The Observation Deck

I don't think so but I can be convinced.

I guess the first step is to separate fact from fiction regarding:

Current crime rates versus crime rates in past years.

Affect of police manpower on crime rates.

Affect of policing strategies on crime rates.

Do more bodies equal better protection?

What opportunity costs are there in choosing more police versus more development?

Is that a false choice?

Can the money for more policing be found in the fire department overtime budget? How much is spent on fire department overtime?

The first step I think is reliable crime statistics. Is there really an increase in crime? Does anyone have the numbers?

Bill Call wrote:I don't think so but I can be convinced.The first step I think is reliable crime statistics. Is there really an increase in crime? Does anyone have the numbers?

Bill


I was a doubter, not any longer.

The real question is will the city pay $200 per $100,000 to get on top of the problem.

Get a scanner take to the street see for yourself. The cheap way would be block walks, but to date only three people have volunteered for that outside of the LO Group that takes to the streets about three times a week.



As we enter kids flee.



Evidence from the scene of the crime.



More evidence as the kids left so fast they left clothes behind.



More evidence, new bike being stripped and broken. As we waited in the dark the kids started to return. The FLASH! got them and off they went screaming, "It's the Pole-eeeece."

.

Jim O'Bryan wrote: Get a scanner take to the street see for yourself.

People get killed doing that. That's what the police are for.

Jim O'Bryan wrote: More evidence, new bike being stripped and broken.

Probably the same, um, thugs that stole my sons (locked) bike from the HS. Could be the same thugs that walked into the HS last fall unchallenged after hours and rifled through stuff belonging to the sports team there practicing at the time and stole my sons iPod. If I recall correctly, other stuff as well. I wonder if it's the same thugs that did the robbing at Roosevelt with a weapon?

There's a lot more going on people don't know about I bet. I wonder if I could write an app to take a feed from a scanner and spew that to text to a website so people (without a scanner) could see everything going on. Hmmm...

Bill Call wrote: The first step I think is reliable crime statistics

Reliable crime statistics would need to be defined. I don't have a clue, but I would guess reporting methods of the 70's and 80's are different than todays methods and wouldn't be a good comparison.

I think having more police on the streets and/or more of a presence would be a step in the right direction. I would be interested in hearing more about an increase Bill given your outline.

I have a question .. where's the old bravado? The old swagger? When I met my wife here in 1983, I walked on eggshells because the reputation of the Lakewood police was legendary, even for a Parma kid. I got nailed doing 30 in a 25 once. Two police cars did swirling donuts in front of my car to stop me because they were looking for a "blue station wagon" like mine. Too much to keep up with? Parents don't back the police up when kids get busted? Cutbacks? All of the above?

Paul:

When I moved here in 1984, the real estate agent told me (in addition to buying in Avon Lake rather than Lakewood for growth in investment) I would have a driving ticket within one year of living in Lakewood, that the police were vigilant here and that the city had one of the best response times in the country. I told him I’d been driving for fifteen years and never got a ticket. He said you will in Lakewood. And I did, one snowy day, at Bunts and Detroit, when the light changed and I ran it, not wanting to stop suddenly for fear of sliding and swerving into a bus.

I do not see the issue as a case of police bravado and swagger, but simply presence and pro-active manpower, which has been overcome by the raw chaotic, criminal, and psychiatric conditions spilling from an underclass that lacks functional ability, jobs, and social safety net now living in Lakewood’s oversupply of apartments.

Let’s face it in 25 years the cash flows and stability that came from corporate and industrial jobs in the regional economy has declined, and Lakewood is now facing the criminal and socio-economic challenges attendant to diminished cash flow states and stability.

Toss in the changes in mortgage underwriting, with no money down mortgages, the will to flee from the social overhead and taxes of a built-out inner ring to exurban sites by those with means. And you will see the young couples that might have started renting to save money for a starter home, perhaps even in Lakewood, can now jump those two steps and land in exurbia out of the box.

Add the de-institutionalization of the mentally challenged that began in the 80s.

Not to mention domestic violence law enforcement requirements, in a land where men often lack jobs.

Talk to the police about domestic violence calls, the time and paperwork involved in this effort, which was not there in 1983.

Much social caseload falls to the police to mop up, as officers attempt to protect and serve.

America is a different landscape, and Cleveland in the de-industrial era will continue to spill raw criminal and psychiatric challenges for inclusion to an inner ring suburb such as Lakewood as attempts to rebuild the core are advanced.

This is the political economy of housing. People generally don't express these matters in public, for fear of upsetting the real estate market into which they will be selling. People place their bets quietly and maintain complicity with the system.

I don't operate that way, won't sit quietly as a great city in a great location is put under pressure by the political economy of housing that would lead to its eventual slaughter.

As the Cleveland Clinic takes up more space, as East Cleveland demolishes residences, inner rings such a Euclid, South Euclid, and Lakewood pick-up the slack of disadvantaged residents who often lack any experience in the suburban norms of 80s.

We ignore these challenges at the city’s peril.

One critical element of economic diversity in a post-industrial economy where males often lack jobs is a police force commensurate with Lakewood’s past.

If Lakewood allows the safety front to slip any further, the city is, in my estimation, cooked.

I believe righting the balance on the police front is the most critical challenge facing the city.

It’s not a pretty message. But the problem is fixable, if we can muster the political determination to launch a proper process to ensure both man-power and community policing strategy.

Sure we can dilly-dally over statistics, quibble over City-Stat and the scientific case for the best way to spend a dollar, but alas the city does not have time to shilly-shally over long term economic development bets.

Some of those bets are being made in Rockport. Check out those streets nearby, the man with the knife trying to hold someone up in Walgreens, in the Medic parking lot, ducking into the complex near South lane.

The punks on bikes riding in from Cleveland to deal drugs at that complex.

Say it loud and proud, Lakewood- a police levy now.

Lakewood's has a great community, history and future, only if the safety and security levels are heightened substantially.

Kenneth Warren

I couldn't agree with Ken more. We are at a crossroads, one not of our making, but one largely thrust upon us by circumstances beyond our borders. As I said before, this could be a very long and depressing summer. It doesn't take too long for even dedicated Lakewood citizens to begin to move elsewhere, depressed by graffiti, uncontrolled vandalism, and public places being taken over by punks and thugs. A small exit stream turns very quickly into a torrent as those invested in the city hope to beat the collapse of a glutted real estate market. The elements of chaos are most comfortable in a climate of lax law enforcement. We cannot afford even that perception.

Jeff

Jeff Endress wrote:I couldn't agree with Ken more. We are at a crossroads, one not of our making, but one largely thrust upon us by circumstances beyond our borders. As I said before, this could be a very long and depressing summer. It doesn't take too long for even dedicated Lakewood citizens to begin to move elsewhere, depressed by graffiti, uncontrolled vandalism, and public places being taken over by punks and thugs. A small exit stream turns very quickly into a torrent as those invested in the city hope to beat the collapse of a glutted real estate market. The elements of chaos are most comfortable in a climate of lax law enforcement. We cannot afford even that perception.

Jeff

I suggested after the FBI Agent was shot that it was a perfect time to pass an emergency police levy. Not only would it have passed because of all the media hype but it would have been a great positive spin for lakewood in the news. Oh well.

Nice post Ken.

Kenneth Warren wrote: If Lakewood allows the safety front to slip any further, the city is, in my estimation, cooked.

Well said.

Like I said a while back on a different thread, these are the people we are building state of the art schools for? I'm still not convinced on that one. I wonder, as the crime continues, if people are going to vote for the next school increase?

Where are the mayoral candidates (or the Mayor) on this post/thread? It would be nice to hear how they are going to deal with the fact that Lakewood is quickly turning into the Cleveland Feagler wrote about a few weeks ago.

There's been about 3670 views on the gay pride week thread and only about 174 on this? I know this is a newer thread, but come on. Do people not see what is happening?

LO has the opportunity to bring this stuff out in the open and notify the public about the crimes and mischief going on that isn't reported/publicized elsewhere. Don't sweep it under the rug.

Like I said in my first post on this thread, I'd like to know more about a possible levy increase for more police given some of the questions Bill raises.

Joe:

Three years ago, when the LO Deck was cranking up, I believed citizens had the power and luxury to assert a social norm, a moral order of reciprocity, a determined expectation, if you will, that residency incentives and increased police manpower could be negotiated to the total good of the city.

I told police officers "When you guys are ready to talk turkey with citizens about a police levy that includes residency incentives, a housing/neighborhood development component, I’ll be there to help lead the charge."

That’s a complex and innovative layer of actions for a city to undertake.

Now, three years later, with criminal punks and chaos-making thugs on the rise, with citizen anxieties grounded in the living ripples of this fearsome shift from safe neighborhood terrain to one of increasing threats, I don’t believe time is any longer on our side. We do not have the luxury to work through a complex and time-consuming process of massing moral pressure and residency incentives for police in an effort to ramp up the safety force and ultimately long-term viability of every single block in Lakewood.

I realize a lack of trust in government can be acutely paralyzing to citizens pressing for bold, decisive action and investment in the police force.

Everybody knows the stories of abuse and extraction of resources without conscience. That’s why a process with the police where an outstanding commitment and expectation for mutual respect, support and accountability for a community policing model is important.

Status quo on the safety front dooms Lakewood, simple as that. We need 30 more street cops.

We need leadership that speaks to the community with authority, insight and transparency, one that can guarantee the police force is managed effectively and that no police resources will be diverted to other needs.

What do the Mayoral candidates have to say?

Must we wait for their playbooks and handlers to figure out how to play LO Deck wild card of a citizen groundswell ready to pay the piper to sweep the city of chaos-making and crush the criminal influx with thirty more street cops.

Do we trust anyone to deliver and sustain the force and safety we would expect these critical and limited resources to purchase?

The safety issue is there, an issue so large no band-aid blandishments from broken windows and no new dollars will do the job.

How can any reasonable candidate who has done any homework or has an ounce of leadership intuition diverge from consenting to the crying need for 30 more street cops?

Let all the candidates converge, then, on this simple fundamental point of police force, long the traditional hallmark differentiator for Lakewood that seems lost in the 21st century.

Let the Mayor and Council commence a fast-track process with adequate and properly informed citizen input, with moral pressure for residency incentives and careful and caring oversight to ensure a levy gets on the ballot by November.

Kenneth Warren

Kenneth Warren wrote:Everybody knows the stories of abuse and extraction of resources without conscience. That’s why a process with the police where an outstanding commitment and expectation for mutual respect, support and accountability for a community policing model is important.

Status quo on the safety front dooms Lakewood, simple as that. We need 30 more street cops.

Translation: Most cities have a bureaucracy in Lakewood the bureaucracy has a City; they use the City's resources like their own private cookie jar.

Until I see the crime statistics for the last five years I will remain on the fence.

Until I see evidence that additional manpower will be properly managed I will remain skeptical of simply adding more bodies.

Until I see some control over fire department overtime I will hesitate to give the City more money.

If the voters agree to give the City $3 million in additional tax dollars for police what will keep the money from evaporating into the general fund? I can see the negotiations now: You can afford 10% raises! Look at all that money!

Does anyone have the numbers? Does anyone care?

Bill:

Let's give the candidates and the force the $3 million challenge to come up with an engagement and execution plan along with guarantees to spend the money of a police levy properly.

Otherwise, I hope you are installing glass and barbed wire and a few liberatian conceal carry marksmen in the sentry outside the fence of your indecision.

If Lakewood citizens, police and politicians can't be aroused to deliver on this challenge, then streets better begin looking into Blackwater Security and other private solutions.

Kenneth Warren
Kenneth Warren

I don't have the numbers....

I did, however read in the Post Police Blotter, beyond the usual drunks, domestic violence, etc, of two Lakewood kids held up at gun point.....
I don't ever recall that appearing in the past.

I don't think I need numbers.

Jeff

Kenneth Warren wrote:Joe:
...
I don’t believe time is any longer on our side.
...
Status quo on the safety front dooms Lakewood, simple as that.
...
We need leadership that speaks to the community with authority
...

Ken, your post directed to me seems to imply somehow I disagree with you. I don't. I agree.

Like I said, Feagler wrote some time ago about white flight and black flight from Cleveland. Whites moving West. Blacks moving East. To get away from crime and thugs. Can anybody honestly tell me that isn't going to happen here with the current conditions?

If it continues the way it is, I'll be putting my house up for sale in two years when the kids graduate HS while I can still get something for my house. I'll head West... in addition, if things keep going downhill, the next two school increases are going to be really tough to swallow.

Kenneth Warren wrote: What do the Mayoral candidates have to say?

That's what I said too.

Kenneth Warren wrote: Must we wait for their playbooks and handlers to figure out how ...

I worry what they will have to say will just be political rhetoric and bs.

Kenneth Warren wrote: How can any reasonable candidate who has done any homework or has an ounce of leadership intuition diverge from consenting to the crying need for 30 more street cops?

Any candidates want to reply to that? Geez, even a Demro drive-by post would be something...

Joe:

Great to be on the same page with you.

Kenneth Warren

While I do not want to live under Marshall Law, it would be nice to see some of the street level b.s. cleaned up. I live just a few blocks from City Hall and see suspicious activity just about everyday. 25MPH is not that hard to enforce. One undercover unit could pretty much take care of the dealers on the corner. Do they really need the money? How would it be spent?
Let's face it the east end of Lakewood is not very fun at night.