02-22-16 Health and Public Safety

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Unit who are data mining anything that has to do with firearms and violence and looking at all those cases. The number one priority of the Police is violence regarding firearms. The second.priority is any other type of violence. Some police departments in other cities focus on the small stuff first and that will take care of the bigger problems, but it was the opinion of Chief Ruskowski that that is backwards and you have to address the big things first. What the City has done is finding the individuals who are most likely to be shot, be shot at, or be involved in a shooting. There is about a nine hundred percent (900 %) likelihood that these five hundred (500) people will be involved in a shooting. How the police tries to reach out to these people and change that trajectory is through organizations like Good Will which employ them and give them a chance to succeed in life. The last resort is to arrest someone. The City works with fifty -seven (57) other agencies that are trying to help these people who want to get out of the life they are in and get a job, learn how to write a resume, and get a driver's license. The police tries to track every single type of gun violence. All gun shells found are put into a database that link them all to the right guns. This is helpful when we catch someone using a gun in an illegal fashion we can also show that same gun was used in the various other cases where the police found the same gun shells. Chief Ruszkowski went over the idea of "Micro Hotspots" and how they are used by the police in South Bend. There are certain block by block areas the police have targeted where officers have information down to the very house where crime is more likely to happen. This allows the police to use their resources in the most effective way possible. Councilmember Regina Williams - Preston said she was impressed to hear about the department's proactive attitude towards training and she was excited to report some of this to the people of her district. Councilmember John Voorde asked about how recruitment is going as it has been a challenge lately. Chief Ruskowski responded nationally it is a challenge as well. The police more people from South Bend to join the police in addition to local residents advocating for bright young people to join the police force. There are so many people who talk about what the police need to be doing but they also need to encourage great people to become police officers as well. This needs to be a community effort and without the support of everyone our recruiting numbers are going to be poor. They have in the works some recruiting videos and more interactive things on the website that are more applicable to social networks. Councilmember John Voorde asked if they have fewer police officers than budgeted. Chief Ruskowski responded yes and we are trying to buildup those numbers but we have surprise retirements and all those things come into play.