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To that end, the police department has expanded its number
of community service officers (CSOs) from three to nine.
Five of them are based at the Scott Park District station,
while four others work out of the Ottawa Park police
substation. As a recent police academy class of 68 rookies
hits the streets, the number may increase further.
One of those community service officers is 20-year police
veteran Dana Slay, who is well known within the department
for mothering and mentoring Toledo’s young people when she
catches them skipping school or committing some other
misdeed.
One particular prop and analogy she uses is a plastic
tractor-trailer, encouraging kids to change their ways to
ensure a better future, so they “don’t get run over by the
semi-truck of life.”
Slay heavily encouraged the formation of more Blockwatch
groups, as well as more citizen involvement in existing
neighborhood groups. She currently works a sector that
encompasses the Alexis-Lewis-Jackman Road area.
“We need your eyes and ears to tell us about the blight in
the neighborhood,” she said. “Blight in a neighborhood draws
crime. We have to clean up these neighborhoods. Crime
doesn’t want to be seen. Crime is dirty.”
Slay spoke enthusiastically of the mayor’s Tidy Towns
initiative, where police officers are being paired with city
code enforcement and nuisance abatement inspectors to clean
up neighborhoods.
She pointed out Upton Ave. between Bancroft and Dorr, where
trees were recently cleared to make the homes and street
more visible.
“They opened up the area and when you go through that
neighborhood, it’s like ‘Wow!’” she said. “I think,
personally, that’s the way it should be in all of the
inner-city neighborhoods. Open those neighborhoods up.”
Slay explained that more citizen involvement could enhance
the city’s efforts to clean up Toledo block-by-block. She
spoke at a recent community forum held at the downtown
branch of the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library.
“Let us know as Blockwatch what you need. If you’ve got
dumping in an alley or overgrown trees, let us know,” she
encouraged. “Help us to clean that out, so that when crime
does occur in your neighborhood, you can see it and
therefore, report it. We don’t know unless you tell us.”
Slay emphasized there are ways people can report crimes
without jeopardizing their personal safety or becoming a
victim themselves. Not only can people call Crimestoppers or
911 and remain anonymous, they can now pass along
information through the department’s Facebook page and other
social media.
“A lot of people don’t go to Blockwatch until something
happens—and then they’re running in and they have so much to
say. But where were you at a year ago, two years ago?” she
questioned. “We need your input. Open your eyes. Open your
ears. Blockwatch is everybody’s business, even if it doesn’t
involve you.”
The Toledo police department recently released an
interactive crime mapping tool, which allows crime analysts
to track violent and property crimes in any given
neighborhood. But now citizens can use the mapping tool
online to identify what’s going on within a half-mile radius
of any given address—even going back as far as three months
to see, in general, what has been occurring. That raises the
general awareness of home and business owners, as well as to
keep a closer eye on the situation.
Crime “hot spots” also can be identified using the online
mapping tool. During a demonstration of its capabilities,
one such crime “hot spot” that was identified is the Green
Belt Place Apartments, just north of downtown Toledo.
Residents can even provide information anonymously online.
The interactive crime mapping tool can be accessed at the
website
www.crimemap.toledo.oh.gov.
Police Chief William Moton spoke of the continued
development of “data-driven intelligence” where crime
analysts can provide a “prediction of when the next crimes
will take place.” That information is passed along to field
commanders who can place officers accordingly. The police
department also is in the second and final phase of placing
crime cameras across the city, which will eventually number
approximately 150.
“We can respond much quicker,” he said. “This is a
step-by-step process. We want to do it as quickly as
possible, but we want to make sure what we’re doing is
sound.”
But Moton was quick to emphasize nothing will replace
teamwork between police and people, citing two officers who
now walk a beat down Sylvania Ave. “developing a
relationship” with business owners and students alike.
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