FW: Burglary Spree Update #2

Please write me if you don't want to receive such emails.

My experience of the past 2 weeks confirms 2 things we already knew: the DC Police can be fantastic and developing communication lines between police and citizens is invaluable. The police response to the mini-crime spree has been excellent and the coordinated communication of the leads to and from the police helped get one man arrested and 3 under surveillance. This shows that we can make a difference in our community. This also means that to get great results from the police the citizens need to work at it being involved.

Officers Ackerman, Wilcox, Flynn, and Forbes, Detectives Thompson and Greene, Lieutenant Hill and Commander McCoy were noticeably critical to this success story. There were probably many people operating behind the scenes that made the success possible. The 911/311 system even operated well. The 3rd District did their roll call on my block one day to familiarize all the officers on duty with the situation.

One man was a arrested for stealing things out of a garage. We suspect he also broke into the cars in the Riggs Place alley since he was convicted of and did jail time for breaking into a car in the same alley last year. He was released pending trial. He was subsequently arrested for violating a "Stay Away" order and will not likely be released again.

The 3 men who were breaking down doors and burglarizing houses during the day have been identified. They have been tied to over 20 similar break ins - 18 on Capital Hill, several in Adams Morgan and Columbia Heights. The detectives are still working on getting an arrest warrant.

Responses to my emails were coming in from people who had seen them posted on numerous listservs and who had had them forwarded several times. If anyone would like to be on some of several lists, please contact me. There is the Joint Dupont Public Safety Committee List, the Dupont ANC list, the DCCA Alert list and my ANC district constituent list.

We could emulate the email list that we used in my surrounding blocks in all of the police district and we'd be a lot safer. This could operate through block captains of a Neighborhood Watch. One neighbor can communicate with other neighbors on what's going on such as an increase in car break ins or doors getting broken down so that people can be on the look out. We'd hope that person would develop a relationship with the police on that beat. I got dozens of descriptions of potential burglars, correlating stories, and status reports. If someone filters through the noise and responsibly communicates good info to the police and their neighbors problems get solved.

We'll be working on setting up a Neighborhood Watch system in the Joint Dupont Public Safety meetings on the 3rd Tuesday of every month, that is, this August 19th at 7pm at the 3rd District Police headquarters at 1620 V Street.

Rob Halligan

1711 Riggs Place

319 1313

FW: Update Dupont Public Safety Meeting

The same 3 black males tried to break into another house on Riggs today. I witnessed. The police have some great new leads...

Rob Halligan

FW: Reminder - Chief Ramsey, New Location, and Q about Public Safety Meeting

Dupont Public Safety List:

I'm checking on interest in holding a July Joint Dupont Public Safety Committee Meeting. If you are planning on coming or have an issue that you would like to have addressed please get back to me. Depending on response we may skip this (steamy) month. That may be held Tuesday 7/15 at 7 at 1620 V Street. I'll write with an agenda or cancellation later in the week.

The MPD Chief coming to the Dupont ANC meeting this week is going to be a big event on the public safety front. Time and new location are below.

Rob Halligan

202 319 1313

<<

Dupont Circle Advisory Neighborhood Commission

July Public Meeting

Wednesday, July 9, 2003, 7 pm

DC Jewish Community Center

Q and 16th Streets, NW

NEW LOCATION!

TENTATIVE AGENDA

(sequence TBD and additional items may be added)

-- Remarks by Chief of Police Charles Ramsey

-- Proposal by the Department of Transportation on R Street, NW, between Florida Avenue, NE, and Connecticut Avenue, NW (2B01, 2B02, 2B03, & 2B04)

-- ABC Substantial Change by Kozy Korner, 1253 20th St., NW; Application to Expand the Hours of Operation from 7 am to 10 pm, Daily, to be Open Continuously from 7 am Fridays to 10 pm Sundays (2B06)

-- Update on Public Space Application 02-036 by Starbucks for a Sidewalk Café at 1600 U Street, NW (2B08)

-- Administrative: Approval of Minutes of May 14, 2003, May 28, 2003, & June 11, 2003; Financial Matters; Quarterly Financial Report; & Commissioner Reports

Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2B meets the second Wednesday of each month. There is an open forum at each meeting for discussion of issues not on the regular agenda. For further information, call (202) 296-7333 or send a message to email@DupontCircleANC.net.

>>

FW: June Joint Dupont Public Safety Meeting Reminder Announcement

This coming Tuesday the 17th the Dupont Public Safety will meet at 7 in the Stanley Room of the 3rd District Headquarters - 1620 V Street. Commander McCoy plans to be there.

I've attached a list of concerns that we have. We'll get into details of some of those topics that night. We may have some citizens showing up who have new concerns. If that is the case, we'll spend some time talking about the crimes that they have recently witnessed or been victims of.

Hope to see you there,

Rob Halligan

Joint Dupont Public Safety Meeting

• PSA Boundaries

• Renewal of the Citizens Advisory Council

• Community Policing Communications

PSA meeting reform - Poorly attended ones could be done as break out sessions at this meeting. PSA, DPS –ANC/DCCA/DC MAP, CAC

MPD 3rd District input to DCCA Public Safety Alerts (designate responsible official to send information to dccanews@aol.com.

Regular Reports out of Police to Listserv or to groups in person

Would Commander McCoy to address ANC and/or DCCA meetings. (Lt Hill says Cm. McCoy may address ANC in July.)

Contacting the police is too difficult.

Voice Mail system getting implemented??!?!

Is standardization of method of communication the solution?

Messages don’t get answered

Some officers have pagers, some cell phones, some hotmail, some dc.gov email, some mpdc.org email.

Officers are moved around so much that establishing relationships is too difficult

Communication Structure between PSAs and between MPDC/Park Police, Civic Organizations

Neighborhood Watch

Orange Hat Patrols – Lt. Groomes and George Britton

• Community Policing Program Effectiveness

Commitment to put duty officer on foot for one hour per shift

Police initiative to have police officers meet every person in their PSA.

Police not taking reports or treating customers with respect

• 911/311 system. We’d like to hear updates of situation.

• Crime Statistics

Relevance and accuracy

Perception of community contrast

• Drug Dealing

Operation Gold Coast Follow Up

N and 20th

P and 22nd

Swann Houses

Getting at the demand – What’s the profile of these drug buyers

• Prostitution

16th and L

22nd and P

• Community development’s effect on Crime

Youth Education

Knowing your neighbors

• Preventable Crime Education

Lighting

Putting laptops in trunks

• Abandoned cars

6/11/2003 3:30 PM

FW: Draft: Summary of April Dupont Public Safety Committee

Below is a draft of a summary of various Dupont Public Safety
developments. I will do some more work on it, but if you had any input
I'd be appreciative.

Citizen's Advisory Council - The MPD 3rd District CAC is in the throws
of a re-organization. Commander Pendergast got pressure from the Chief
to re-invigorate this body. The few people who had been active in the
CAC are resisting the resulting effort to reform the by-laws. The
By-Laws Committee is meeting April 30th at 7:30 in Commander
Pendergast's conference room. The Elections committee will meet right
after that since much of their action is dependent on the outcome of the
by-law reform. Any participation in this process would be helpful,
because the "old guard" is trying do such things as insure that only
people who have been CAC members since last June can vote in the
election for officers. If it turns out that new members will be allowed
to vote, we would appreciate people joining the CAC to help shake thinks
up.

Restructuring PSA and District borders - There have been some
developments in the pending restructuring of PSA and District borders.
There will be a meeting on May 1st at 7:00 in 3D to present citizen's
input on this to the Commander. On May 10th at the Crime Forum II the
Chief's plan will be made public. MPD hopes to implement the plan in
September. We would like feedback on what PSA changes you would like to
have proposed. It is not even certain that Dupont will remain in the 3rd
District. Dupont presently is represented by 3 districts and 9 PSAs.
That should be one district and one to three PSAs. This may be a
significant change in our protective services and may warrant heavy
citizen participation.

Drug Dealing in lower Dupont - Much of the April meeting was devoted to
the problem of approximately 20 drug dealers doing business at night in
the area between O Street and 20th to M and 18th. We would have thought
that 2 of these dealers getting shot by another dealer in January would
have spurned police action. MPD, US Park Police, and the Assistant US
Attorney assure that there is pending action. (This area is in 3
different PSAs and 2 Districts).

Crime Forum II - Building Partnerships for Safe Neighborhoods. Saturday,
May 10th 8:30 am to 1:00 pm at Scripture Cathedral 810 O Street NW.

Neighborhood Watch - Orange Hat Patrol Mobilization Training. Saturday
June 7th. We'd like a strong group of people from Dupont Circle to show
up. After this training, we will move on trying to get neighborhood foot
patrols that will report their sightings of illicit activity to the
police and to organize a block captain system to facilitate public
safety and emergency preparedness.

Community Policing Communications - The Commander assures us that a new
phone system has been authorized and budgeted for 3D.

911 reform - The five 911 call attendants who are being held accountable
for the slow response to the fatal 21st St. January fire have been
served with notice of intent of adverse action. That means the
administrative process of firing them has begun. Thanks to everyone who
kept up the pressure for action on this issue.

Crime Reports - We are becoming increasingly concerned with the accuracy
and relevance of the oft-quoted MPD crime statistics. If anyone
(particularly someone with a background in statistical analysis) could
volunteer to take on the task of critiquing these numbers, we would be
much appreciative.

Plans to change ANC meeting presentation to have only the Public Safety
Committee Co-Chair give a report to the ANC unless there is a large
issue have been put in motion. The success of this change will be
dependent on the Co-Chair getting good information from the 3D brass.

Attendance and forward plans of the Dupont Public Safety Meetings - We
discussed whether we'll need to have a regular meeting if communication
with the citizenry can be improved though re-vitalizing the CAC and
through building better communications models (using the coming voice
mail, web sites, and email more efficiently). If more concerned
citizen's turned out for the meetings we would be better able to
pressure for reform. We're not happy with the job the police are doing
and don't think you should be either. There is much too much crime in
our neighborhood.

Please do respond if you do not want to be on this list.

FW: Dupont Public Safety Committee Meeting Agenda 4-22-03

Dupont Public Safety Committee Meeting Agenda - Tuesday, 4-22, 7pm, 3rd District station, 1620 V St. Please attend and try to influence how safe our neighborhood is. We'll sit around a big table with most of the police brass, express our concerns, and try to help them make the neighborhood a safer place. Police Service Area (PSA) 307's monthly meeting will follow.

Drug Dealing in lower Dupont

Recent Muggings

Citizen's Advisory Council (3D-wide Police input)

Meeting 4th Thursday of every month in 3D from 7:30 – 9

Restructuring PSA and District borders

Meeting May 1st

Neighborhood Watch

Saturday June 7th Initial Organizing Meeting

Community Policing Communications

Voicemail

Email

Crime Reports

Citywide crime report update on web site, other methods of reporting

Crime Statistics

Relevance and accuracy

Perception of community

911/311 system

Status of 21 Street fire controversy

Call for additional and future agenda items

FW: Dupont Circle Public Safety Committee -Tues. March 18, 2003

Dupont Public Safety Committee Meeting - Tuesday, 03.18.03, 7 pm

Location: Third District Police Station at 1620 V St. Room assignment is pending.

The newly revived Dupont Public Safety Committee which is a jointly sponsored by the Dupont Circle ANC, DC MAP, and Dupont Circle Citizens Association is meeting on March 18th at the Third District Police Station at 1620 V Street. Please spread the word. People who would like to be problem-solvers or liaisons on particular issues can be made committee members.

This will be a forum to explore policies for improving the Public Safety (not for venting). Rob Halligan and Gil Hill are Co-Chairs. Rob Halligan is an ANC Commissioner from 2B01. Gil Hill is the Secretary of DCCA and long-time community activist. The first meeting was called off due to snow. Let's hope the second doesn't get cancelled due to the start of a war. (If the Iraq invasion starts, I imagine the police will be detained due to heightened terrorism concerns.)

There have been lots of meetings and press coverage of and on the police and Public Safety in our neighborhood, recently. The purpose of the joint committee will be to codify these concerns and come up with solutions. We would like to spend some time requesting more agenda items but would not like to spend time giving more examples of problems. Commander Pendergrast who is the commanding officer for the 3rd District that encompasses most of Dupont, Logan Circle, Shaw, Adams Morgan, and Kalorama has agreed to attend.

The list below contains problems and items for discussion that have so far been catalogued and that we think can be tackled by this committee. We'll do what we can to address these items.

Preliminary Committee Meeting Agenda

Introductions

Call for additional and future agenda items

Community Policing Communications
1. Contacting the police is too difficult.
Is standardization of method of communication the solution?
Messages frequently don't get answered
No officers have voicemail
Some officers have pagers, some cell phones, some hotmail, some dc.gov email, some mpdc.org email.

2. Officers are moved around so much that establishing relationships is too difficult.

3. What happened to the city's crime report update on web site, other methods of reporting

4. Communication between PSAs and between MPDC/Park Police, Civic Organizations

Community Policing Program Effectiveness

Status of Community Policing Program

911/311 system (reform may be beyond the scope of this committee). We'd like to hear updates of situation.

Status of 21 Street fire controversy

Reports of police not taking reports or treating "customers" with respect

Drug Dealing
Operation Gold Coast Follow Up
N and 20th
P and 22nd
Swann Houses
Connection to strip clubs and possible solution
Connection to prostitution
Getting at the demand - What's the profile of these drug buyers

Prostitution
16th and L
22nd and P

Orange Hat Patrols - George Britton

Neighborhood Watch

Restructuring PSA and District borders
Where does that stand?
What are new borders planned?

Citizen's Advisory Council (3D-wide) Need liaison and support
On 4th Thursday of every month in 3D from 7:30 - 9

Crime Statistics
Relevance and accuracy
Perception of community contrast

PSA meeting reform
Poorly attended ones could be done as break out sessions at this meeting

Community development's effect on Crime
Youth Education
Knowing your neighbors

Preventable Crime Education
Lighting
Putting laptops in trunks

Bicycle thefts at YMCA

Abandoned cars

Commitment to put duty officer on foot for one hour per shift

New police initiative to have police officers meet every person in their PSA.

Crime Forum

Committee email list