Mount Pleasant DC Forum

[MPNA]

Attached PSA 301 Minutes. Your feedback, thoughts and comments are appreciated.

Community Police Meeting
PSA 301/Mt Pleasant
November 8, 2005


I. Introductions, Welcome & Convenience Information:
It was recognized that City Administrator, Robert Bobb, was in attendance of the meeting. Close to 50 people from the community attended the meeting.

Additionally, Mitchell Backfield, the newly elected ANC Commissioner for ANC1D02 was recognized and introduced himself.

II. Announcements:
It was mentioned that announcements were listed on the agenda and that John Adams from Councilmember Graham’s office had handouts on recent pending legislation

III. Operation Fight back - October 2005 - Report

A verbal report was given as follows below. Additionally a hand out written report was also available at the meeting for anyone interested and photos of the Operation Fightback were passed around.

 The Irving-Harvard Triangle was chosen to be an Operation Fightback event after PSA 301 Lt. Sledge and other MPD representatives performed a survey of the triangle site on September 4, 2005.

 The Irving-Harvard Triangle is the sloped unimproved area which is triangular shaped bordered by Irving & Harvard Streets and the Harvard Towers Apartment Building, next to the intersection of Irving, Harvard, and Kenyon Streets, and Adams Mill Rd.

 At that survey police observed that illegal activity continued to occur on this site as evidenced by the items that they found on this survey and previous site visits. Among the items found were crack bags, crack pipe, other drug paraphernalia, gambling devices, stolen items, used condoms, empty liquor and beer bottles, etc.

 The Mt. Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance had been working since February of 2005 to clean up and make improvements to the site that would address public safety issues. MPNA held a clean up of the site in April 2005 and a 2nd clean up was planned to be held in collaboration with MPD.

 The Operation Fightback event/Clean Up was held on Saturday, October 15, 2005, from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm and the area of clean up was the Irving-Harvard Triangle site.

 Over 40 bags of trash and debris were collected and removed as well as additionally large amounts of loose debris that couldn’t be bagged.

 Volunteers found crack bags and drug paraphernalia, used condoms and empty beer and liquor bottles, and remnants of stolen items at the site.

 There were fewer volunteers than at the previous April clean up, but the volume of trash removed was more than 2/3rd of the volume from the first clean up.

 A manhole cover for PEPCO that was totally buried under 3 or more inches of soil and debris was found and uncovered.

 Merrit Drucker, the Clean City Coordinator, did some of the shoveling himself and also looked after making other city services request for eroded lamp post base in the immediate triangle area as well as making requests for blocked catch basins, etc. that have been long neglected and needed repair or maintenance.

 Fox Five News and Channel 9 News had cameramen and reporters who came and reported on the event and interviewed volunteers.

 We used DPW’s Helping Hands Program to borrow tools for the clean up volunteers. DPW also picked up most of the trash the same day and the remainder the next day.

IV. Operation Live Link - Overview & Report & Assessment

For those new faces in the room, an overview of Operation Live Link was provided. As part of National Night Out program, which takes place nation wide on the first Tuesday of August each year, neighborhoods may also choose to participate in Project 365. Project 365 is where the community picks a project to run from one National Night Out to the next one a year later. The project is related to public safety and could involve the clean up of an area that attracts crime, it could be a strategy to reduce drug dealing at a particular corner, or whatever else the community would like it to be related to public safety. This year, after various PSA meetings on the subject, the Operation LiveLink program was chosen.

Operation Live Link is a new program that has never before been done in the city. It is being piloted in Mt. Pleasant. Operation Live Link means that the residents in Mt. Pleasant have a direct link to police officers patrolling the neighborhood between the hours of 6pm and 10pm daily. Mt. Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance donated 2 cell phones and the cell phone service for two officers.

There are 3 basic rules for using Operation LiveLink:

1) You must first call 911 or 311 before using Operation Live Link to report the suspicious activity or crime.

2) You must identify yourself to the officer you are calling when you use Live Link

3) Then you may describe the suspicious behavior, activity, crime, persons involved, etc. to the officer you are calling.

The mission and objectives of Operation LiveLink are to strengthen community police relations’ by creating the direct line of communication between officers and residents. It is believed that good community police relations mean a safer neighborhood.

A campaign is underway to disseminate the information about Operation LiveLink as widely as possible. Residents attending the meeting were encourage to pick up the flyers on Operation LiveLink and post them up in their apartment buildings and pass the information on to their neighbors. Residents were encouraged to plug the phone numbers into the memory of their cell phones and to post the number by their telephone at home or plug it into their speed dial.

The Operation LiveLink phone numbers are:

Foot patrol officer -- tel. 202.689.4277
Scout Car officer - tel. 202.690.4278

It was also pointed out that if you do not get an answer on one line then to call the other. One resident had asked that if they live in the far western part of the neighborhood furthest from Mt. Pleasant St., should they be calling the scout car number only. It was pointed out that if the scout car number is not answered then they should still try the foot beat officer, as it is possible for the foot beat officer to directly radio a scout car to respond.

It was noted that a voice mail greeting has not been placed on these phones but will be shortly.

Also, if you do not get an answer and the officers are occupied then you are encouraged to leave a voice mail, as the officers will also check the voice mail regularly

Officer Quiles is the foot beat officer who has the phone most of the time and Officer Perkins would have the scout car phone. Sometimes Officer Pitt may be using one of the phones.

Officer Quiles indicated that he as already received somewhere between 25 to 30 calls on disorderlies. Out of those, one has led to an arrest.

Quiles added that as far as disorderlies go, Operation LiveLink would be helpful to get offenders to modify behavior because every nuisance call cannot and should not translate into an arrest. The goal would be to modify behavior, but if need be arrests will be made.

Officer Quiles indicated that he thought the information on Operation LiveLink needed to be more disseminated for it to have a more significant impact.

Officer Quiles himself said that he distributed over 100 copies of flyers on the Operation LiveLink program.

Sgt. Eckles said that this is an added tool of communication for the neighborhood.

She further indicated that the foot beat officer cannot see the screen that they typically have in a patrol car showing calls for service dispatched to know where the runs are being assigned or what is happening and thus the foot beat officer now has an added tool as well for surveillance and being more effective on patrol.

Eckles also said that a citizen my give more details and look out information that doesn’t always transfer down the line to an officer when a citizen calls in to 911/311 and the calls go from the operator to dispatch and then to the officer.

V. ANC Report

Jack McKay said he had nothing to report.

Mitchell Backfield, the newly elected ANC Commissioner, filling the vacant position for ANC1D02 was recognized and introduced himself again.

Backfield spoke briefly about why he wanted to run for the position and what were the major issues that he would like to concentrate on. Mr. Backfield indicated that public safety issues were of priority and of great concern to him. He said that he would like to see improvements made in different parts of Mt. Pleasant which would enhance public safety and make a statement to criminals that they were not welcome - give them a heads up and put a doubt in a perpetrator’s mind that they may get caught if they try to commit crimes here in Mt. Pleasant, and that there are repercussions and consequences.

He talked about getting more street lighting, increasing the community presence and police presence.

Backfield said that he lives in the Woodner and that he walks daily from the Columbia Heights Metro station to the Woodner, and often it is late at night. He observed that it is very dark on that walk to the Woodner from the metro and is concerned that it is good environment for the robberies and dangerous for area residents.

Backfield also said that the boundaries around the Woodner can be scary also.

Backfield said that he wants to make a difference in the safety.

VI. Robert Bobb Speaks at PSA Meeting:

Robert Bobb commented on the fact that more than a dozen youth from the Columbia Heights Youth Center were being involved in and allowed to participate in this PSA meeting.

Mr. Bobb said, “How well we work with youth will determine if we have a safe community and will determine if we’ve made the appropriate investment”

Mr. Bobb also said, “One of the things that excites me about being in DC is the consistency in outreach by MPD to the community across the entire city. I have seen it first hand.”

Mr. Bobb said it’s one thing to say MPD is responsible for personal safety. But more important is the manner of partnership and engaging with the community It is evident in this meeting tonight and in other parts of the community.

Mr. Bobb added, “This is the type of consistency to do well in which MPD makes the city safe.”

Mr. Bobb said that he has worked in a lot of different cities across the country and with a lot of different professionals and he said that he has seen in some places where the police only enforced laws from the periphery and only go into the city when there is a problem. He said that when he discovered this he would let those people go. He said that fortunately this is not the situation in DC.

Bobb said that “Crime in the District is going down and this is also because citizens are taking on to be more proactive and engaged.”

Robert Bobb said, “The police department in of itself is not responsible for safety -- the entire DC government must be committed and engaged in this.”

Bobb stated that he has put this in the performance agreement of every director in the DC government and “that they are responsible for contributing to safety of the community”.

Bobb added, “The police don’t install the lights, they don’t raise our kids, educate our kids, all things that create pathologies which we need to address in the community.”

Bobb said, “CSOSA --their engagement with the community is outstanding. The US Attorney’s office is also important to work with.”

Bobb said, “Operation Fight back - I think it’s a terrific program Operation Fightback works”

Bobb add, “This Operation LiveLink sounds great and is a great example of community and police working together. I’m going to have to tell Chief Ramsey about this.”

VII. CSOSA - no CSOSA Report this month

VIII. Crime Reports
Lt. Sledge said that there were 15 reported robberies in the month of October.

The locations, times and dates were as follows:

1600 Block Lamont - closed with 3 arrests on evening shift, Oct.14th, 10:30pm
Assault with intent to rob - 1600 Blk of Lamont - Oct. 15th - evening shift, victim was approached by multiple subjects
Pocketbook snatched - 1600 Blk of Monroe - multiple subjects approached victim - evening of Oct. 3rd
1600 blk of Hobart - Oct. 10th - midnight shift - multiple subjects knocked victim to the ground
October 1st, 3300 block of 17th St., victim approached by a subject and pushed to the ground
October 1st, evening shift, Brown & Monroe Sts., 4 teenagers punched and kicked victim but nothing was taken - attempted robbery
3200 blk of 16th St., October 6th, metro pass was taken from a victim
Oct. 6th, 1722 Hobart St., robbery
1630 Park Rd., Oct. 21st, attempted robbery
Oct. 5th, 16th St. & Spring Rd. - midnight shift - robbery
1700 Blk of Lamont St., robbery with gun, multiple subjects
Oct.20th, 1741 Park Rd., robbery with gun - taken wallet and purse

3 Hispanic males were arrested on 10/14; in another 4 juveniles were arrested 10/29

Lt. Sledge said the highest increase was in stolen autos in Mt. Pleasant. Typically there are 5 or 6 per month but in October there were 15 which is way beyond the average.

Prior to City Administrator Robert Bobb’s departure, the Youth Center worker asked if the youth at the meeting could line up as he walked out and shake his hand. She said that this way they can go home and say that they were able to shake hands with someone who runs the city government. They could also ruminate about how this interaction could affect their future and who they could become down the road -- a part of the solution and future or a part of the problem.

Mr. Bobb shook the hands of each of the youth out in the hallway and spoke with them.

IX. Discussion with A 3rd District Detectives from the Robbery Unit
Detective Joe Crespo assigned to the 3rd District Robbery Unit along with his supervisor Sgt. Mary Linozi spoke and answered questions from those in attendance.

Jack McKay, ANC Commissioner & Chair, asked what the detectives thought about why the robbery rate has been increasing. He pointed out that the increase from a previous average of around 6 or so robberies to 15 this past month is alarming. Det. Crespo said that he couldn’t say why there has been such an increase but he could talk about what he and his colleagues have been doing about robberies in 3D.

He spoke of one case where there were 2 robberies almost an hour apart - one reported late 10/28 and the other just past midnight, so dated as 10/29 but they were only an hour apart. One was 2500 block of Sherman Ave., and the other took place at Adams Mill Rd & Harvard St. where 4 subjects were involved.

Four DC Residents and 1 Maryland resident (those arrested in these 2 robberies) were presented with search warrants. The search warrants were executed at the same time so that there wouldn’t be anyone tipping anyone else off.

One of the search warrants was for a California St. address, one for Bryant St.

MPD found the following on these 4 searches: a gun, 13 cell phones, credit card, ID for a female attending Howard University, 2 watches, among other items.

Lot of cases of robberies where the victim cannot identify the perpetrator, so it is important for the victims to get a good look at the perpetrators

Det. Crespo said that he is just now working on a case that happened in the last day where a tag number was obtained and they picked up 2 of the 3 suspects, and now he needs to go back and finish the rest of the case tonight and Crespo added that he has been on duty since 5:30am this morning.

Crespo added that citizens putting in calls about suspicious cars and giving physical descriptions of suspiciously behaving persons really is a great help. He said that detectives can sometimes links such subjects to a robbery case that may have occurred within a short time frame of the reported suspicious activity or vehicle.

Crespo said that some victims of robberies are not so willing to give up their property He advised that if you are a victim of a robbery to give up your property because it is a lot easier to do that than give up your life.

Det. Crespo recommended that if you are a victim to get the best look at the victim as you can.

One of the youth from the Columbia Heights Youth Center asked if the police could search him if he was stopped by the police. Det. Crespo explained that officers have families and at the end of the day they would like to be able to go home to them, so for their personal safety, law allows for a pat down of an individual who is being stopped by the police to see if there is a hidden weapon like a gun before interacting further with the individual stopped.

Someone asked what were the elements that made for a successful arrest with the case of the Oct 29th robberies and what successful elements should the rest of the public be looking at repeating to help make future arrests and case closures happen.

In the previous case from the 29th of Oct., Crespo said that the victim had given a really good description and that helped officers tremendously and detectives make the arrest. He said when they don’t have a good description which often happens, there is not much to go on and it is difficult to arrest, especially when there are no other witnesses.

Crespo added that 3rd District did a great job at apprehending in the Oct 29th case. Based on the description provided police went into action to pursue and basically they fan out from the scene and then usually hone in on their location in a very coordinated effort and collaboration between uniformed officers, plain clothes officers and detectives.

He said that in his opinion 3rd District is very good at this job, as shown in the case of Oct. 28th and Oct.29th. He said he believed that 3rd District is a great place to work because he feels his is working with a tremendously talented pool of professionals. Crespo said he has had opportunities to work elsewhere but has passed them up because he feels he is working with the best.

There was more discussion with some of the youth present from the Columbia Heights Youth Center which revolved around whether or not they should sit back and do nothing if they see something going down that is not right.

The Youth Center worker present and another citizen remarked that the young people need to be encouraged to get involved and to not sit there and let things happen around them and not doing anything about it. The Youth Center worker asked the detectives to explain that in their words to the young people in attendance.

In response, Sgt. Inozi said that if you are not part of the solution then you are part of the problem. She said that the youth can go speak to a school resource officer or tell an adult who can then be a liaison to us if they are afraid of going directly to the police.

Inozi added that if one of the youth witness something they have to keep in mind that whatever they witnessed could easily happen to one of their beloved family members. If it happens to someone close to you and nobody talks, she said, how would that make you all feel? You’d want everybody to talk. She said you wouldn’t want to see your mother coming home one day after a hard day’s work with someone robbing them of everything they earned that day or week. So she encouraged the youth to speak up and if not directly than using an adult as a liaison.

Nick Majett, from the DC Office of Attorney General Prosecution, was introduced. Majett said that his office is available at all times to get involved and help. He said that their offices have a neighborhood services section and that they give legal advice to all sections of the community.

Sometimes a community has to deal with a crack house etc. and this may be a situation where the Office of Attorney General can help the community. He said that they are available to help a neighborhood identify a problem and deal with it and he encouraged citizens to contact his office.

Majett added that he is a native Washingtonian and addressing the youth from the Youth Center, he added that he has been where they are but that he wanted to be part of the solution.

The Youth Center worker pointed out that if Majett could get where he is today then so could these youth, maybe some of them will be the lawyers one day.

Jose Sueiro, the Ward 1 Neighborhood Services Coordinator came into the meeting and was introduced. He was asked to talk about what he does. He said that he strategizes with other agencies to work on hot spot areas to help alleviate crime/community problems.

When asked what hot spots are by a resident, he replied that hot spots are anywhere from 5 to 16 block areas where there is a high concentration of crime.

Sueiro added that the area from Kenyon to New Hampshire/Taylor on Georgia Ave. is a hot spot ; Adams Morgan is another hot spot.

Sueiro added that there is a lot of argument on where a hot spot should be and the criteria for designating hot spots.

According to Sueiro, basically enough incidences of violent crimes in the area warrants the designation.

Sueiro added that there are more crimes in PSA 302 (Columbia Heights) at the top of the 3rd District than in 304 (Adams Morgan) at the bottom.

Sueiro added that last year every hot spot dropped in crime by 10% except for Adams Morgan.

Sueiro said that the decision on designation of hot spots is made predominantly by MPD, with participation of Councilmember Jim Graham and Mr. Bobb, but that MPD is the main driver in the process.

Sueiro added that in all the other hot spots the crime is indigenous to the hotspot and to the people in the hot spot, except for Adams Morgan where people living outside of Adams Morgan, the visitors to Adams Morgan are the victims and/or perpetrators He added that if you removed crimes related to people not residing in Adams Morgan, then Adams Morgan would not be a hot spot.

Sueiro said there are 14 hotspots throughout the city, and 3 of those are in Ward 1: 14th St., Georgia Ave., and Adams Morgan are the three. Sueiro added that 20% of violent crimes happen in these hot spot areas.

One of the youth told the detectives that he saw a friend arrested and that he said he thought the friend wasn’t treated properly and was threatened if he didn’t cooperate with the officers. The youth asked if it was appropriate to use force to make the arrest.

The detectives said that answering the question would be a bit like Monday morning quarterbacking. They both said it would be hard to say without having been there or knowing all the details of the case.

Sgt. Eckles added that the youth would have the right to make a complaint about the officer and his complaint would be investigated. She said such complaints are not taken lightly and that officers had to abide by Department of Justice rules as to how they make an arrest.

The youth in attendance were invited by the detectives to sign up for and go out on patrol with them or with any of the officers of PSA 301.

One of the attendees asked the detectives if they thought that they felt they had enough manpower and resources to do their job considering the uptick of robberies in the city.

Det. Crespo responded to the question saying that they could always use more people, but that he felt that they are getting the job done and that he had an excellent team of talented professionals to do it with.

Crespo was asked how many of the fifteen robbery cases in Mt. Pleasant were closed Crespo said that he didn’t have that information with him today.

Crespo added though that they are putting out a lot of search warrants, coming up with evidence and are building cases and closing the ones they can.

It was asked what should citizens do to be safe considering the detectives’ experiences working in the robbery unit. The detectives responded with the following: if you are walking home from metro…..

You are a target if you walk alone.

You are especially a target if you are walking alone, have your laptop hanging on your back, or have an IPOD device with the white head phones on, and/or talking on your cell phone as you walk.

You need to designate a buddy to walk with at night especially - they said just like they have a place for commuter connections for riding on HOV lanes, we need a way to connect with each other to walk together.

Detectives encouraged residents to get to know the people on their walk home -- to engage in talk with them and ask if they could walk together rather than walk alone.
Invite other agencies to get involved and try to come up with community solution to problem areas.

Lucille Coutard, President of the 16th Street Tenant’s Association, remarked that in the 30 years living here that her feeling was that police are doing their job.

She added that all you have to do is stand at the corner of 16th & Park for example to observe people going by putting themselves at risk all the time, walking and talking on cell phones or having headphones in their ears and oblivious to their surroundings.

Ms. Coutard said that as a recipient of a community outreach award, she felt she could speak about community outreach -- she said she felt that at tonight’s PSA meeting it has been proved that there is outreach going on to the community and particularly to the young people seeing all the youth at the meeting tonight and encouraged the PSA meetings to continue on this track.

A resident said that their friend’s car was a victim of a hit and run accident and asked how they could follow up to find out about the investigation on the case Lt. Sledge said that the resident should contact Officer Michael Wright, who is in charge of all hit and runs in the city, at tel. 673.6815.

One of the youth asked about the curfew law--if he’d be taken in if he was standing out in front of his house after midnight? And then he followed up with asking what about when the time changes, do they get an extra hour?

Lt. Sledge said the curfew law is 11pm during the week and 12am on weekends. The detective added that you shouldn’t be out period after this hour.

One of the youth further asked if it was a day off from school and it was a weekday if they could get the extra hour to midnight. Sledge responded that it didn’t matter during the school year; it was always 11pm on a weekday.

Responding to youth’s curfew questions, Lt. Sledge added that curfew laws were not in existence as a punitive measure but that they were there to protect the youth from getting hurt.

Sincerely,

MPNA and the MPD

[jack]

[Laurie]

[jack]

[jack]