The Precinct 4 Community Oriented Policing & Government group (COPS) met at the Precinct 4 Headquarters on Thursday, April 27, 2006. Bob Oertel called the meeting to order at 5:30 and led us through introductions. The group decided to table the 5 discussion groups until later in the meeting.

Environmental Court
The information below is from the April Environmental court session. The next court date is May 25th at 2PM. There will be a number of high profile cases in front of Judge Henry Clay III that day.

3622 Cavalier
Owner John McKee appealed his 60-day sentence and was released after two days served in December 2005. But the appeal was dismissed in county court on April 17. He was to return to Environmental Court today but did not appear. Another warrant was issued to bring him to serve the remaining 58 days of his sentence. His lawyer has been given a letter outlining his violations but no action has been taken as of yet.

301 Decelle
This property was ordered by the city council to be demolished approximately two years ago. BAR Real Estate bought it, met with COPS group members, city personnel, and representation of the Fondren Renaissance Foundation to discuss an alternative to demo. BAR showed a detailed plan with an itemized list of repairs accompanied with illustrations and impressive promises. The group decided to recommend the stay of demo to the city council and Bar purchased the property and after some time begun the repairs. At different times throughout 2005 and since Katrina, work has stopped and a woman from New Orleans has been living there. Last week a sewage main broke under the house and ran into adjoining properties. TV cameras recorded the problem. It has been inspected and there are some code violations, particularly with the sewer. A letter was sent to BAR on Wednesday April 26 outlining the problems.

306 Melbourne
A burned out house that is in need of further repairs. There are two separate issues. First is the yard clean up. City Council approved having the City clean up the yard on April 25. The City will clean it up soon (there are 6,000 yards on the list for City clean-up). Second are the repairs to the house. The necessary paper work has been done and the time allowed by law has passed. But the deadline had not passed in time for it to go to Environmental Court on May 25.
Three to four additional properties in this area on Melbourne will be in Environmental Court in May.

Eastover Drive
Three vacant lots have been inspected and letters sent to the property owners.
These will also go to City Council in May.

533 Broadway
The Copeland brothers, whose property at 640 Chickasaw was demolished within the last two years, own this property. Here the issue is large limbs threatening an adjacent property. They are scheduled for clearing by the city this weekend. By law it is the responsibility of the property owner over which the limbs hang to remove the limbs unless the tree is dead. In this case it is the responsibility of the owner whose property the problem tree is rooted in.

900 Block of Meadowbrook
There is a dead tree hanging out over Meadowbrook. It is being looked into.

3422 North State Street
A new report was made regarding excessive garbage in this yard. An inspection will be made soon.

*****Since our Meeting*****
1827 Linden
The major neighborhood concern here is that a project is dragging on for what seems to be an unreasonable long time. There are also concerns regarding the adjacent neighbors and water/mud run-off. It has been noted by Community Improvement that there are no current code violations on report.

3641 N. State
A case has been opened on this property for retail sales in a residential area.

Jeff Anderson has provided P4COPS with a number of specific case numbers for many of the properties above.
It is noted Keep Jackson Beautiful will send a letter to any litterers if given the license plate number of cars observed littering. To contact Keep Jackson Beautiful click here.
Letters, Words of Gratitude, & Jim's 2 cents
Bob Oertel reported about a letter from Margaret Bucci of Wildwood North & Sun Valley Neighborhood Association. The letter was sent to Precinct 4 Commander Brent Winstead, JPD Chief Anderson, and Mayor Melton expressing gratitude for services rendered by Precinct 4 Quality of Life officers Katina Brooks & Barbara Folsom

Bob Oertel expressed gratitude to Bruce Thames (who was unfortunately not in attendance) of the City of Jackson Public Works Department. They have relocated the Dead End sign on Eagle Ave.

Several residents commented favorably on SAFe (Security Association of Fondren). Many neighbors in Fondren have commended Securitas for it 20 hours/day patrolling of the Fondren area. SAFe hopes to increase patrols to 24 hours/day soon and is giving a free month to any subscriber who recruits a new subscriber. Subscriptions are only $29.95 per month (paid quarterly).

Jim White noted the timing sequence of the traffic signals in the south-bound lanes of Old Canton at Fondren Place and Lakeland Drive are still very short from roughly 5:00-6:00 p.m., allowing only three cars at a time to move southbound. No doubt this is because of the light traffic heading southbound on Old Canton during this time. He has dropped his request that this be changed because the reasoning for the sequence seems logical.Ask the Lieutenant/COMSTAT
Lt. Steve Sansom presided at this section of our meeting. He reported on COMSTAT, the weekly compilation of crimes reported. Note that COMSTAT reports list the crimes reported so it is raw data before it has been scrutinized. The crimes may be reclassified after they are investigated and reported according to FBI standards.

Lt. Steve Sansom reported a slight increase in auto burglaries over the past week, primarily in parking lots, hotels, and shopping centers along the I-55 corridor. A prime suspect was arrested April 26 (and shown in great detail on TV) that should clear up many of these auto burglaries. A major problem is that PEOPLE LEAVE VALUABLE ITEMS IN PLAIN VIEW IN THEIR CARS AND DON'T LOCK THEIR VEHICLES. Duh!

A suspect in the Brent's Drug Store robbery has been identified and the status of an arrest was uncertain at meeting time.

Lt. Sansom was asked about a rumor regarding the arrest of a woman on Sheffield Drive during a routine traffic stop. It was noted that Sheffield area residents had lodged numerous complaints about speeding on Sheffield. It was confirmed that a female Sheffield resident was stopped for speeding and reacted in an excessive manner to being stopped and was arrested.

Words from the Chief
Chief Shirlene Anderson was in attendance and reported several items and responded to all questions asked. The P4COPS program would like to thank her for support.

1. In response to requests by citizens, a special emphasis has been given to speeding and illegal parking. JPD is even putting public notices in the newspaper giving the locations of speeding and illegal parking enforcement concentrations.
2. A Gun Interdiction Team is going after illegal purchases of guns by convicted felons. Last week, four people (at least three of them teenagers) were arrested with a good supply of guns in their possession. All were convicted felons and it appears they were planning a drive-by shooting.
3. JPD is seeing what should be done about "cruising" on Northside Drive.
4. Conversations are underway with the prosecutor regarding the handling of auto burglaries so these crimes will not be reduced to misdemeanors. Conversations with Sheriff McMillan have been held that will result in some of those convicted of auto burglaries sent to the County Farm for manual labor in cleaning up highways and other jobs. The City may use others incarcerated for clean-up details. The MS Department of Transportation, Keep MS Beautiful, and the Chamber of Commerce are cooperating in this endeavor.
5. A noise ordinance for Jackson is still in committee with the city council. The current ordinance has been deemed too vague and since the City does not have the equipment necessary to measure decibel levels, it is unenforceable. Several proposals are in various stages of consideration by City Council. Until there is the proper equipment and a workable ordinance, residents can use the "Disturbing the Peace" ordinance. They do have to fill out an appropriate affidavit, but this is the only process for recourse at the current time. We were reminded that an officer's peace cannot be disturbed, only a resident's.
6. Chief Anderson addressed the issue of reports of 96,000 outstanding warrants representing fines of approximately $30 million. It has been reported that the City will start impounding the cars of those with outstanding warrants. It was noted there will be an Amnesty Week May 15-19 in which those with outstanding warrants can be resolved without additional penalty and there will be a beefing up of the impoundment of cars following that week. Meanwhile, JPD has catalogued the 96,000 warrants. At this time, the list contains many warrants that will be deemed invalid. Some of those are for people who have since died and others are for those who are or have served time in jail/prison for other crimes, which usually means the warrant is not enforced since the time served is applied to the penalty for the original warrant. The 96,000 warrants represent many years of failure to pursue the warrants and some of the offenses have a statue of limitations. JPD is also working with the court system so the court can retrieve the warrants quickly and can update the status of them, giving all timely and accurate information. An additional issue pertaining to the impoundment of cars is an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) violation at the impound lot caused by leaking fluids from a number of cars that have been at the lot for a long time. The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is working with the City to clear up this matter. In the meantime, the City can continue to use the impound lot. It was noted the police would like ordinances and other rules clearing the way for them to impound cars for those with outstanding warrants. Currently, JPD boots cars of owners with five or more warrants. But JPD only has four boots, one is currently broken, and new boots cost approximately $600 each. Grants are being pursued to purchase more. A proposal in before a committee of City Council that will address some of these concerns.
   

A Resident's Good Idea
Precinct 4 resident Rebecca Pittman spoke of her concern for the area west of North State Street where she is a resident and owner of multiple properties. At a meeting with members of the very impressive Gun Interdiction Team (trained by the ATF- Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms) she learned that her neighborhood is an area of fairly high gun traffic, though there isn't that much trouble in her neighborhood and she feels safe there.

Her proposal is that we initiate a Code Enforcement Demonstration Project that would involve citizens and various city agencies. Code violations would be handled first by neighbor-to-neighbor letters identifying the issue and suggesting immediate voluntary resolution so city personnel do not have to become involved. Further, residents and other volunteers would be asked to do a clean-up blitz of the area to start the demonstration project.

She suggested this would lead to neighborhood pride, lead to increased property values, encourage new residents, and reduce the riffraff. She recommended the demonstration project include the area west of North State from the stadium to Meadowbrook (why nor Northside, some asked) and over to West Street. Such a demonstration project could serve as a model for other neighborhoods, and is something residents should be doing anyway. This should lead to strong neighborhood and community building.
The concept of covenants was discussed shortly.SafeCity Fund Raiser - Monday, May 8
Tipper Gardner reminded COPS that Safe City will have its Take A Tasty Bite Out Of Crime fundraiser at Highland Village on Monday, May 8 from 7PM until 10PM. SafeCity is offering two free tickets (worth $50 each - $60 at the door) to officers of homeowners associations. For more information, call Jackie Smith at 601.968.9999. This is always an outstanding event!
Concluding Small Groups
To conclude the meeting, Bob Oertel broke the group into two sections. The first was to discuss Rebecca Pittman's proposal. The second was to discuss how to expand our attendance through outreach.

Announcements
The next Precinct 4 meeting will be May 25 at 5:30PM.