Thursday, December 9, 2010

"POP' GO THE BAD GUYS

New Albany Police Chief Todd Bailey held a meeting last night at the New Albany Public Library which was well attended. There were members of a couple of neighborhood associations and other interested citizens. We all came away with a feeling of hope for our fair city. Although the program will begin in the SEJ neighborhood, the whole city will be covered. And other neighborhoods are scheduled to be part of the POP plan also.

Chief Bailey began by saying that he was a native of New Albany who lives on Elm St. with his family. He also expressed a great concern for the community. He has only been chief for eight weeks but he is eager to make changes.

The police force will be working in a different way from now on. They will be pro-active instead of reactive, and will also be ready and willing to listen to our concerns. The new plan is called "Problem Oriented Policing" or "POP".

There was also a slide presentation with information which is listed below:
  • New policing concept designed to attack crime in problems areas of town.
  • Replaces outdated process of simply responding to crime in the community.
  • Will deal with quality of life issues such as loud music, code issues, juvenile problems, vandalism, thefts, graffiti and drug and alcohol matters.
  • "POP' works hand in hand with "Intelligence Oriented Policing".
  • Interviewing known criminals and analyzing data to pinpoint trouble and to direct strategy.
  • We will seek your input and suggestions regarding some of the problems to solve.
  • Police personnel will engage in "POP" activities daily beginning Jan. 1, 2011.
  • Our Night Shift will implement the program with tactical operations in the SE Jones area and surrounding areas.
  • Additional community problem areas and problem topics will be immediately addressed.
  • ZERO TOLERANCE

This is just a part of the information on the slides. They went on to ask everyone to get involved and join neighborhood watch groups, which will be re-instated. He also gave NAPD contact information.

  • Emergency 911
  • Non-Emergency Dispatch 944-6411
  • Non-Emergency Administration 948-5300
  • CRIME LINE 948-NAPD (6273)

The crime line is for callers to leave tips, and they do not have to give their name, but it is preferable to identify yourself and be a witness in court if necessary.

The police also have a Facebook page and will soon have twitter and a web page.

Chief Bailey thinks that things don't need to be done a certain way just because that's the way things have always been done.

Building Commissioner David Brewer was also present and he is eager to make changes also. He said the previous Code Enforcement Officer only had the authority to send letters to offenders. The city council has approved the hiring of another code enforcement officer, one to handle problems in the office and another to be out looking for violations. He promised that from now on issues will be taken care of instead of just sending letters.

As I said earlier, the people in attendance were excited about making New Albany safe again. Everyone was asked to complete a short questionnaire listing problems in their neighborhood and asked to participate watch groups. I encourage everyone to help with this endeavor.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks Shirley for the post. I was unable to attend. It sounds like the new Chief has some great ideas with new approaches. I hope it works. Was there any mention if officers will now be issuing tickets for parking violations? Currently this is handled by the parking division which operates only during day time hours. Many parking violations occur in the evenings.

Anonymous said...

What a suck up you are, Shirley.

shirley baird said...

No parking tickets were not mentioned. But if you call the police dept administration line I'm sure someone could tell you.

Thanks for your support of my blog.

Anonymous said...

What a suck up you are, Shirley.

Anon Grump,

You might feel better with exercise, sunlight, a better diet or friends.

Regards,
Anon Happy

The New Albanian said...

Thanks for the report.

Anonymous said...

I like how he said code enforcement would be a big help, duh, haven't we been saying that for years????

shirley baird said...

Anon 3:09 Code enforcement has alway been "teethless". He plans to do more to punish people than just sent letters.

I don't know all of the details because he did not speak that long but he said if anyone calls his office they can learn more.

RememberCharlemagne said...

Police Chief Bailey's plan will need citizens’ help if we wish to see results.

Crime has been an issue my wife and I talk about as one reason we would leave New Albany. I hope this is the beginning where that will change.

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday tooo Susan Johnson. Hope your day was special.

The New Albanian said...

It just goes to show that with Hoptimus, more is always possible.

(no tolls, no trolls)

Anonymous said...

cfa is the realy satire. she cracks me up.

shirley baird said...

Readers,

I am truly sorry about the comments which had to be deleted. I have been busy all day and did not have time to read the blog.

Once again, I have been forced to use comment moderation because some scumbags have nothing better to do that ruin things for everyone else.

I you enjoy writing such trash, why don't you open your own blog? Oh that's right, it would be too much trouble and besides nobody would read your filth.

Anonymous said...

Shirley, I like being able to read your reports and comments without having to scroll through all the filth and slander. Thank you and keep up the good work!

Anonymous said...

Shirley, I'd like to thank you for your posts too. They are timely and include everything important to know.

I'd also like to thank you for allowing anonymous comments. Because you allow this, and because I know Roger Baylor reads this, I'm going to comment on HIS blog here.

I can't put my name down because I am a public school teacher and I belong to the union. I do not need people picking on me at school (not many would, but some people with the power would find some way to punish me). Also, I don't want my name to become associated with union matters. I teach students. They do not need to know how frustrating it is for me, personally, in my job. It is only helpful for them to know that teachers struggle with these things.

Roger Baylor rants about Ed Clere DAILY. I'm really sick of it. People point this out to me at work--teachers have been onto the union's and the Democrat party's efforts to claim that Ed Clere is against them. The union has softened on this, thank goodness.

Roger Baylor and his friend Jeff Gillenwater have not. They post the most caustic stuff about Ed Clere every day and many teachers are getting VERY angry about it. Frankly, Roger Baylor knows precious little about teachers or the union.

I am a public school teacher AND union member. For the record, neither I nor at least 40 or so of my colleagues that I've talked with about this have EVER heard Ed Clere say ANYTHING against the union. Not a single thing. And we've talked with Rep. Clere MANY times about a variety of issues.

Why am I saying this? Because of a message one of my fellow teachers sent me with a link to Baylor's blog. Here's what Jeff Gillenwater wrote:

"Though it's become commonplace for the likes of State Representative Ed Clere and State Education Superintendent Tony Bennett to blast teachers unions for exhibiting behavior strikingly similar to their own..."

In the first place, Ed Clere doesn't ever act like the union. In the second place, Ed Clere has NEVER, NOT ONCE blasted the union. Even when they treated him like trash.

We all knew that the only reason they supported Gibson is that Gibson knows practically nothing about education (I heard about the interview), and that they thought he'd be a "yes man" for what they want. That's all.

THIS is why we voted for Ed Clere. We KNOW he'll do whatever's right, even if it's painful sometimes, for the greater good. And it's about time someone did.

The friend who sent me that blog link was looking for a teacher brave enough to put name to paper and write to the Tribune. I'm afraid I cannot. But I wanted to say somewhere that we're sick and tired of reading Baylor's tirades against Ed Clere, a man who is no coward and who will do his best for the people whether it's the teachers union or any other issue.

Anonymous said...

Just saw on NA Confidential that Roger thinks he's being "ravaged" by the teacher who wrote in, so I came here to check it out. It sounds more like an endorsement of Ed Clere than any ravaging of Roger. ~yawn~

Ed Clere is everything the union teacher said and more. Thanks for allowing this post.

You have a great blog, Shirley! I like reading real news and not opinions. I'll be bookmarking this blog from now on!

The New Albanian said...

Not at all. I merely provided him/her with equal time at a blogspot where people actually visit in appreciable numbers.

You're quite welcome.

Who's going to protest tolls at the Muhammad Ali Center this afternoon?

Anonymous said...

The Housing Authority tried to shut the public up and sit them down and not let them tape meetings. A certain taxpayer would walk up and place the tape recorder on the desks. If I remember correctly it was illegal for the Authority to say public could not tape meetings, etc. Big brouhaha over those issues. Can the school board be sued for illegal meetings by shutting the public up and shutting them down? I would think so. Do they get Federal monies? If so, they better watch out. WE worked hard to get an elected school board and to get the politics out of the schools. Looks like politics are alive and well.

shirley baird said...

I want to thank eveyone for posting without having to resort to 4 letter words. Intelligent people don't have to resort to trash talk.

It's great when people can carry on a real discussion. That has always been the intention of this blog, for people to have a place to discuss ideas, even if they disagree with myself or other readers.

As to the recording of meetings. I agree that legally a citizen should be able to record a public meeting. The only problem is having a place to air the videos once they are made, unless they are only intended for private viewing.

I wish the School Board would air all of the council, school board, planning commission, etc. meetings on channel 25. Many times these meetings are held during the day when people are working. This seems more educational than some of the programming we have now.

The New Albanian said...

Seems to me that the problem is when the cable monopoly was first awarded, what's now Insight was permitted by a long-ago city council to cover its public access obligation with WNAS, and neither WNAS nor the school corp has any desire to immerse its station in the ceaseless political wars of NA. Schoolcorp obviously has political issues of its own.

I'm no fan of schoolcorp, but I believe this is an matter pertaining to cable monopolies and public access.

Anonymous said...

Here's a question: Can they really tell people they cannot record a public meeting without approval from the superintendent 5 days in advance? Isn't that illegal? Does anyone know?

Anonymous said...

It seems awful funny but NAHS plays Jedd. council meetings on the weekends.

Where is Valla Ann when we need her?

Anonymous said...

cable monopolies, oil monopolies, health provider monopolies, insurance monopolies, and a public who seems to care less