Police host meeting on safety

Sergeant Kyle Michalak of the Oberlin Police Department told Oberlin students Monday that they are now part of his team.

Michalak led a Community Oriented Policing meeting at Rust United Methodist Church Monday night. Over 25 community members and students gathered to discuss issues ranging from student safety to road improvement.

The meeting was one of four that occur each month, one for each of four quadrants of the city. In light of the assault of a student in the Stevenson/Carnegie parking lot Feb. 8 as well as several recent thefts from student houses, students had reason to be concerned about safety issues.

Community member Roberta Garcia, secretary to Dean of the College Clayton Koppes, said the quadrant meetings started about three years ago. The meetings were in response to several serious incidents, including a shooting, according to Garcia. She and other residents started a group called Concerned Citizens, which worked with Oberlin Police to organize the meetings.

Although the groups stopped meeting at one point, last fall they began meeting again, with the help of Police Chief Bob Jones. Garcia said, "They are starting to become more organized. For example, we have block captains now." Block captains organize the neighborhood watch for their block.

The weather may have kept many people home Monday, but Garcia said a meeting last month drew over 40 people. She said student attendance at the meetings is encouraged and welcome. Aside from the 12 students present on Monday, city council members, police officers and other community members attended the meeting.

Quadrant supervisor Michalak started the meeting by giving a special welcome to the College students present.

"Students are often victims, but also can give us a lot of great ideas, as well as bringing financial support to the community," he said.

Michalak then reviewed the Community Oriented Policing program. He explained that there are at least three officers assigned to each quadrant of the city.

The city of Oberlin is divided into Northeast, Southeast, Northwest and Southwest quadrants. Each holds monthly meetings for residents to discuss community safety issues. The quadrants are divided by Lorain Road and Main Street. He said, "What we're trying to get accomplished is community involvement in this part of town."

Senior Ben Selman said his Groveland Street housemates had been victims of crime three times in the past few months.

Selman said between $500 and $1000 was stolen from his house during the Fall semester. He added that someone had broken in twice in one day earlier in the week.

Selman's three housemates nodded in agreement as he said, "I have lived on Groveland Street for three years, summer and school year, and I feel like it has gotten much less safe in the past few months."

Michalak said he was surprised. "We feel like it was much worse two or three years ago than it is now. We have added city ordinances which give police a few more teeth in dealing with problems," he said.

Selman then brought up other concerns, including the fact that his girlfriend had been chased and threatened numerous times. Selman's housemate junior Ted Carleton, said he was unsure what students should do about such situations. He asked Michalak, "Should we report verbal harassment?"

"Definitely. Then we know where people are causing that sort of problem, where and when it is happening," Michalak said. "We need information from you. We're only 15 officers, so we can't see everything. We need your help."

Community members were very responsive to the students' concerns and questions, asking students if they felt they are singled out as victims.

Jones said students are often reluctant to report crimes, which causes problems to accumulate. He also said that Winter Term and breaks always have a large number of security problems and encouraged students to be sure to secure their residences before leaving.

Eventually discussion turned to less threatening problems, such as trash cleanup, construction on local roads, a new ordinance on property maintenance and quadrant area beautification.

A community member mentioned that the corner of South Pleasant and Edison looked rundown and needed to be cleaned up. She told the two present city council members, "It's time to put up or shut up and do something about that corner."

City Council chairwoman Fran Baumann responded to many of these concerns and promised to look into others.

Community members also informed each other about places where there was increased traffic and pedestrian activity, as well as making suggestions for improving crosswalk safety downtown.

Jones announced that on April 1 there will be a meeting about student safety concerns jointly run by Oberlin College Security and the Police Department, partly in response to the recent student assault.

Students present at the meeting were satisfied with the discussion and happy to have the chance for interaction with community members.

Selman said, "I was glad to see the officers were very welcoming and interested in what we had to say, as were members of the community. It kind of establishes a connection between the community and the students."