever. The CoP can't increase his own funding, he can't put more patrol cars on the streets, he can't increase the number of beat cops there are walking around. Beyond that, even if he could do those things, it won't change the culture of the area. The best you can hope for in situations like that is to force the most obvious criminality into less visible areas.
Get involved in your homeowner's association (if there is one). Attempt to get a neighborhood watch program started (and, in order to head off anti-police resistance to this idea, explain to people that you would like it to function as a Cop Watch as well, capable of identifying not just criminality but police misconduct). If people are calling the police when they see something happening that is worth far, far more than a few extra patrol cars.
If you're waiting days to report stuff too.. you're not helping much either. You need to call in everything you see worth calling in right when it happens.
Basically what I'm saying is that talking to the police chief is unlikely to get you any results in the form of increased resources. What you should really do is talk to the city council, since they set the budget.
This should have no bearing on the issue itself, really. I mean, that doesn't make it any better, does it?