Public Safety Council Meeting

We went to a Public Safety Council Meeting this evening at the City Government Center. Chief Keller mentioned that a task force has been created to look into the recent violence in the city, many of the criminals are in custody, state troopers are helping out, there are more officers in training and more have been requested with the federal surplus funds. Captain Ritter said that there will be foot patrol. The public was then given the opportunity to speak. One person suggested that we encourage kids who are out after curfew to go home. Someone else mentioned that when the police pick up kids who are out after curfew, they take the kids home but there is no one home and this takes the police off of the streets. Several people spoke about organizations and programs that exist and the council said that they would list these on channel 20. Here are a few ...

• Reclaim the Streets Ministries - volunteers needed, 238-0586
• American Legion - Steppers and Drum Corps ... 233-6214 or 602-7956
• PCTA ... 979-7211 or jmomma4@earthlink.net

Officer Michael Parker spoke about Neighborhood Crime Watch groups. He is willing to help interested citizens set these up in their neighborhoods. He can be reached at 255-7326 or 315-1743 (cell). He also said that he would be willing to teach us about how to collect helpful information for the police about things that we see or hear about. We will be getting in contact with him.

After the meeting we talked with Linda Thompson, Patty Kim, Wanda Williams, and Ritter. Linda gave us her contact info and we are going to get together to brainstorm! I left the meeting feeling encouraged and we made more contacts. Stay tuned to see what happens next!