Notes from Commanders Forum – Feb 13th

The first Commanders Forum of the 2007 was held at Barrington Elementary on February 13th. Present from NSCNA was Mary Arnett and Rhonda Martinez. Our District Rep, Officer James Hellums is recuperating from surgery and is only working part time. He can be reached by calling 834-7501. Additionally, you may contact Kay Vargas, Admin for Ida Sector, at 834-7402, if there are any pressing issues you want addressed.

Special Guest Speaker was Cliff Brown, newly appointed Police Monitor for the City of Austin. Previously, he was a District Attorney and also served as North Central Commands Prosecutor, so he is very familiar with the issues of this area. He stressed that his vision for the job is to bridge the gap between citizens and the police department. Instead of waiting until a crisis arises, he is meeting with various leadership groups all over Austin, the Texas Youth Commission, Garner Betts Juvenile Center, and AISD. He is talking with many young people in various environments to communicate how to react to the police when stopped so that the situation can be diffused instead of escalating into a use of force.

Commander Eells reviewed crime data for ALL of the North Central Command sector for the months of Oct, Nov, Dec and January.

Crime Catagories Oct 06 Nov 06 Dec 06 Jan 07
Murder 0 1 1 0
Rape 7 4 3 7
Robbery 25 20 20 12
Agg Assault 26 17 18 25
Total Violent Crime 58 42 42 44
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Burglary 105 68 79 83
Theft 313 276 235 259
Auto Theft 40 37 29 36
Total Property Crime 458 381 343 378

Commander Eells stressed that there are various law enforcement agencies that are lobbying the legislature to change Burglary of a Vehicle penalities. Several years back, BOV was changed to misdemeanor status resulting in much lighter penalites, if any, for offenders that are caught. Efforts are being made to change that to felony status for multiple offenders.

It was noted that at least 90% of the violent crime incidents involve people who know each other, such as family or dating violence.

APD has a new reemphasis pawn shop detail and encourages people to make records of their serial numbers. Mark valuables so that if these turn up in pawn shops, they can be identified. Bike patrols are being increased and have been met with much praise from various neighborhoods for their ability to respond quickly, yet are able to patrol certain hot spot areas with more stealth than a police cruiser. APD will also continue with their VIN etching programs throughout the year, although Eells mentioned that most auto theft in this area is not resulting in “stripping” at this time.

Their Street Response Unit made over 600 arrests in 2006, more than any other sector in town. This unit typically handles cases concerning narcotics, prostitution, gambling, robberies and fugitives. Most of this occurs in a concentrated area around IH35.

Also present at this meeting was a group of City Code Enforcers who have been working very closely with APD to clean up certain areas around the Sam Rayburn and John Nance Garner area (Rundberg and Slayton Dr). There is also a “Criminal Trespass Initiative” so that owners of vacant property give APD a standing order to remove anyone from their property. This allows police greater flexibility in breaking down vagrant camps that spring up on wooded property.

The Domain was mentioned as a new area that will be encompassed by the North Central Command area. See www.thedomainaustin.com for details.

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Below is a link for totals to 2006 crime data. To see the detail for each catagory, just click on that catagory and details will come up. You may sort this data by block or by date. Please keep in mind that some catagories seem high, but when you look at the location, you will find that most occur around the business perimeter of our neighborhood and not within our boundaries.

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/

If you have any questions about this data, please contact myself, Mary Arnett at mossrock3209 @ yahoo dot com and I will do my best to clear up any issues.

Notes from Commanders Forum – Feb 13th