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City of Lincoln Urban Development Department Mayor's Neighborhood Roundtable Meeting Agenda and Summary April 2008

Chairperson Tracy Corr called the meeting to order at 5:35 P.M., Thursday, April 10, 2008, in the Mayor's Conference Room, County/City Building, Lincoln, Nebraska. Twenty-seven attended.

WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS
Ms. Corr opened the meeting and asked the participants to introduce themselves. A sign-in sheet was provided for check-in.

Tracy mentioned the Home Ownership Meeting in the Witherbee neighborhood and passed out a flyer. Shawn Ryba mentioned a Lincoln Policy Network meeting, Tuesday, April 15, 2008, 5:30 P. M., United Methodist Church, 2723 North 50th Street. Harry Haefer passed out the 2008 Household Hazardous Waste Collections Schedule.

Rick Noyes mentioned a proposed change to the weed ordinance to change the reportable height from 6 inches to 12 inches. The Roundtable discussed it briefly. Chairperson Corr asked for an indication of approval or disapproval. The Roundtable generally disapproved.

MAYOR'S COMMENTS
Mayor Beutler passed out the news release announcing the online survey and upcoming town hall meetings regarding the budget. He is opening the budget process to the public. The Mayor encouraged the Roundtable to be involved in the budget process through these forums that will provide additional depth and breadth to the scientific survey. He emphasized the importance of stating your viewpoint as the budget is in the early formation process. The survey can be taken online. The survey is also on the City's Website home page -- just select "City Budget Survey" from the box in the center of the page. This takes you to the news release which includes the option to "take the online survey."

NEIGHBORHOOD CRIME REPORT AND PLAN -- POLICE CHIEF TOM CASADY
Lincoln Police Chief Tom Casady spoke about the Stronger, Safer Neighborhoods Initiative. For a long time, he has been concerned about the way crime, disorder and other kinds of social ills have been moving in the city. Overall crime is down -- at the same rate as 1985. The chief is concerned about how crime is concentrating into smaller and smaller areas as shown by the data. Crime has become more concentrated primarily in the oldest neighborhoods (although not exclusively) -- part of Everett and Near South, part of University Place, part of College View and so forth. The most dangerous hot spot in the city is 14th and O Streets. It is dramatically different based on time of day and on activity. Crime has a spatial component, a temporal component, and a behavioral component. Collapsing problem areas into smaller and smaller geographic areas is problematic because

1. those neighborhoods have other kinds of problems, and
2. critical mass.

The problem is not static. It changes over time and that change can be dramatic. Twenty years ago, Arnold Heights had many crimes, social ills, and physical decay in the neighborhood, but it has changed remarkably -- economically, socially, and from a crime standpoint. Fifteen years ago, the police used a variety of crime-fighting strategies to drive crime down in the area of 22nd - 27th and Vine - Y Streets. Today, that area is not a problem. In 1994, the police responded to dozens and dozens of calls to a couple of apartment complexes. Last year, those complexes generated seven calls, but four were medical emergencies. The best example of the dynamic nature of critical mass is the area Chief Casady patrolled when he was a rookie police officer in the summer of 1974. This area had many dilapidated properties, much public intoxication, vagrancy, litter, graffiti, and panhandling. The primary police activity was shagging vagrants out of doorways and stairwells. That neighborhood today is the first place you would take a visitor to show off Lincoln -- the Haymarket.

Displacement (moving bad actors away from one another) reduces critical mass. Having bad actors in a less comfortable location reduces the impact of their ability to function criminally. Focusing on bad actors teaches them the police are present and will act against criminal behavior. This policing activity can change behavior, or at least can move the bad actor away perhaps even out of the community. The disadvantage of displacement is moving bad actors into a more vulnerable neighborhood. A vulnerable neighborhood might be described as lacking stakeholders (long-term tenants, good landlords, good businesses, a community center, and a committed church).

The Lincoln Police Department has been concerned about not allowing neighborhoods to reach a tipping point after which it becomes very difficult to pull them back. One of the most obvious neighborhoods (but not the only one) is the area immediately south of downtown -- part of the Everett neighborhood and part of the Near South neighborhood. The Stronger, Safer Neighborhood Initiative is a great project to strategically apply limited resources where the need is the greatest and the potential is the greatest. This initiative focuses on the area A - G and 9th - 17th Streets.

The police have collected much data to see what is happening. The data has identified properties where repeat police incidents have occurred. However, caution is in order. The number of incidents means absolutely nothing unless accompanied by a deeper look at the types of incidents and what is actually happening. Maps mean absolutely nothing unless understood in light of the "on-the-ground" phenomenon. For example, 14th & O Streets: without understanding what exists and what happens at that location, a citizen might incorrectly perceive this location is terrible. Understanding what happens on the ground, the citizen might think this location is great except during the short time period between 1:00 and 1:30 A.M. Also, the strategies used to deal with and to deploy would be dramatically different. Twenty calls to a given site do not necessarily mean anything. It could mean a person with a medical condition or a watchful neighbor calling about suspicious activity. In, and of, itself the number means nothing without in-depth analysis.

The police have deeply analyzed this data in this area looking at the exact kinds of incidents where multiple police calls happen. From 2001 to 2007, data collection covers a variety of key indicator crimes: burglaries, narcotic arrests, assaults, and larceny from an auto. The police department has created a reasonable crime index tracking by quarter to see trends and patterns. The group of crimes selected for internal use are:

1. crimes not subject to dramatic changes or fluctuations in citizens' willingness to report, and
2. crimes that more police effort will not particularly affect.

Two of the most important indicators are change in physical environment (litter, graffiti, housing code violations, condition of housing) and social changes. The police will partner with agencies like Free to Grow, NeighborWorks-Lincoln, the Everett and the Near South Neighborhood Associations to help collect this new data. Collection of data on police events happens in the ordinary course of business in huge volumes, but a similar data source for condition of housing, or occupancy rate, or average length of tenancy does not currently exist. Chief Casady admits he is a data hound, so his department does not act just on an article of faith. He wants to bring data to bear to determine whether the police are having an impact. Data is the only means to know whether limited resources are strategically applied well or whether strategies need to change. The chief displayed a map of the area on which graduated red dots showed the number of police dispatches to a location. A green box shows the blocks where 26 police officers pay particular attention. These officers' assigned area ranges from 27th to SW 40th Streets, downtown to South Street, much larger than this 42-block area. Police managers want these officers to focus on their block when not otherwise conducting police business.

A main indicator of the success of this initiative will be whether structural changes occur instead of changes that simply move crime around on the map. Displacement is a good thing and a really good argument can be made that displacement of crime and disorder actually is an achievement even if volume is not decreased. However, reducing overall volume is even better. Making structural changes achieves reduction, not just displacement. The Lincoln Police Department is a very good example. Twenty years ago, we ran on calls. Someone called the police, and we investigated your burglary. Today, we think about what we can do to stop the burglaries from happening any more -- not just investigating the one we have, but stopping them from happening. The police have become very good at this activity because we have made major structural changes in the Lincoln Police Department that have dramatically enhanced our ability to impact problems not just by moving them, but by really reducing their severity. Those internal structural changes are a reason for Lincoln's declining crime rate over the past 30 years. The department is committed to reduction and structural changes. LPD still needs structural change in other places. Limited resources must be used strategically.

An area of focus is landlords: identify landlords of properties experiencing problems, determine why those properties have problems, and remedy them. The chief thinks the public and private sectors can do a much better job to address the situation. He cited the example of a duplex built in 2004 on a very quiet street that had 76 police calls for disturbances and wild parties during 2006. The last police call to that address was December 29, 2006. The property owner finally decided he would sell. The new owners repaired the property and leased to new tenants. Structural change means long-term neighborhood change.

LPD maintains a resource for landlords and owners to make free, or inexpensive, background checks on the City's Web site.

Chief Casady fielded questions and comments from the Roundtable.

SET APRIL AGENDA
The next meeting of the Mayor's Neighborhood Roundtable is scheduled for May 8, 2008, 5:30 p.m., in the Mayor's Conference Room, County/City Building, 555 South 10th Street, 2nd floor. The May agenda will include a presentation on street trees.

ADJOURN
There being no other business, the meeting adjourned at 6:33 p.m.

Submitted by: David G. Ensign
Urban Development Department

Urban Development Community Development Division Mayor's Neighborhood Roundtable