District One Community Policing Committee

Mobile, Alabama City Councilman Fred Richardson has captured a contagious vision for a cleaner and more beautiful Mobile. He used a successful mixture of city services and resources involving the people who elected him to hit a striking force against the ugliness of litter and blight and the ravaging effects of neighborhood crime. Realizing the untapped availability of community resources in both the public and private sectors, Councilman Richardson set a personal goal of bringing neighborhoods and services together by forming the District One Community Policing Committee. Dividing the large district of 26,000 people into natural areas of police beats, he decided to "eat the elephant" one bite at a time. Each beat would be the target area in a carefully planned time-line of action. His motivational rhetoric "beat by beat, street by street, house by house" became the call to action and results.

Partnering neighborhood representatives with the Mobile Police Department and employees from other city service departments, Councilman Richardson formed the Community Policing Committee of 36 people. 210 volunteer Block Captains oversee District One monitoring for crime and environmental violations. Within the district’s 7 police beats, 11 Community Action Groups have organized with 232 active members. 575 volunteers (ages 9 – 78) have participated in 5 massive clean-up projects.

With structured organization involving the citizens of District One, this project has brought the element of sustainability toward on-going efforts to rid the area of crime and blight. Educating the people involved as to available services and resources offered through the City of Mobile plus extensive citizen involvement with the Mobile Police Department Enhanced Neighborhood Program has placed a continual monitoring system on every street and avenue. Collaboration of neighbors, beat by beat, has resulted in open communication and effective teamwork as they work together to improve their quality of life. The Community Policing Committee hosts regular district wide meetings with officers elected from the neighbors at large. Problems and issues across the District become topics for discussion and action in a spirit of neighbor helping neighbor. With an agenda dedicated to meeting the needs of neighborhoods, Councilman Richardson invites representatives from all affected City Services Departments and divisions to be present, to be seen and to be heard in answering the questions, comments and complaints of District One citizens. This causes appropriate and immediate reaction on the part of the City from handling litter-bugs to felons. Through leadership recruitment and training, citizens are working together to build a bigger and better District One. They have caught a contagious spirit through committed people who care enough to get involved. They are learning together that people solve problems- not money.

Litter Abatement Coordinator, John Gavin, caught the mission and began opening doors and connecting city services to bring renewed pride to District One residential and business areas. With the Public Works Department of the City of Mobile, he documented a base-line measurement of hot spots of crime along with an accompanying map measuring identified hot spots of litter. To the surprise of many, the identified areas in both crime and litter were almost perfectly correlated confirming that the fight against blight aids in the fight against crime.

In employing a partnership with the public and private sectors, initial correspondence to area businesses within each beat led to immediate "buy-in" of the project. Businesses were alerted that the Block Captain monitoring system could lead to citation and Environmental Court visits for violation of City codes. Business owners and managers responded to solicitation letters supporting the project with in-kind and monetary donations. Employee teams were formed within the business community to clean-up around the commercial areas and to join with neighbors at the closing parties to celebrate renewed neighborhood pride.

To date, $5925 in cash and in-kind services from Police Beat businesses including McDonald’s and other restaurants , Greers and Food World Super Markets, local convenience stores and service stations, smaller businesses like flower shops and hair salons with a major contribution from Waste Management. Alltel Communications provides 12 cell-phones for use by on-duty Block Captains. During clean-up projects, many businesses host volunteer rest- stops serving water, beverages and cookies. Through successful implementation of the Environmental Court in handling infractions, city-wide citations have produced $225,000 in revenue to fund city services.

Block Captains can report spotted violations of city code such as illegal dump sites, abandoned houses, junk cars, overgrown lots, unsightly trash and debris to the City’s Action Center– a 24 hour, 7 day operation to receive, coordinate and process citizen requests for information, suggestions and complaints. Action Center procedure using the data point system expedites department reaction of the Inspection Services Division of Urban Development.

It is noted that the intent of the Environmental Court program is not to cause hardship but to bring violators into compliance with City ordinances. The innovative Judge Holmes Whiddon of the Environmental Court, working with the Mobile County Correction Center, has developed a new approach for use of community service workers. Violators are sentenced to return for 2 to 3 hours each day to the neighborhoods where they were cited for littering or committing non-violent offenses. During the first year as many as 90 offenders were on the streets daily working at assigned tasks such as picking up trash and removing illegal signs from city rights of way. This Court action translates into a projected cost benefit to the City of Mobile of approximately $269,000 annually.

Stats: In District One (Oct., 2000 – June 6, 01) 433 violations cited , 390 disposed cases. Projected revenue from fine collection: $64,950

Under the leadership of Sgt. T. Ray Aspinwall, the Mobile Police Department Enhanced Neighborhood Policing Program brings together local citizens with police sergeants trained in neighborhood problem solving. Using organized Community Action Groups, the problems are as diverse as the neighborhoods and the solutions varied and creative. Addressed initiatives come from the Beat residents as the front line in defining and representing respective neighborhoods. In District One, successful actions have resulted in the placement of traffic control devices and additional street lighting, towing abandoned vehicles, tackling underage drinking by targeting sources of the problem with the help of parents and business owners, identifying and addressing street level drug activity through collaborations between police and residents to target offenders. The Third Precinct in District One was dedicated February, 2001 as the Tyree Richburg Center. The first building erected solely as a police precinct, this state of the art facility was designed as a convenient service center for surrounding communities. Inside its secure walls citizens can conveniently use an ATM machine, pay traffic fines or a public utility bill, visit an in-house magistrate to sign warrants or speak with in-house detectives, visit the juvenile probation officer, report to Community Resource Officers, book a meeting room for varied neighborhood functions, work with the designated Sergeant (advisor) from the Enhanced Neighborhood Policing Program or counsel with the Family Intervention Team. A temporary court room is also available which is used for scheduled visits of Judge Holmes Whiddon who brings the Environmental Court directly to the people. Clean-up projects are staged from police precincts, tearing down the barriers of law enforcement. The famous Crime Dog, McGruff plays a visible role at meetings, neighborhood projects, parades, school assemblies, local fairs and educational exhibits.

Keep Mobile Beautiful, the City’s environmental agency and public relations department with the primary aim of educating Mobile’s public has held hundreds of clean-up projects through the years only to see trash quickly accumulate again. In an effort to sustain litter-free communities, Clean Community Coordinator, Linda Ingram saw the effectiveness of neighborhood leadership by identification of "movers and shakers" as Block Captains and empowering them through extensive leadership training sessions. Education about city litter laws and code infractions are offered each session and volunteers are equipped with special forms to identify violations through neighborhood monitoring walk-thrus. Junk cars, abandoned houses, overgrown and debris filled lots, illegal dump sites are appropriately marked for immediate action by inspectors of the City’s Urban Development Department. Block Captains are easily identified by wearing the official Block Captain shirt. Visiting each house on the assigned route, they distribute informational fliers about the next clean-up event and leave customized calendars marked with the year’s trash truck pick-up schedule. Team work is developing from police beat to beat, as Block Captains lead their areas in maintaining cleaner neighborhoods working closely with the Neighborhood Police in controlling crime. Clean-up events become exciting days of hard work with measured results while volunteers share food and fun with McGruff, the "Lead Dog". City employees and neighborhood volunteers work side by side as City trucks pick up trash filled bags, the Environmental Court Judge joins other officials in the clean-up and community service workers are brought by van. Mobile Police Department Enhanced Neighborhood Program shuttle volunteers from one area to another and provide refreshment stops as they monitor public safety in high risk areas. During planned clean-ups, Alltel cell phones are used by Block Captains to call in spotted code violations to a precinct line manned by one of the City’s inspectors. Councilman Richardson rides the beat distributing Certificates of Pride for residents and homeowners who deserve recognition for outstanding maintenance of homes and property. Incentives for volunteers include free trash bags, T-shirts and prizes with food and drink sponsored by local businesses. Names of participating private businesses are listed on the t-shirts as sponsors.

September 23, 2000 – June 1, 2001: 575 volunteers have worked 1620 hours picking up 47 tons of trash and debris covering 63 miles of District One.

Committed people are working together in District One to build a safer and better Mobile. Statistics measure the success of their teamwork. These people have vision and they have spirit but most of all, from City employee to the private citizen – they care enough to get involved. Good people are coming together to make great things happen in the city of Mobile.

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