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Crime and Safety Meeting Update

Martha Looney shares on Nextdoor:

Hi Neighbors and Happy New Year!

I have received a few phone calls from neighbors inquiring about updates so I thought it best to put it here. Here is the update of the District Meeting held on 12/19 led by Councilwoman Newbille where Crime & Safety were listed on the agenda.

As was hoped for, there was a great attendance for this meeting and the room steered the meeting towards recent events involving serious crime and safety events. CBS 6 reached out the day before. They ran a story about the neighborhood concerns and one of the attendees generously agreed to go on camera.

The feedback in the room led Councilwoman Newbille to offer a Separate Meeting solely dedicated towards Crime & Safety in the month of January. The Holidays passed and an announcement of this meeting had not been communicated.

A few interested neighbors have stayed in communication about the developments. This is a copy of the email I sent and at the bottom there will be an update about the responses that were received.

“Dear Mayor Stoney, Dr. Newbille and Lt. Roane, I hope you have enjoyed a great Christmas. I am following up regarding the Dec 19th 7th District Mtg. As is known, the turnout was strong for citizens from all the East End neighborhoods in pursuit of discussion about Crime & Safety. This resulted in Dr. Newbille’s commitment to a Crime & Safety Meeting in January. I am very appreciative of this opportunity. What is the date and time? Can we give the community 14 days notice please? I am formally requesting that Mayor Stoney be present at this meeting.

May we please also include the following topics on the agenda?

  1. Specific updates regarding the 4 Armed Robberies in the last 8 weeks:

a. The Hill Cafe
b. Armed Robbery on 26th & Grace
c. Armed Robbery at Jefferson Park
d. Armed Robbery and Carjacking in Chimborazo

-Number of citizens interviewed
-Number of Suspects
-Updates on a pending arrest

  1. 2017, 2018 and 2019 Violent Crime statistics

Number of Incidents by month
Location of each incident (9 mile, Oakwood, Fairfield, Union Hill, Chimborazo, St. John’s etc)
Number of Suspects interviewed
Number of Arrests

  1. A Separate Report for Non-Violent Crimes

Number of Incidents by month
General area of incident (9 mile, Chimborazo, Oakwood, St. John’s etc)
Number of Suspects interviewed
Number of Arrests
Number of Convictions

  1. 2019 Patrol Schedule by neighborhood, by month to include the following:

Number of officers by Day
Number of Officers by Shift (am, pm, overnight)
What route these officers have (I assume they are by blocks or by specific neighborhood?)
Our Current Roster of East End officers, their names and to what neighborhood they are assigned. The idea here is I would like to know our local officers and build rapport.

  1. The Schedule for 2020 at least Jan-March

Thank you very much for your support and efforts in making our neighborhoods more safe.”

I received a call directly from Lt. Roane which was a great surprise. Lt. Roane conveyed that city resources are thin and that they are doing the best they can. When asked, Lt. Roane did not indicate that any suspects have been interviewed or identified for any of the above 4 armed robberies.

Lt. Roane also indicated that a meeting would be held but that the entire dept was going through a major reorg and to schedule it now would mean the meeting would change as many of the officers from the dept may or may not be still involved in this area.

I received an email from William Smith, Genral Council with the dept and he stated that the FOIA act request would cost $117.00 to generate. I have not heard back from Councilwoman Newbille about a date. I have not heard back from the Mayor’s office as to the request for his attendance.

One of our neighbors mentioned a Budget Review would be in order. With population and tax increases, has our allocation for resources increased?

That’s all for now. I am sure there will be a meeting and please know that your Individual Attendance will matter greatly. The greater Church Hill Neighborhoods are known for “showing up” so we will keep you posted.

3 comments

Letitia Tish Gaines 01/19/2020 at 6:26 AM

Thank you!

Reply
Janine Gillis 01/19/2020 at 6:42 AM

Thank you. Should we start passing the hat for the $117?

Reply
Havis L. Wright 01/19/2020 at 8:57 AM

https://apps.richmondgov.com/applications/CrimeInfo

A lot of the incident reporting data requested can be found here in the interim.

Reply

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