HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-22-16 Health and Public SafetyHEALTH & PUBLIC SAFETY FEBRUARY 22, 2016 4:10 P.M.
Committee Members Present: John Voorde, Karen White, Oliver Davis, Jo M. Broden
Other Council Present: Randy Kelly, Gavin Ferlic, Regina Williams - Preston,
Dr. David Varner, Tim Scott
Others Present: Kathleen Cekanski - Farrand, Adriana Rodriguez,
Alkeyna Aldridge, Joseph Molnar
Agenda: Bill 05 -16 — Approving fees for nuisance abatement
Bill 06 -16 — Approving fees for securing and demolishing
Structures
Scott Ruszkowski, SBPD Chief of Police
Councilmember John Voorde, Chairperson of the Health and Public Safety Committee, called
the meeting to order with two bills under consideration.
Both Bills 05 -16 and 06 -16 were requested to be continued by the petitioner. Councilmember
Oliver Davis made a motion to continue both bills to March 14 lb 2016. Councilmember Jo M.
Broden seconded the motion which carried by a voice vote of four (4) ayes.
Council President Tim Scott announced that he wanted to do department head orientation with
the Council members at the appropriate Committees if the agenda is light that week. The first
will be the Chief of Police.
Scott Ruszkowski, SBPD Chief of Police with offices at 701 W. Sample St., gave a presentation
on the state of crime in the City of South Bend to the Committee. The power point he used is on
file with the City Clerk's Office.
The Police is focusing on being absorbed into the neighborhoods they serve not saturating the
neighborhoods and are occupants of the neighborhoods not occupiers. Chief Ruskowski went
into the stats that are seen at their weekly meeting on all crime statistics. The goal of the Police
are to be "Guardians of the Playground" and not warriors or soldiers in a battle. The Police have
estimated that there are approximately five hundred (500) bad people in South Bend who will are
most likely to be involved with violent crime.
Councilmember John Voorde asked how they came to the number of five hundred (500) people.
Chief Ruskowski responed it is a painstaking process but we use data collected and analyzed by
interns from Notre Dame, IT from the City, plus four (4) members of the Violent Crime Impact
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.
Councilmember Dr. David Varner asked when the police focus on what specific area does it look
like the crime migrates to a different part of town or gets eliminated.
Council Ruskowski responded both happen. The crime does migrate out of a focused area but the
crimes do become less frequent. So ten (10) in an immediate area may get pushed out and then
say five (5) calls will happen. The crime may change but the people don't change so the more we
get off the street and help will reduce crime overall.
Councilmember Jo M. Broden asked if there was anyway to recognize these businesses that do
the work of helping these people.
Chief Ruskowski responded that he would send her the list and contacts of every business.
Council President Tim Scott suggested the councilmembers should sign up to do a ride along
with the police because it was eye opening for him.
There being no further business before the Committee, John Voorde adjourned the meeting at
4:40 p.m.
Respectfu mitted,
John Voorde, Chairperson