Citizen Led Austin Safety Partnership
C L A S P
February, 2010 - Vol 1, Issue 1
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Greetings!
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You are receiving this newsletter because of your involvement with safety issues in one of Austin's neighborhoods.
C.L.A.S.P. stands for Citizen Led Austin Safety Partnership. This organization has recently been formed to bring together Austin volunteers who want to address crime prevention at the neighborhood level. This partnership also includes the Austin Police Department and other public entities that further this goal.
Our first meeting on January 23rd was a success with 18 neighborhoods represented and 40 attendees. It was inspiring to meet so many energetic people who are working hard to make their neighborhoods safer. What we learned is that each neighborhood faces it's own set of challenges and there are as many ways to approach the solutions. Common to all is the goal of encouraging our neighbors to get to know one another and motivating them to maintain a level of vigilance that translates into action--securing their property and reporting suspicious activity.
As promised, we have included some links and other resources that were discussed at the meeting - check out the left sidebar and you will find a wealth of information. There are summaries below of some of the ideas and discussions with contact info on a few of our presenters. If there was someone you wanted to link up with, please drop us a line and we will put you in touch.
We hope you can join us again on Feb 27th. Come with your questions, your stories, your ideas and your energy. And if you have challenges, come with those too! We want to support all who take the time to make Austin neighborhoods the safest in the U.S.
Stay safe!
Mary Arnett, Jack Darby and Laura DiCarlo
C.L.A.S.P. Steering Committee
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Let's Do It Again!
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 We had a great response to this meet up with, we think, 18 neighborhoods represented (some forgot to sign in!) and although we said it was 2 to 4pm, we had to shoo everyone out at 5:00pm due to library closing time.
So don't miss the next one. Come and hear ideas from other neighborhoods, share your thoughts on issues of the day and network with other enthusiastic neighborhood volunteers who care about safety.
Saturday, February 27th, 2010
2 - 5pm
Ruiz Public Library
1600 Grove Blvd
Austin Tx 78741
Agenda
Introductions
Neighborhood Leader Presentations
Best Practices, Issues, Challenges
Guest Speaker APD Crime Analyst
Q&A with the Crime Analyst
Q&A with APD District Reps
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Barton Hills NA Neighborhood Patrol Program
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John Luther of the Barton Hills NA gave an overview of the Neighborhood Watch Patrol program that has been up and running since December in response to an increase in car burglaries. Volunteers sign up for shifts to patrol and the neighborhood association provides magnetic signs, sturdy maps and good flash lights. Volunteers must have a cell phone.
John has some great handouts for his patrol volunteers, and you can find them on the left side bar section of this email.
John has now made presentations to the Allandale Neighborhood Association and will be at the next CLASP meeting to share this creative and effective idea with other neighborhoods. John's law enforcement background was helpful in pulling this off. APD District Rep Troy Shouest has stated that they are on board with the idea. The rules state that volunteers do not engage directly with suspects and no weapons are allowed. John has commented that since they started the patrols there have been fewer burglaries. If you have questions for John about this program, he can be reached at jluther@austin.rr.com. Or you can come on the 27th and hear about it.
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Gracywoods NA Offers A Wealth of Ideas and Resources
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Mary Rudig, long time volunteer in the Gracywoods neighborhood, spoke about her unique approach to Neighborhood Watch in a large populous area.
Click on the Neighborhood Watch sign to your left and you will find a wealth of ideas on her well organized webpage for:
Do The Five - A quick method of Neighborhood Watch where residents are encouraged to watch out for two houses on either side of them and three across the street.
Helpful Forms - Resident Roster, New Resident Welcome Flyer, Block Alert Flyer and many general links to other safety websites and pdf files.
Block Captain Coaches guide newer volunteers throughout the neighborhood.
Gracywoods also publishes an e-newsletter for their large neighborhood that is quite informative.
The Rundberg Lane area has been the proving ground for some innovative community policing initiatives such as the "Stay Away" orders for chronic re-offenders. They joined with the North Austin Civic Association in several marches down Lamar to bring attention to the high crime rate in the area and petitions to the district attorney and judges for better solutions in sentencing that would help lower recidivism. Mary Rudig can be contacted at info@gracywoods.org.
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Getting to Know How krimelabb Can Help Your Neighborhood
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Jack Darby, resident of Cherrywood NA and developer of krimelabb.com, discussed his Web site that provides info on crime in Austin
neighborhoods. The site has a few basic lookups that are easy to access
but behind the scenes there is a lot more useful crime data. Attending a demonstration is the best way to learn the tricks of using it. The most helpful feature of this site is that it makes the APD Incident Report Database searchable in various ways. Kelly LaHood, District Rep at this forum stated that she uses krimelabb to look up data frequently because of it's ease of use. Mary Arnett also uses it to compile data for her neighborhood e-newsletter which summarizes recent crimes. Jack also discussed the upcoming Alerts initiative which will enable neighborhoods to post info on suspicious activity
to anyone in the city in realtime. The info can be viewed by date or
area. It is being reviewed and will be rolled out to a few neighborhoods and eventually to the entire city. Stay tuned!
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Neighborhood Crime Analyst Tool Box
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With all the new tools that are now available to the general public, everyone can be an amateur neighborhood crime analyst. Some neighborhood volunteers don't mind combing through the data to glean relevant information and use it to lower the incidence of crime in their area.
Mary Arnett of North Shoal Creek gave examples of how she uses various tools to watch for hot spots in her neighborhood and then uses that information to take action. For example, apartment complexes and businesses are often not aware of crime that takes place on their property. Mary provides crime information through her e-newsletter along with direct lines of communication with her contacts around the neighborhood and the District Reps office. Click Image to see a newsletter example.
If Burglary of a Vehicle is a problem at a particular apartment / condo property, managers can get that reminder to their tenants or homeowners to take stuff out of their cars. That simple awareness and vigilence prevents more BOV's from happening. Robberies or other violent crimes on the premises can be brought to the attention of the management company so that all business tenants can put their employees on alert. By reading about the activity, neighbors become more aware of their surroundings at their residences and in the local business areas they often frequent.
Arm Yourself With Information on Criminals This is a helpful article for those who seek additional information on certain individuals. Here is a link to the Jan 30th article in the Austin American Statesman by Steve Kreytak. Some neighborhood sleuths have subscriptions to Public Data which can sometimes provide insight into certain types of problems by researching license plate numbers or other details. The DPS website also offers a subscription service that gives historical conviction info and status of prosecutions.
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House Bill 216 Legislation for Group Homes
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Joan Bartz, member of University Hills Neighborhood Association, shared an important initiative to legislate what is known as "group homes" for the disabled. Why does this issue dovetail with safety in neighborhoods?
Residents of these unregulated rogue group homes can sometimes be mentally unstable people who pose a danger to themselves or others because of the lack of care or medication. These homes can also attract a certain type of criminal element to the area that preys on the weak and defenseless. It has been established through public information requests that the majority of these 'rogue homes' are located in the University Hills, Coronado Hills, Pecan Springs, and Windsor Park neighborhoods. It was neighborhood concern for residents health and safety that led to the task force joining with a state-wide effort to curb this problem through state legislation.
A rogue home is a location that
is not on the city's radar, is not vetted, has no permit or license, has no
professional management, no trained supervision, and provides no sustainable
care. Operators of such rogue locations require a monthly payment from the
disabled residents housed in these locations while providing little, if any,
assistance. The Austin American Statesman highlighted the plight of people living in these conditions in a story (click here) dated August 30, 2009 by Joshunda Sanders and Eric Dexheimer.
In 2009, the lack of medical and other
assistance has resulted in 840 emergency calls involving APD, AFD, and EMS for only 7 out of a possible 40 rogue homes at a annual cost of
$1,091,160.00 out of the budgets for these three
departments. Contrast this with numerous group homes that are overseen and operated by the Department of Aging and Disabilities where no such overload of emergency calls can be found.
Read more....
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Does It Get Any Simpler Than This?
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David Kobierewski of the Balcones Civic Association advocated a simple suggestion that helps neighbors get to know one another: Get Outside!
He referred to our modern day couch potato problem where people are glued to their TV's and computers. By promoting walking, biking, just sitting outside on your front porch or yard, neighborhoods can foster the most basic  building block of a neighborhood watch: Get to Know Your Neighbors. That's what it's all about.
DR Troy Shouest reminded us you don't have to wait till National Night Out to have a get together with your neighbors. Anytime is good.
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Staffing and The District Reps Program
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In attendance at our first CLASP forum was Central West District Reps Kelly Lahood and Troy Shouest and we thank them both for giving up their Saturday afternoon to help us in our volunteer efforts for our own neighborhoods.
One of the concerns was staffing at APD and how this impacts the District
Rep programs throughout Austin. At this time there is a class of cadets that will graduate and be on the streets with some experience by June of 2010. That is supposed to take some of the pressure off the staffing issue and make our DR's more available through the Community Policing programs that APD offers.
The staffing at APD is managed to a certain ratio of ideal staffing versus reality. That percentage is now down to 89% of full 'ideal' staffing. The ratio of 88% triggers a series of steps that takes some officers such as District Reps and puts them back on the street, hopefully temporarily, until the staffing ratio is back to acceptable levels. What is the reason for this low percentage at this time?
Due to a tight budget this year, APD is managing to a lean staffing level. According to Wayne Vincent, President of the Austin Police Association, in the 2009 budget process, officers gave up a future 3% raise to allow APD to bring on the new cadet class. They were concerned about their own safety in dwindling numbers of officers on the street to provide back up and assistance. So they generously gave up that pay raise and this was the main reason APD was able to bring about 80 cadets on board by June.
At the same time, there are always officers resigning for reasons such as retirement, disablements, officers on leave or other reasons such as being sick. Additionally, managing to a lean staffing ratio keeps some officers from being promoted into positions such as detectives. Meanwhile, the older more experienced detectives and other positions are being vacated by retiring officers who take with them a knowledge base that cannot easily be passed on to other newer officers if they have not spent that much time with them before they leave.
The true measurement of whether staffing is impacting APD's effectiveness is another statistic: Response Time.
According to the APD Public Information Office, in 2009 the City Wide Response Time was an average of 7min 39 sec. That is an average of two factors: Hot Shot Calls, which are highest priority one calls that involve a risk such as a weapon, versus Priority One calls. Hot Shot calls averaged 5 min and 41 sec, Priority One calls averaged 8 min and 9 sec. The average of the two is 7 min 39 sec.
APD attempts to reach a lower goal of minutes in Response Time, but due to the annexation of additional land throughout the last few years and the decrease in staffing per 1,000 citizens, they are not reaching that target.
In the upcoming budget for 2010-2011, all neighborhoods should pay attention to this issue. It is critical for our officers to have adequate staffing so that they are safe in performing their jobs and protecting us. The Public Safety Commission was established by Council in January as a permanent Commission. Here is a link to their webpage. They will be the first entity to review the APD budget as it makes it's way from administration at APD to the public. They make recommendations to the city about budgetary issues. Their meeting schedules are located on that webpage. We encourage you to watch this issue very carefully and to make your voice known to city council members and APD Administration if you care about keeping Austin's police force one of the best in the nation and your own neighborhood safe.
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Survey Results for January Meeting
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Thanks to everyone who participated. We received some good feedback about our first meeting. Click here to see the results and comments.
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This organization is all about you and your efforts to make your neighborhood a safer place. Our success will be measured by your continued interest in networking with others throughout the city . We would love to hear from you for suggestions on speakers or future topics of interest. We also hope you will continue to share your challenges and successes with like minded volunteers across Austin. This is the partnership we wish to forge and you can help us reach our goal to make Austin neighborhoods the safest in the nation.
Sincerely,
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Mary Arnett Laura DiCarlo Jack Darby mossrock3209@yahoo.com lhdicarlo@yahoo.com jack@krimelabb.com
C.L.A.S.P. Steering Committee
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Thanks to those who provided us with feedback through the survey. As promised, here is the winner of the krimelabb TShirt
Dianne Mountain
Please contact Jack at jack@krimelabb.com for your TShirt size and mailing address. Thanks for playing along!
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