‘Lines open’ between police, Rockford Housing Authority residents

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

By Chris Green
Rockford Register Star

ROCKFORD — Most people don’t hesitate to pick up the phone and call police when warranted.

That’s not always a first response for residents in public housing, however. Perhaps it’s a belief that police won’t respond quickly or fear of being labeled a snitch. Or, worst yet, retaliation.

For those reasons, the 629 calls generated in 2013 from Blackhawk Courts weren’t necessarily a bad thing.

“The communication lines were open,” Rockford Housing Authority CEO Ron Clewer said of the high call volume. “The residents were building a level of trust with police.”

If feeling comfortable calling police is the first step in reducing crime, determining who or what is causing problems and prompting calls to police is the next step.

“In 2014, as part of our geographic policing strategy, we really wanted to get our arms wrapped around the problems that were occurring in public housing,” Lt. Darin Spades said. “So we had our station officer, now it’s our community service unit, go through and categorize and track where our calls for service are coming from. We do this for all our District 2 RHA properties.”

Police reviewed the calls for service from each housing complex — Blackhawk Courts, Brewington Oaks, Orton Keyes and the Park Terrace Apartments — determined when and from which unit the calls came, and what prompted the call. Many of the calls, Spades and Clewer said, are domestic-related and mental health issues. Police and RHA officials then determined, based on the nature of the call, what action to take, such as directing a tenant or family to appropriate social services, banning problem guests from the property, or arrests and seeking prosecution.

“A lot of it is just holding people accountable,” Spades said.

“We realize that some may be allowing a wanted person or a criminal trespasser to hang out in their apartment. So RHA is obtaining mug shots and putting together fliers. They disseminate those fliers to the residents living in that particular complex, putting them on notice that this person is banned from RHA property. If this person is found in your apartment, you will face consequences.”

The call-tracking strategy resulted in 419 calls to police in 2014 from Blackhawk Courts, a 33 percent decrease from those 629 calls in 2013.

“We never tracked that as well as what we do now with this new spreadsheet tracking system,” Spades said.

Tunaya Beaudry, 32, has lived at Orton Keyes for eight years. The mother of three — ages 11, 1 and 3 months — has witnessed daytime drug transactions on the sidewalk in front of her residence and drive-by gunfire at night.

But crime has become less of a problem. “They’ve gotten rid of some of the people causing trouble,” she said, but most of the problems in the complex are not caused by the tenants. “I think it’s tenants bringing so-called friends in.”

Read the full article here.