If She Robbed a Bank.......

Unfortunately, we couldn't generate much media coverage on this one.  If she robbed a bank or shot a few rounds off  we know it would have had a ton of coverage.  Fortunately, this class act helps us prevent crimes and address problem areas.  She is a  one of our most energetic and helpful community volunteers.  She recently won the 2012 Minnesota Crime Prevention Association’s (MCPA) Volunteer of the Year Award.   We are talking about Pam Kleinschmidt.  Some call her the "Mayor of Lincoln Park," but most call her Pam and she has developed a reputation as one of Lincoln Park's greatest advocates and she is making a difference.

West Area Police Commander Leigh Wright reported the following:  Pam has given countless hours to the community of Lincoln Park as a citizen patrol captain and volunteer for the Duluth Police Department.  During the winter months you can find Pam either walking or driving the streets of Duluth being the eyes and ears for the Duluth Police Department. Pam does this volunteer work without reimbursement for her gas expense which we all know is costly. Pam is well connected to the community and her community stops in at the Lincoln Park Substation to tell her stories of neighborhood issues or concerns. They know Pam will listen to them and make sure Officer Erickson receives the information and follows up.

Pam supports the community police officer who works in her community by writing Crime Free Multi-Housing (CFMH) letters, reviewing countless hours of police calls and helping him problem solve. This is no easy task, as Pam is a volunteer and not a ``police officer`` so Pam walks a fine line.  Pam's contributions have benefited the community in a number of ways. One way, was when she came up with the idea to purchase special signs indicating a ``special enforcement zone.`` These signs were posted in high crime areas and there was a collaborated effort from police, community and citizen patrol to pay special attention to crime or to have a greater presence in this area. We believe the signs have an impact on crime and let the bad guys know we are out there.

Pam does not take no for an answer. Pam comes from the private business world into a public service world where the pace to get something done can be a little slower. Through her dedication and hard work, Pam was able to improve the Lincoln Park Substation with a furnished meeting space for the community. Officers now have a meeting space which is available for use or to meet with an individual who wants to report a crime, but doesn’t want to be seen in the building as the sub station is in a high visibility area. This would not have happened without Pam.

Pam is diligent about being where she says she needs to be. If there are office hours to staff at the sub station she wants to be there for her community. Pam supports National Night out, Citizen Patrol, has attended the police reserves, and is highly involved in the business community. Pam does everything she does without compensation. Our department and community are a better place because of Pam.    Her personal involvement in being a volunteer is ``Top Notch”.   The Police Department would truly miss her work if she were to stop supporting our mission.” 

Thank you for all you do Pam!!!

Car Burglaries....Prevention Efforts Continue and So Does the Crime

Here is an email exchange between a concerned property owner who had resident's car windows busted to get at the goods in the car.  Frustrating, but together we can lick this one! 

From: XXXXX

Sent: Monday, October 29, 2012 7:50 AM
To: Gordon Ramsay
Cc: XXXXXXX

Subject: Car-break ins

Gordon, I spoke with my property manager this morning.  We have had 20 car break-ins at XXXXXXXXX in the last month.    I understand these are difficult but do you have any suggestions?     I think XXX   was trying to line up  XXX  and we have sent repeated warnings to our residents about not leaving belongings in their cars.    Still – this sort of thing happening on a weekly/monthly basis makes us all look bad. 

Thanks for your help,

XXXX

__________________________________________________________________________________

From: Gordon Ramsay

To:  XXXXXX

Hi XXXXX,

Preventing and reducing car burglaries have been a major focus for us over the last couple of years.  We are constantly trying to educate the public and create awareness through news releases, news articles, blogs, social media, community meetings, fliers and recruiting citizen patrols.  Additionally, we added a wanted property crimes person of the week that often focuses on wanted car burglars.  We have also used “bait” cars in sting efforts, added foot patrols during problem times in problem areas and target our worst offenders.   

We have been successful in catching a lot of the people responsible for this, only to find out they have been released from jail and are out committing more crime.   I have spent a lot of time at the State Legislature trying to increase penalties for this crime - as they are very weak.  

So, what more can we do?  We need people to help us.  We need people not to leave valuables in their cars, form citizen patrols and block watches, report suspicious activity, support us in our efforts to increase the penalties for this crime and let our local judges know the impact this crime has and the need to take it seriously.

I have asked the area commander, Leigh Wright to have a community officer contact you and work with your staff on how we can work together to accomplish the police department’s main goal-prevention of crime.

As always, feel free to call me anytime if we are not meeting your expectations.

Respectfully,

Gordon Ramsay

NYC Crime findings

From thecrimereport.org

The Other Side of New York’s Crime Decline

By Attiyya Anthony

54

Crime has plummeted in Central Park since 1990, but the city still struggles with violence at many of its lesser-known parks. Photo by Ed Yourdon, via Flickr  New York City’s decline in violent crime has made headlines around the country, but there’s one disturbing flaw in the picture.

In city parks and playgrounds, this summer has been one of the most violent periods in recent memory. At least 41 people were involved in violent incidents this summer, according to data compiled by NYC Park Advocates, a non-profit watchdog group.

In the month of July alone, four people died and nine more were wounded in violent incidents in New York recreational areas.

The organization, which tracks comparative data based on press reports and New York Police Department (NYPD) figures, says its figures indicate a worrying increase from previous years: 12 people were reportedly victims of park violence last year; and 11 in 2010.
Geoffrey Croft, founder of NYC Park Advocates, which advocates for more public funding of parks, blames the increase on a lethal combination of firearms, youth gangs and a lack of vigilance by law enforcement.

“There are few police officers and park enforcers patrolling parks,” he told The Crime Report. “Mix that with illegal guns, and it leaves many more opportunities for people to get shot or killed. It’s a deadly combination that the city is not taking responsibility for.”
Getting accurate figures for overall park crime in the city is difficult. The NYPD only tracks crime in the 31 largest parks and playgrounds— roughly two per cent of the city’s 1,700 outdoor recreational facilities—and it does not list park incidents in a separate category in its reports.
But NYC Park Advocates claims that its own review of NYPD Compstat figures indicates a 24 percent increase in violent crimes between 2009 and 2011, including shootings, assaults and rape, in just the small sample of parks for which the crime figures are compiled.
There was no way to independently confirm that figure, and the NYPD did not respond to repeated requests for more information from The Crime Report. The city’s Parks & Recreation Department would not comment on allegations of a spike in violence.  “(We) work closely with NYPD to keep our parks safe and will continue to do so,” said a Parks Department spokesperson.

Legitimate Fears
Park advocates say that the city is not responding to local residents’ legitimate fears about park safety. Holly Leicht, Executive Director of New Yorkers for Parks, an organization dedicated to protecting and improving New York’s public parks, points out that most crime reporting in the city is assigned to street addresses.Thus, she maintains, even the available figures for park crime may not indicate the gravity of the problem.

The statistics are “not an accurate reflection of where crime is,” argues Leicht. “It leads to over-reporting in streets and under-reporting in parks.”
The city’s most well-known parks—Central Park in Manhattan, and Prospect Park in Brooklyn—appear to have followed the remarkable plunge in violent crime in New York from 1990 to 2009 (New York homicides, for instance, dropped by 80 percent).
Although there have been major incidents—last week the city’s media headlined the rape of a 73-year-old woman in Central Park—it’s a stark contrast to several decades ago, when few New Yorkers ventured into the park after nightfall because of high crime.
However, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest that many of New York’s smaller neighborhood parks and recreational areas can be dangerous places to hang out.


Tennis Court Shooting
On July 27, in Haffen Park in the Bronx, Kemar Brooks, 14, was found dead on a tennis court, apparently shot in the back of the head by a stray bullet.
No arrests have been made in the ongoing investigation. Police believe Brooks was an innocent bystander attempting to hone his tennis game when he was fatally wounded.
On July 25, four-year-old Lloyd Morgan was also killed by a stray bullet while playing at the playground at Francis House Park in the Bronx, according to newspaper reports.
Shortly after Brooks was killed, Keble Frazer, 35, took his niece, nephew and sons to Haffen Park. As he stared at police posters offering a $12,000 reward for information about the shooting, he told the New York Daily News he was hesitant about whether he should take his kids there again.
“The park is somewhere you’re supposed to be safe,” Frazer said.
Many of the parks where violent incidents have occurred take place in neighborhoods where high crime rates persist, despite the overall increase in public safety in New York.
And many of the shooting incidents appear to be the result of youth or gang-related violence.
On the evening of June 14, Javier Castellano was in Springfield Park in Queens—a pocket enclave which is not covered in NYPD’s park crime statistics—where he was meeting up with friends to play basketball.
At around 6 p.m. an argument broke out between two basketball players on an adjacent court and three shots were fired, he recalls. Castellano saw one person fall to the ground after being shot in the leg.
“All I heard was ‘pop’, ‘pop’, ‘pop,’” Castellano recalls, noting that after he saw the spark from the gun barrel, he ran out of the park as fast as he could.
“My only concern was not getting hit by a stray bullet,” he says.
Castellano has seen fights, kids skipping school, and the occasional drug dealer at the park, but it was the first time he had witnessed a shooting. He was surprised at how quickly an ordinary day at the park turned into mayhem.
Making things worse, he noted, was the fact that on his frequent visits to Springfield Park he had rarely seen uniformed NYPD or Park Enforcement Patrol (PEP) officers—until something happened.
“They only come after someone calls 911,” he says.
Advocates charge the NYPD’s current practice of tracking crime only in larger parks means that city authorities do not have the information they need to determine how police resources and money should be allocated.
And it leaves residents in the dark about the safety of their neighborhood recreation spots.
“Many are wondering ‘Can my kids go there alone?’ ” says Leitch.
In fact, the NYPD was mandated in 2005 under Local Law 114 to develop the capability of monitoring crime in all city parks larger than one acre. Officially, the police blame technology for their failure to comply.
“We regret that we cannot figure out a technologically feasible way to [track park crime] now,” Assistant Police Commissioner Susan Petito told a January 30 City Council meeting.


Green Uniforms
Cutbacks in park policing may have aggravated the problem.
Park safety is also handled by the Parks Enforcement Patrol (PEP), part of the city’s Department of Parks & Recreation. With a mandate to assist the NYPD in controlling crime in parks, patrol officers wear green uniforms and are recognized as peace officers.
They are not allowed to carry weapons, just batons or pepper spray. However, trained PEP officers can make arrests and issue summons.
In the mid-1990s, there were approximately 450 PEP officers on patrol in New York parks. Today, there are only 100, according to Joe Puelo, vice president of Local 983, New York’s branch of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents PEP.
The city’s financial strains have made a serious dent in the PEP’s effectiveness, Puelo says.
Thanks to layoffs, the number of PEP officers has decreased 42 percent since 2002 alone.
“The Parks Department has the most amount of land in New York, but the least amount of protection and enforcement.” Puelo told The Crime Report.
Councilman Peter Vallone Jr., Chair of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee, agrees with critics who say that the NYPD and the Parks Department are not enforcing public parks efficiently.
“There are as many Rovers on the surface of Mars as there are parks enforcement officers roving our Queens parks,” he told CBS News on August 28.
The number, he said, was “one.”
Vallone says that increasing the presence of uniformed police would be a useful first step in improving neighborhood park safety.
“(The NYPD and PEP) cannot leave the parks barren, which is what they’re doing now,” he says.
Vallone added in an interview with The Crime Report that during the summer the absence of uniformed officers leaves unchecked many “quality-of-life” crimes, such as littering, loud radios, illegal dumping and barbequing—and thus establishes a climate of disrespect for the law.
“Parks absolutely get worse if people continue these actions without punishment,” he says.
Nevertheless, more cuts appear to be looming. According to a report presented to a City Council budget hearing last year, the Parks Department proposed a further 15 per cent cut in the seasonal staff budget, including PEP officers.
“It is likely that this action would affect overall park cleanliness, maintenance and safety in the coming months and years,” the report concedes.


Private Funding
But in this city’s complicated politics, not all parks are treated equally.
With assistance from private donors, the Parks Department has actually been able to increase the numbers of PEP officers in parks that are operated by private non-profit trusts.
The Hudson River Park and Battery Park, a broad greenbelt stretching from the tip of lower Manhattan to midtown frequented by bikers and strollers, has approximately 27 PEP officers on duty at all times—thanks to grants from the Hudson River Park Trust and the Battery Park Authority, which operate the two parks.
In comparison, Bronx—with a population of over 1.3 million alone—has just five PEP officers to cover all of its recreational facilities.
Such disparities rankle some officials as well as residents in communities who do not have the clout to attract private support for their parks.
“We all pay taxes, so we should have equal protection,” says Joe Puelo.
Most park crime rarely gets headlines—keeping intact the city’s largely well-deserved reputation as one of the country’s safest cities—but the failure to focus city resources and attention on neighborhood concerns about park safety can sometimes produce embarrassing moments.
Last summer, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined other officials to celebrate the re-opening of the McCarren Park Pool, a long-popular gathering place for generations of New Yorkers living in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg and Greenpoint sections.
The $50 million renovation project “will help return the pool and the park to their place at the center of community life for residents,” the mayor boasted.
But within days, a series of violent incidents involving teenagers turned the new facility into an embarrassment.
An angry mayor lashed back: “We will not tolerate this. We’re just not going to tolerate it.”
By the end of the summer, additional policing had helped restore calm.
Nevertheless, many New Yorkers continue to wonder how safe their neighborhood playgrounds and parks will be when warm weather rolls around again next year.
Attiyya Anthony is a staff writer for The Crime Report. She welcomes comments from readers.

When Systems Fail-Good People Lose

The Duluth Police Department has made it clear that preventing and solving property crimes is a priority.  Currently, many of our property crimes are committed by heroin and prescription drug users.  The abusers are desperate to find something of value to help them pay for their next "fix."  Many are desperate and always on the lookout for an opportunity to steal something of value. We have been working to increase public awareness and educate people on how not to become a victim.

It was extremely frustrating for us when we discovered last week's "Property Crimes Person of the Week" - that had been arrested and lodged at the County Jail Friday was released on minimal bail a day later.  This was a person our officers felt was very important to get off the street as she is single handily raising our crime rate.  To make matters worse, this chronic cell phone thief was back  stealing peoples phones shortly after bailing out of jail. 
 

Here is a blog on the increasing rise in cell phone thefts
http://thedroidguy.com/2012/10/numbers-of-stolen-cell-phones-growing-fast-around-the-country/

Here's our press release
http://www.duluthmn.gov/press_releases/templates/display.cfm?id=2009

 

2012 Bike Patrol Stats

All but a few of our bikes are put away for the season.  Bike patrol is an integral part of our policing plan and they make a difference...Here are our stats to date for 2012.

 

Miles - 1915

Hrs on bike - 967

Number of citizen contacts - 3662

Custodial Arrests - 73

Felony Arrests - 10

Citations - 253

Number to dtx - 59

Traffic stops on bike - 43

 

If any media folks want to do a story on our bike program give PIO Jim Hansen a call or text.

Video Cameras Downtown

WDIO did a nice story on our new video cameras downtown.  Here is the link.

http://www.wdio.com/article/stories/S2805730.shtml?cat=10335

National Report: Violent Crime Rises Sharply

While we saw a few violent crimes last weekend, our violent crime rates remain relatively flat.  When you have low numbers of violent crime as we do in Duluth, a couple of incidents can skew your numbers.  Here is a news story from the national level on violent crime.

 

Report: Violent crime rises sharply, reversing trend

Kevin Johnson, USA TODAYShare

45 Comment

A new federal survey shows violent crime increased last year.(Photo: AP file photo)

11:54PM EDT October 17. 2012 - WASHINGTON — The violent crime rate went up 17% last year, ending a general decline in violence that began nearly 20 years ago, according to a new federal survey of crime victims.

The Justice Department's National Crime Victimization Survey also found an 11% increase in the rate of property crimes, including household burglaries and car theft.

The survey represents a sharp departure from recent years and a preliminary report produced earlier this year by the FBI, which found that violent crime had declined by 4% during the first six months of 2011.
The final FBI Uniform Crime Report, which collects data from police departments across the country, is expected out later this month.

The victimization survey attributed the entire increase in 2011 to a 22% jump in the number of serious and simple assaults, according to the review.
Criminal justice analysts, while noting a substantial increase in assaults, said it was too early to determine whether the 2011 jump represented an anomaly or signaled a turnaround in the sustained decline in violent crime.
"I wouldn't make much out of it,'' said University of Maryland criminologist Charles Wellford. "One year does not make a trend, and these institutional measures (the Justice survey and the FBI crime report) are best at measuring trends.''
Wellford said the methodological differences between the Justice survey and the FBI reports may have some bearing on the recent survey's findings.
Specifically, the survey does not track the crimes of homicide and arson, while the FBI report does not track simple assaults (those not involving weapons or serious injury) in its annual reviews of major crimes.
Carnegie Mellon University criminologist Alfred Blumstein suggested that because there was little or no change in other violent crimes in the survey, the surge in assaults could be due to deeper probing by survey interviewers.
He said robbery, which is one of the most likely crimes to be reported by victims, declined by 2%, according to the survey.
"I think it is too early to say what is going on exactly,'' Blumstein said. "I think we should wait for the results of the (FBI report later this month). If that tracks what the survey is showing, then I would it would represent a flag that we need to investigate.''
The Justice Department said in a statement that there was "no evidence to suggest'' that changes in victim interviewing tactics prompted the sudden increase in assault reports.
"The data collection process and questionnaire has been generally the same since 1993, and no substantive changes occurred during the 2010-2011 period,'' the Justice statement said.E

Good News on Area Jobs

I have seen a fair amount of research on crime and the connection to lack of employment.  I believe this is great news for our area.  There are some great things happening in our City and I am optimistic 2013 is going to be a great year.

Here are details from KBJR

Duluth Metro Area Gains Over 2,000 Jobs in September

By KBJR News 1

Duluth Metro Area Gains Over 2,000 Jobs in September

October 18, 2012Updated Oct 18, 2012 at 10:40 AM CDTDuluth, MN (Northland's NewsCenter) --- Good news on the jobs front for the Duluth area with a 1.8% increase in jobs from August to September.
Jobs numbers released on Thursday from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) shows that the Duluth region gained 2,200 jobs in September.

• Job numbers in September 2012 are even up 0.3% from last year in September.

Normally, the month of September offers good job news to the region because of the return of school and universities, but this year the boost was greater than usual.
Private sector employers in General Merchandise Stores, Transportation and Warehousing, Education and Health also gained jobs in September.
September was the first time since June 2011 when the year to year job numbers were in positive territory for the region.
Private sector jobs overall fell in September, as they typically due with the end of the summer tourism and construction seasons, but the job loss was the smallest since September, 1995.
Statewide, Minnesota employers added 5,900 jobs in September. DEED said the unemployment rate dropped 0.1% to a seasonally adjusted 5.8%, well below the U.S. rate of 7.8% in September.
Local area unemployment rates for the region will be released on Tuesday.
Posted to the web by Krista Burns

On Duty

After the morning managers meeting at City Hall yesterday I walked to my work car that was parked on 4th Avenue West and noticed a new large crease up the side door.  The damage was very fresh and probably will total over $2,000.   I take good care of my assigned car and watch it closely.  There wasn't a note left on the car and no one was around waiting to tell me they are the culprits.  I kicked into cop mode and began investigating.  It appeared a vehicle was backing from the loading docks at City Hall and backed across 4th Avenue West into my car. 

I began asking City Hall maintenance staff if they had seen any vehicles leave the loading area recently.  They hadn't.  There is a camera at the old police desk that covers the entry door off of the Avenue.  I had I.T. pull the video for me to watch.  I checked with contractors working in City Hall.  Other than a UPS and coffee delivery there was a local supply company that had been there.  And then the golden key of information.  Our parking desk had a good thinking St. Louis County employee stop and gives his card saying he had witnessed the accident, but the witness only saw that it was a white delivery van.  The witness didn’t catch the plate or name of the company on the truck.  He described the truck and explained the driver stopped after he hit my car, parked and walked into the 4th Avenue doors.  The witness thought he came back inside reported the accident.  So I would have him on video! 

On a chance I called the delivery company's office and asked for the name and number of the person doing the deliveries to City Hall.   They provided me his name and cell number.  I called him and identified myself and asked what happened on the avenue.  He immediately confessed and said he was in a hurry and was going to return to the woman's car he hit later.  Keep in mind this was more than an hour after he hit my car. 

I don't believe he was going to return......My sincere gratitude goes to a witness who cared enough to stop in and provide valuable information to help me solve the hit and run.

 Use of Force

After the hit and run investigation I drove down to Michigan Street and at 1st Avenue West where I saw a drug deal go down.  In full uniform, I jumped out of my car and three of the miscreants quickly left and I dealt with the guy with the pipe and drugs.  He was obviously high and did not want to give me his pipe or drugs he was holding.  He began backing away from me and as I grabbed on to him he took a swipe at me that I was able to avoid.  I pulled out my pepper spray and ordered him to stop pulling away at which time he took another swipe at me.  I gave him a quick shot of pepper spray to his eyes and I was able to get him under control and cuff him up.  He had a fair amount of drugs on him and they were obviously affecting his ability to make good decisions. 

As I was writing out a ticket for him I realized he and I were born a few days apart.  It was obvious to me his lifestyle had taken a toll on his appearance.  I would have put him at about 8 years older than he was.  He was transported home and released with his ticket to appear in court.

This incident was a good reminder for me of how quickly situations can escalate and the need for the use of force in some situations.  Even though I was well within our policies and procedures, I realized what our officers are likely feeling because of our recent excessive force case.  As I was struggling with this guy I remember thinking, “I wonder what the people around me are thinking I am doing?"   Keeping our community safe is tough and complicated job.   I have tremendous respect for the job our police officers have. 

Back from Vacation

I was gone on vacation for the last two weeks.  It was the first time I have been gone that long since 2004 and the first time I was disconnected from a Blackberry since 2006.  Going from being on call and connected 24/7 for six years to floating around in a boat in the middle of no where with out phone, email and Internet took a few days of adjustment.  Needless to say with all that transpired while I was gone my time has been consumed with work since returning Friday.
My vacation is a very distant memory.