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Police Proposal to Split Short North Precinct

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Started 3 years ago by NickWarzy
Latest reply from Rockmastermike

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NickWarzy
Italian Village
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In recent weeks, CPD Brass unveiled plans to redraw some police precincts including #1 -- Short North area.

The current northern boundary is 5th Avenue, but plans are to change it to 3rd Avenue. This splits the Short North neighborhoods (Harrison West, Italian & Victorian Villages) and puts certain areas on different police radio channels as 3rd Avenue will also be the police district boundary.

The SN has an overall low crime rate and I think this is in jeopardy. The Italian Village Society wrote a letter to Safety Director Mitchell J. Brown and Council Public Safety Chair Andy Ginther in opposition of this change and has proposed keeping the 5th Avenue boundary.

I am working with the Italian Village Block Watch on more communication to the City. If you'd like to help by sending a letter/email or attending any future CPD meetings contact them at Italian Village Block Watch

Posted 3 years ago #
JonMyers
HCMC, Vietnam ✈
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What is the reasoning behind the split and how would that impact policing in both areas affected by the split?

Posted 3 years ago #
NickWarzy
Italian Village
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http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/01/16/redistrict.ART_ART_01-16-10_B1_JNGANPH.html

According to the article:
...Columbus Police Chief Walter Distelzweig unveiled a sweeping proposal that he thinks will increase efficiency on the street.

The 1st precinct, which encompasses the Short North logged only 25,156 calls for service that year. That was factored into the decision to dissolve the precinct into two adjoining precincts.

Posted 3 years ago #
JonMyers
HCMC, Vietnam ✈
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NickWarzy wrote >>
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/01/16/redistrict.ART_ART_01-16-10_B1_JNGANPH.html
According to the article:
...Columbus Police Chief Walter Distelzweig unveiled a sweeping proposal that he thinks will increase efficiency on the street.
The 1st precinct, which encompasses the Short North logged only 25,156 calls for service that year. That was factored into the decision to dissolve the precinct into two adjoining precincts.

Cool, thanks for sharing the link.

Honestly, I still don't understand.. :) - sorry.

Posted 3 years ago #
cyclist II
Short North & Peach District
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Whatever happens, PCT 1 office never got the Christmas/End of Year Business Thank You card I sent them as it got "return to sender". So I hope they can get a more established address by next Winter.

Posted 3 years ago #
somertimeoh
Harrison West
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The stats may be low because a lot of people don't report property crime (me included, sorry). Now I feel bad as I alone had 3 unreported incidents in the last 24 months. I think if you can secure the areas around the neighborhood, mostly to the north, then wouldn't that help all of our neighborhoods in the end? If splitting the precinct allows for more officers north of 3rd then I don't see how that can be a bad thing.

Posted 3 years ago #
adrock
Grandview Heights
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JonMyers wrote >>

NickWarzy wrote >>
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/01/16/redistrict.ART_ART_01-16-10_B1_JNGANPH.html
According to the article:
...Columbus Police Chief Walter Distelzweig unveiled a sweeping proposal that he thinks will increase efficiency on the street.
The 1st precinct, which encompasses the Short North logged only 25,156 calls for service that year. That was factored into the decision to dissolve the precinct into two adjoining precincts.

Cool, thanks for sharing the link.
Honestly, I still don't understand.. :) - sorry.

i think it doesn't make sense because the subject for the post doesn't make sense. they don't want to split the short north into two precincts, they want to dissolve the precinct so that it doesn't exist and the area gets combined with 2 other precincts.

i can only see this meaning less officers in the short north.

Posted 3 years ago #
somertimeoh
Harrison West
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Adrock, thanks for the clarification, that is a different situation than just adjusting the lines.

Posted 3 years ago #
JonMyers
HCMC, Vietnam ✈
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adrock wrote >>

JonMyers wrote >>

NickWarzy wrote >>
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/01/16/redistrict.ART_ART_01-16-10_B1_JNGANPH.html
According to the article:
...Columbus Police Chief Walter Distelzweig unveiled a sweeping proposal that he thinks will increase efficiency on the street.
The 1st precinct, which encompasses the Short North logged only 25,156 calls for service that year. That was factored into the decision to dissolve the precinct into two adjoining precincts.

Cool, thanks for sharing the link.
Honestly, I still don't understand.. :) - sorry.

i think it doesn't make sense because the subject for the post doesn't make sense. they don't want to split the short north into two precincts, they want to dissolve the precinct so that it doesn't exist and the area gets combined with 2 other precincts.
i can only see this meaning less officers in the short north.

Maybe the police chief has taken up crack smoking as well.

Posted 3 years ago #
NickWarzy
Italian Village
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Right, sorry, they want to 'split' or dissolve the existing 1st precinct into two adjoining ones.

Maybe I should have titled it differently...it's all 20/20 to me now :)

Posted 3 years ago #
labi
Weinland Park
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It doesn't seem all that crazy to me as a basic organizing principle to allocate and/or organize officers according to how much criminal activity is going on. Although no one likes to see fewer officers in their own area, the fact remains that Italian Village is no longer what it once was in terms of criminal activity, and that's not just a factor of the number of officers.

Also, just because the total number of officers is being organized/supervised differently, doesn't mean a particular area will have less officers - does it?

Posted 3 years ago #
JonMyers
HCMC, Vietnam ✈
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labi wrote >>
It doesn't seem all that crazy to me as a basic organizing principle to allocate and/or organize officers according to how much criminal activity is going on. Although no one likes to see fewer officers in their own area, the fact remains that Italian Village is no longer what it once was in terms of criminal activity, and that's not just a factor of the number of officers.
Also, just because the total number of officers is being organized/supervised differently, doesn't mean a particular area will have less officers - does it?

From the amount of crime anecdotes I hear about to following data on CrimeReports.com it appears to me that crime is actually up, not down. It doesn't sound that different from redistricting to favor one's political party or in this case the police's interests where I would venture a guess there is a performance incentive in place.

Just one more thing that confirms I need to get busy and follow through on an exit strategy.

Posted 3 years ago #
labi
Weinland Park
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JonMyers wrote >>
It doesn't sound that different from redistricting to favor one's political party or in this case the police's interests where I would venture a guess there is a performance incentive in place.

Performance incentive? Could you explain?

Posted 3 years ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown / Gay Street
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Columbus police-reassignment plan to be delayed after court hearing
Thursday, January 28, 2010
BY BRUCE CADWALLADER
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

City officials agreed today to put the first steps of a proposed police-precinct redistricting plan on hold while objections from the police union are addressed.

About 15 off-duty police officers went to the Franklin County courthouse this afternoon in an attempt to block the plan, which would reassign some patrol officers.

READ MORE: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/01/28/fop-sues.html?sid=101

Posted 3 years ago #
labi
Weinland Park
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I notice in the Dispatch article that the head of the police union's opposition to the precinct reorganization is only based on the dept not following the usual procedure for redeploying officers. ("He said the FOP is not opposed to expanding the precincts but objects to the way officers are being redeployed. He said new jobs are usually posted so officers who wish to move can apply but that wasn't happening under the new plan.")

The police dept says that the downtown and campus areas will be better served by splitting them into 2 distinct areas of responsibility.

Isn't there anyone (outside the police dept or the disgruntled union) who has a detailed understanding of the reorganization and can comment on how the reassignments are likely to affect police response in specific neighborhoods? In my neighborhood there's some excited argument about this issue but there seems to be broad disagreement/confusion about exactly what the changes are, when they would happen, etc.

Posted 3 years ago #
NickWarzy
Italian Village
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An open letter from a CPD officer that explains some of the changes to Precinct One.

https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B_WEpt0cSbRDODFhMTdiYWEtYWY5My00NjE4LWIwNzYtYzM4ZDg3MGZjMzBl&hl=en

Posted 3 years ago #
labi
Weinland Park
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NickWarzy wrote >>
An open letter from a CPD officer that explains some of the changes to Precinct One.
https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B_WEpt0cSbRDODFhMTdiYWEtYWY5My00NjE4LWIwNzYtYzM4ZDg3MGZjMzBl&hl=en

Thanks for this, Nick.

I do feel it's worth asking again - if crime in IV is down, how much of it is related to the police coverage (which has stayed the same for a long time) and how much of it is due to the residential population in the area being VERY different now than it was 15 years ago?

Of course, as a WP resident, I'm concerned about the idea of officers in my area being asked to cover additional territory when crime in my neighborhood could not be said to be decreasing (as far as I know.) On the other hand, the area between 5th Ave and 3rd Ave doesn't have much in it, at least for now.

There's a lot to think about with this. I'm sort of surprised there isn't more discussion.

Posted 3 years ago #
AMEEKER
Weinland Park
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A city police liaison was at the Fifth by Northwest Area Commission meeting Feb. 2 and said that the police officers moved from the district will be reallocated to a new Polaris district. He also said that the two districts which will then be expanded to cover the SN/Fifth by Northwest area will not effectively gain any new officers to cover the additional territory, the existing officers will simply have to cover a larger area. He also said, "It would be nice to think that they will come and patrol this area, but the reality is that these officers have been patroling their current areas for years. They'll come here when they HAVE to, and stick to their current routines."

The FOP has filed an injunction against the city to stop the redistricting from going forward.

Posted 3 years ago #
berdawn
near that stretch of N. High Street in the Short North
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I wonder how I missed this here AND on the dispatch site....thanks for the bump!

Posted 3 years ago #
Tigertree
771 N. High St.
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I cannot believe with our amazing, aligned response to the meter increase, that there is not more outrage about this. We already struggle with making sure visitors who aren't accustomed to shopping in an urban setting feel safe and comfortable spending their dollars in the short north, and now they will hear that our police force has been cut?

Posted 3 years ago #