Citizen’s Service Bureau
This one has been discussed many times. The CSB is a wonderful resource for reporting broken street lights, public graffiti, building violations, refuse around an occupied property and many other issues. They are a city government division that does respond to complaints with case numbers and follow-ups. Complaints can be phoned in during business hours at 622-4800 or submitted online anytime at http://stlouis.missouri.org/government/csb.html
Visit the Police Substation
This is really no different than the tax proponents saying that we can contact the members of the Special Business District Board to inform them of problem areas or situations. Obviously we can call 911 or the non-emergency number, but we can also stop by the Substation at 2211 S. 39th Street for less immediate matters. This gives us the opportunity to meet the officers who are patrolling our area and we can informally notify them of problem areas in the neighborhood for their patrols.
Court Watch
The Court Watch Program is a relatively simple program that holds our court system accountable for the arrests that are made in our neighborhood. This is a program that has worked well for several communities – but it requires community participation.
The Court Watch Program looks into the arrests made in our neighborhood and sends our concerns to the elected judges who hear these cases. A real concern of crime is that the offenders are turned back out on our streets and often, without community comment, that can be the case.
While the coordinator of Court Watch is looking into reorganizing the program for easier community access and involvement through the Wiki, the letters written on behalf of Shaw recently yielded some promising and very real results.
Phone Trees
Get to know the people near you and create a phone tree. If an incident occurs on your street then have the phone number of who you will call (after 911, of course) and who they will call and so on. The more calls logged in to 911, the quicker the response.
Lights, Locks and Alertness!
Keep your property well secured and well-lit. Motion sensors are pretty good deterrents to most petty thieves. Be aware of dark areas around your property and light them up. Know that inexpensive locks on doors can be easily entered through “bump keys,“ especially if the doorway is obstructed.
While nobody has the right to take what is yours, we each have a responsibility to ourselves and our neighbors not to provide crimes of opportunity that keep thieves coming back.
These options do require some involvement, like picking up your phone occasionally (the weight of it all!), but so will the Private Patrol. If anyone thinks it will be as simple as paying for someone else to cruise the area and scare off the crime while the happy shiny residents are going about their business, they are going to be really disappointed with the outcome. Every option requires some level of community involvement to work and so will this one in addition to the cost. A 7 person appointed commission cannot ensure these officers are doing their jobs properly and we as the payers of their services will have to. The point here – get involved with the services we are already paying for – services that do have lines of accountability… elected officials.
“NO” Voter,
Many of us are already utilizing the CSB and NSO services, are calling our aldermen, are calling the police, writing letters, etc. However, despite these efforts, crime increased in Shaw last year.
A 7-person commission will have much more power to monitor the services being provided by a private patrol. Currently, as a neighborhood, we can only recommend that people be more vigilant. However, there will never be any mechanism with which we can control individual property owners’ behavior.
The benefit of the SBD is local control. Currently, we may be paying for many services, but very few are controlled here in Shaw. With the SBD, we have a more direct say in our own security. Without it, we get the status quo. And if it doesn’t work, we can get rid of it in 5 years!
So utilize the chain of command and go to those that hold these offices accountable.
Who will hold the 7-person commission accountable? Us (residents of Shaw)? According to the proponents of the tax, people are already too busy to do this anyway.
I suppose that leaves the opponents against the tax; many of whom helped improve the neighborhood this far. So those who are willing to actively participate in safeguarding, letter-writing, alarm-installing, police-calling and communicating could potentially have to add accountability-watching for this tax we never supported in the first place.
There are too many ambiguities in this proposal, not the least of which is exactly how much will we spend on the rent-a-cops and what’s left to “beautify”? Exactly what are the qualifications besides, 2 renters, 5 property owners, required for the 7 chosen to monitor all this? I don’t expect anyone to abscound with the $$.
But how will these good people choose what to do with this $$. This proposal was very poorly “Advertised” to the public at large. For example, propety owners who do not live in the neighborhood, were not notified in order for them to be able to do the proper paper work to have a vote. So how, exactly, will neighbors know how to contribute ideas to the chosen 7? I could go on but many of you have seen the same and other problems this bill.
We need answers before we dish out our tax money.