Police Presence

The decision to include police presence was not made indiscriminately. Over the past few years some of the continuous discussions at the meetings are speeding and vandalism.

How do you stop speeding - stop signs - speed bumps - education - police patrols. Do you have another suggestion?

Police patrols are not perfect - yes they will not give a citation for speeding unless it is life threatening. But just the presence of a police car from time to time may slow some folks down. Can we get police presence during school bus pick up and drop off? That would at least stop school bus speeding. Is that worth your $6.75 year?

The speeders in the community are not limited to teenagers - it includes school buses - construction vehicles - Moms and Dads with kids in the car (a police car will deter those when the police are present).

Can we prevent car break-ins or egg throwing - or open garage pilfering - or other vandalism - maybe not all of it but a police presence for a few hours at a time may help a little. Is it worth $6.75 of your yearly dues to get that presence?

Want to get better protection then lets up the anti to $36,000 a year. About $70 year per home.

Want city protection then annex to Charles Town. About $2,000 year per home or $1,060,000 year dues. You probably will not get better police presence than your $6.75 will buy us.

I am voting for police presence!!!!

Bill Cummings 304-886-9075

I agree with Bill,
We have been a long time resident and found that our neighborhood has become a target for many crimes involving theft, vechicle damage, and property damage, and a hot bed for speeders.
The installation of speed bumps has done nothing to slow down drivers, routinely the just speed up FASTER after the bumps, and being that we live near a crossroad, cars just speed through with no regard to the fact that children are present. And these are homeowners, children of homeowners, and visitors of homeowners that are the biggest speeders.
Clearly residents fail to see the value of a controlled speed residential environment and until each and every one makes it a point to value the community, and address these issues nothing will be done until we install speed cameras that mail out to the registered license plate a $157 speeding ticket.
Gregory

Police will make a big difference only if they will be allowed to write tickets. As it stands right now even if we pay the $3600 for police presense they will not be able to write any tickets for anything other then wreckless driving and DWI. No center line in any of the roads so wreckless driving will be hard to prove. Now obviously if someone is going 20 MPH over the speed limit that is considered wreckelss. So what will that provide us. Some deterrance I agree, but from an enforcement standpoint not much more then we are getting now.

As for the annexation it will be a tax increase, yes, but you are failing to point out that there will be no need to pay for trash pickup or dues. So when you subtract all that out you almost break even and you won't see a difference from what you pay now for everything that you get.

TIM BONGIOVANNI

Can anyone please explain what "police presense" means? Or what are we getting for 3600? Do they come thru once a day? a week? or are they here 24 hours driving around?
Whatever the time frame, who will monitor them to see that we get our moneys worth?
One last question, why can't they give tickets?

Thanks in advance for any information you can provide.

Jeff

Jeff,

At the last meeting when this was decided that same question was asked and here is what the reply was. The police will act as a deterrance for speeders within the community. They will also deter teenagers from hanging around in certain areas at night (just in case they may try to do something illegal). Also, they it could possibally be a quicker response time if something was happening at the time of they are patrolling in the community.

As for the why they can't give tickets. These are private roads and the police have no jurisdiction in our community. They can only issue tickets for DUI/DWI or for wreckless driving. They only way this can change is if the streets were turned over to the state, county, or city. If that were to happen then any person would have the ability to just drive thru our community and it would be open to the public.

Good questions...

TIM BONGIOVANNI

I would also like to know the schedule and how many hours. And what are they deterring? I would think that speeding is for the most part a "during the day offense" whereas stealing is more a "at night offense".

If it is a fixed schedule then this will be learned and offenders will likely know when they can get away with stuff and when they can't.

I myself am totally for annexation. In addition to not having to pay $425 in dues and $300 a year for trash. The city also promised that if we got annexed we would get a dedicated seat that only a Locust Hill resident could occupy on the city council. They would also build a police substation between Tuscawilla and Locust Hill with two dedicated patrols and the community would not have turn over the approx. $300,000 in road reserves. This money could be used for the pool, playground, basket ball, tennis courts etc....

Plus it would be nice to find out if our water bill would go away. This would totally make the $2000 a wash.

Being a former Philadlphia Police Officer, elected official and current Federal officer, mobile marked police patrols only deter crime if it is constant and continuous. It is comical to suggest that a once or twice a week drive through the development will deter "issues". In addition, there would be no teeth behind the effort-CTPD does not have jurisdiction.

I would suggest the creation of a dedicated Neighborhood Watch. The start up costs would be minimum (communications, flashlight, etc), however getting volunteers to sign up would be a challenge with residents usually arriving home after long commutes.

Neighborhood Watch is highly successful and DOES deter crime. Neighborhood Watch is simply a program of neighbors watching out for each other during the workday, evenings, vacations or any other absence. The purpose of the Neighborhood Watch program is to create an alert neighborhood by using simple crime prevention methods. The program works through the mutual aid of neighbors watching the property of other neighbors. This has several advantages, including the fact that your neighbors know who you are, what type of car you drive, and who belongs, as a rule, at your residence. A marked patrol officer driving by your home might not recognize someone as a stranger in your yard. However, an alert neighbor would recognize the person as a stranger.

We did have a neighborhood watch in 2008 and spent a few dollars on Walkie Talkies and AK47's and signs etc, but I think it is now defunct. Contact the Board to see if they would consider reinstating the committee.

Bill Cummings 304-886-9075

SpeakingWinds....you have a great idea with the Neighborhood Watch. Unfortunately the neighborhood watch program was in effect and fizzled out about 2 years ago. There were very few people that were actively involved and the ones that were actively involved got worn out real quickly.

I personally see no real reason to have off-duty Sheriffs deputies patrolling our neighborhood on random days/nights for an hour here or there. If we could afford an officer to be present all day, everyday then it would benefit our community. But to be honest with you, a deputy randomly showing up for such a small amount of time probably isn't worth our money. Just MY opinion.

As a resident that has had their home hit with eggs, car hit, and rocks thrown at their cars, I am in favor of any type of police presence. The reality is that even when you report these incidents to authorities, they had only showed up once and that was it. All of these events have occurred over the past couple years. Luckily they caught those that blew up a couple mailboxes on our street, but again, it took the police several days to come and even investigate it. I don't have a solution, but it has and continues to be a problem in our neighborhood. Not until your home has been vandalized, it really doesn't hit you. We had a neighbor one evening walking their dog and kids threw eggs at him. Come on!