The APD Chief’s Forum members are sponsoring a City Council Candidate Forum to show Councilmembers and Candidates that crime is a major issue in our neighborhoods. Details follow:
WHAT: Crime and Safety Issues City Council Candidates’ Forum
WHERE: City Council Chambers, 301 W. 2nd St., free underground parking!
WHEN: Thursday, May 1, 2008 from 6:30 pm to 8 pm
The volunteer members of the Austin Police Chief’s Forum, a group that represents neighborhoods in all of the APD Patrol Sectors city-wide, request your participation. This will be an historic event because we believe there has never been a citizen-led, neighborhood-based Council Candidate Forum strictly focused on Crime and Safety Issues, usually only the law enforcement associations and their unions hold such events. Seven Chief’s Forum members are serving on the organizing committee for this event with Linda Yeatts and Lori C-Renteria volunteering as co-coordinators. We need to pack the City Council Chambers, so please invite others.
The Forum will begin with a short overview and PowerPoint presentation beginning at 6:30 pm to provide all the candidates and the media “the neighborhoods’ perspectives on crime and safety issues” especially regarding hot spot enforcement, equitable resource allocation, and collaborative community policing initiatives. A select panel will ask questions of the candidates in each race. We have asked the candidates for short written responses to 16 questions in three major issue areas: 1) traffic safety and congestion in neighborhoods, 2) priorities and equitable distribution of enforcement tools to reduce the number of “hot spot crime areas” in central city neighborhoods, and 3) individual rights, civil rights and the victimization of neighborhoods.
For more information, contact Lori C-Renteria, Central East Representative on APD Chief’s Forum at 478-6770 or lorirenteria@grandecom.net
Here are the questions sent to each candidate and will be discussed at the event.
Issue One: Traffic safety and congestion in neighborhoods. As Austin’s inner-city neighborhoods get more density, traffic and parking have become major public safety issues for residents and small, neighborhood-based businesses. Congestion on major artilleries, core transit corridors, and highways increases cut-through traffic and speeding in our neighborhoods. The City’s effort to increase density by offering developers incentives like reductions in the number of parking spaces required is increasing competition for free parking spaces used by our existing small, local businesses and nearby residents who need to use off-street parking for personal vehicles. Police and other emergency vehicles are having a difficult time getting to emergencies because there is so much overflow parking on our residential streets. Illegal parking, blocked driveways, and increased overnight truck parking, even burglary of vehicles in residential areas is a low priority for Austin police but is a major public safety concern in neighborhoods. Accidents between vehicles, bikes and pedestrians is getting worse not better as we densify the city core.
How will you improve the following traffic-related concerns?
* Enforcement of speed limits on neighborhood streets especially near
schools and other high pedestrian destinations.* Policies and programs to discourage overflow parking from area businesses
onto residential streets.* Solicitation between pedestrians and motor vehicles at our intersections
for the purpose of fundraising, drug dealing, and prostitution.* The use of cameras to enforce traffic laws.
* Accidents between vehicles, pedestrians, and bicycles.
* If you had to pick just one of these specific concerns to focus on which
would it be and what specifically would you do?Issue Two: Priorities and Equitable Distribution of Enforcement Tools to Reduce the number of “Crime Hot Spots” in central city neighborhoods. While we understand and appreciate Chief Acevedo’s reorganization of special units like Street Response and using a new software to get real-time crime stats to our Area Commanders to combat crime in long-standing “hot spots” and more quickly identify new crime trends in our neighborhoods, we are generally unconvinced that these efforts alone will have much impact. We believe we need more police officers on the street — sooner than later — and that until existing ‘hot spots’ in less affluent neighborhoods are eliminated, there should be a re-distribution of existing officers to these areas. We also believe that the neighborhoods hosting ‘hot spots’ deserve additional code enforcement inspectors, deserve more attention to land use and zoning decisions that concentrate certain undesirable uses that attract crime in these neighborhoods, and deserve more accountability from private businesses, non-profits, and agencies that operate programs in our neighborhoods that attract clients with severe addiction problems, mental illnesses, and criminal histories who get services then hang-out all day in our neighborhoods. Criminals and negligent property owners/business operators seem to have more rights than law-abiding citizens. Organized neighborhood and business groups have little standing in city processes that enforce laws, codes and ordinances.
What are you going to do to address the needs and concerns in the following
areas?* More equitable distribution of police and code enforcement officers in
high crime areas.* Land use changes and variances granted by Council to private,
adult-oriented businesses and social services and special-needs housing
programs for high-risk populations from concentrating east of I-35 where
land is cheaper to ensure equitable distribution of these types of uses to
other parts of town.* Programs and policies to empower citizens and groups in the enforcement
process and that recognize that ‘a neighborhood’ can be a victim.* If you had to pick just one of these specific concerns to focus on which
would it be and what specifically would you do?Issue Three: Individual Rights vs Civil Rights. There has been an unwritten policy in Austin that to protect police officers from civil rights lawsuits by individuals ticketed or arrested for nuisance crimes that the City must post public signs warning people that certain activities are illegal like open containers of alcohol in certain zones, drug and weapon-free zones around child-serving facilities, or youth curfew zones. This fair warning policy hinders a quick response by officers to enforce existing laws. Because of a shortage of police officers, increasingly across America, policy makers have enacted legislation to allow individuals to use deadly force to protect themselves, their families, and their property by expanding use of concealed gun carry permits and “Castle Laws.” Criminals have increased use of door-to-door scams to unscrupulously collect money from residents or to scope your home or business for a future burglary while free speech advocates claim any regulation of door-to-door solicitation prohibits political organizing, charity fundraising, and helping poor and hungry individuals who have no other choice but to beg at our doorsteps.
What are you going to do to address the needs and concerns in the following
areas?* Balancing the rights of the ignorant who create nuisances in our
neighborhoods to have several warnings before they can be ticketed or
arrested vs the rights of neighborhood-based groups and individuals to a
safe and clean environment.* Increasing the enforcement around and enhancing penalties during
prosecution for violations in drug and weapon-free zones near child-serving
facilities.* Policies regarding restrictions on use of city property by 2nd Amendment
Advocates and not allowing them on city property with weapons when they have
a valid concealed gun-carry permit.* Policies restricting door-to-door solicitation including requiring
individuals, groups and businesses to register, limiting the hours
door-to-door solicitation is allowed, and creating and enforcing penalties
that will discourage unscrupulous operators and criminals from coming onto
our private property and knocking on our doors.* Policies regarding release of public information to private individuals
and groups related to crime and public safety statistics, enforcement
actions, and strategic planning by Austin Police and other city departments
responsible for the safety and cleanliness of our neighborhoods.* If you had to pick just one of these specific concerns to focus on which
would it be and what specifically would you do?
