opinion

Bangert: Mayor’s ‘not in my city’ vow on crime

Lafayette Police Chief Pat Flannelly — outfitted in his dress uniform to punctuate a day dedicated to the promise of a beefed-up police presence, coming soon to a neighborhood near you — held up a hand to slow the questions coming his way.

“Let’s be clear,” Flannelly said. “We’re a very safe place.”

A few feet away, Mayor Tony Roswarski, a retired LPD member himself, was settling on the same conclusion.

“Totally safe,” Roswarski said.

But in a carefully staged event Thursday, with members of the LPD Street Crime Unit and other officers rimming the Lafayette City Council chambers, Roswarski let on that the city was starting to lose ground on that sense of security.

The promises the mayor unfurled over the course of an hour that afternoon — more cops, more building inspectors, more aggressive stance on abandoned houses, more support of neighborhoods — almost sounded like a campaign-season splash. (It is an election year in Lafayette, but Roswarski’s Republican opponent, Billy Reed, is such a nonfactor that we can set that aside leading up to November.)

But there was a sense, in listening to the mayor and the police chief, of something more.

It’s as if the slow parade of meth lab arrest mug shots in the newspaper; the cases of moms and dads found slumped over steering wheels or sprawled on apartment bathroom floors with heroin syringes nearby; and the demoralizing peck-peck-pecking of garage break-ins — presumably to pay for those insidious addictions — is wearing down Lafayette City Hall and the Lafayette Police Department the way it is businesses and neighborhoods.

“We hear what the people are saying,” Roswarski said, “and know we can always do more. We’re with you, here.”

Roswarski said city hall worked three months to scrape out room in the 2016 budget for five new officers and a dispatcher for LPD, to hammer out a take-home patrol car policy for officers who live in the city, and to hone a plan to move downtown parking patrols into more of a code enforcement role that expands into several near-downtown neighborhoods.

“We really wanted something comprehensive. So we asked ourselves, how can we come at this from more than just a police point of view?” Roswarski said. “You don’t want to do something fluffy and isn’t going to work.”

Roswarski’s answer was a call to action, where police work with neighborhoods and businesses, which, in turn, return the favor.

“Our mantra for this whole community should be: Not in my neighborhood, not in my city,” Roswarski said. “And that’s the mentality we need to take, each and every day.”

But in what Roswarski calls a safe community, what was the tipping point for the changes?

Roswarski’s answer: The recent rise in heroin, meth and spice — and the need for cash to score them. Drugs, and the lack of services to deal with addictions. And a reality Roswarski says is settling in: “We cannot arrest our way out of this situation.”

“For us, that really was the catalyst,” Roswarski said. “We’ve looked at the stats over and over and over, and that just was a huge percentage of our crime. … But I think the drugs touch so many people that people are much more aware of it. A lot of people know someone in that situation, and I think that opens up people’s eyes a bit more.”

Flannelly piled on to that.

“The amounts of victimization aren’t out of proportion to what they’ve always been. Our ability to learn about it is disproportionate to what it used to be. You get inundated,” Flannelly said. “With a higher level of awareness comes a higher level of anxiety.”

Translated: Even if crime tied to a wave of addiction isn’t a crisis, it can seem that way as bystanders share bits and pieces of news across Facebook or on Chief Flannelly-endorsed social media — NextDoor.com,Nixle.com and @LafayetteINPD on Twitter. There’s a price paid — a hit taken to that anxiety level — with every ladder stolen from the side of a house, every back door kicked in, every car broken into, every report of shots fired.

There was a sense, too, on Thursday that police felt they were working upstream against a flow of negative press, judged by every national headline. That might be cops putting too much stock in broad, distant criticism, fanned along social media.

But Roswarski dwelled on it Thursday, saying there was a need for trust and for police officers and the community to “reaffirm that bond between each other going forward.”

“We need all of our citizens to take a role in fighting crime,” Roswarski said. “Whether that’s volunteering (with youth organizations) … or things as simple as turning on your porch light or putting up a light in your alley. If you haven’t attended a neighborhood meeting, attend one. Join your neighborhood crime watch. I’d encourage our faith-based organizations … to get outside the walls of the church and get out into the neighborhoods … and make a difference. It’s going to take all of us working together to do that.”

Scott Brown has been working with his neighbors to rejuvenate a neighborhood association for Historic Jefferson, just off the northeast end of downtown. Historic Jefferson will be one of the neighborhoods where the downtown parking patrol will drive each day to check for abandoned cars and other violations that can consume police officer time.

Brown said he bought into the “not in my neighborhood, not in my city” idea. He said city hall has been receptive to neighborhood complaints about crime, safety and blight. And he said neighbors have found that they need to take ownership of problems too, starting with following up when Roswarski asked them to help the city put together an inventory of dark, seemingly unsafe areas that could use streetlights.

“I could write a whole page on how each of these actions (announced Thursday) will affect our neighborhood in a positive way, but I have one underlying takeaway from all this,” Brown said. “The mayor and the chief of police both stated that this has to be a community effort, and I could not agree more.”

Roswarski contends he can do everything promised Thursday — the new police, new building inspectors, extended parking patrols and more — without raising taxes or cutting other services. Proof of that will come during the 2016 budget process this fall.

The other half of this community cooperation equation, the mayor can’t buy. It’s a matter of attention, vigilance and trust. The mayor says his police officers and the rest of city hall are all in. And if someone sees that police and city hall aren’t all in, Roswarski said neighbors should challenge his office to make it right.

Roswarski said he has faith that neighbors, neighborhoods and businesses are ready, too.

“It’s what we have to do,” Roswarski said, “if we want to keep saying this is a safe place. I know we can do it.”

Bangert is a columnist with the Journal & Courier. Contact him at dbangert@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @davebangert.

Editor's note: The original version of this story incorrectly located a stabbing at the city's monitored place for Craigslist transactions at the fire station on Creasy Lane. That incident actually happened at a business at 100 S. Creasy Lane. This version of the story has been edited to correct the error.

What you can do

Lafayette Police Chief Pat Flannelly said one of the best ways to prevent crime “is to get out and talk with your neighbors. … It keeps criminals off balance when neighbors make their presence known.” Here are other ways he endorsed to connect with the police department.

•NextDoor.com: The neighborhood-based social media allows conversations between neighbors and police about suspicious incidents and various community notes. Lafayette police also use it to issue crime prevention tips based on recent trends.

•Nixle.com: Police use the texting and email service to notify people about street closures, crashes and other urgent matters.

•Twitter: LPD posts notices and responds to resident questions at @LafayetteINPD.