Update

So we kinda fell off the radar ... sorry 'bout that ...

What happened? 

After extending the CrowdTilt campaign a couple times we put a pin in that on July 27th of 2014. At that time Bay Alarm approached us with an offer to individually contract with the folks who wanted to do that. Over the next couple of months about 35 people signed up with Bay. There was an existing group of Bay Alarm Patrol customers already. 15 homes. So about 50 people are currently receiving patrol coverage from Bay.

How's that working for ya'?
Okay. Not great. Bay is totally doing what it should by contract. They make the rounds and they respond when we call. Their's is a reactive business model however. We are struggling with how to change that if it can be changed.

We are, as of this post, assessing broad measures of crime to see if there is an impact. There has been an improvement in crime overall this year so there is a question as to the effectiveness of the patrols in that kind of environment. We have theories.

The first job is getting all the data from the the City. Stay tuned.

What went wrong?
The NUDL area, again, is from Lincoln Ave, to Coolidge Ave, and from MacArthur Blvd, to essentially a line defined by an extension of Coolidge Terrace. We found some interesting phenomena as we canvassed the area. My opinion is that these various factors became death by 1000 tiny cuts.

Mortgage crisis hang over

On the surface this area looks like it is made up of owner occupied single family homes. I am guessing as a result of the mortgage crisis there are in fact a larger percentage or rented homes than I expected. That could be due to either distressed owners or turnover to investors. 

We found renters are almost always not interested in paying for the patrol. Some renters are in though. We did have a couple landlords say they would, but most did not. 

Retirees on fixed incomes with little to spare

As this area is also populated by a lot of long term residents, probably well over 50% still, there are many people who are retired, on fixed incomes, with little to spare. $30.00 is a non starter for them. 

"Racial Profiling"

 I put this in quotes because that was the term, pre Michael Brown & Eric Garner, that was used to surface the objection. Today it might surface under the heading white privilege or unconscious bias. 

After digging into this a little an listening more, I believe this is really about trust. First, a lack of trust by people of color, some Black folks in particular, of anyone looking like law enforcement. Second a lack of trust in what a group of mostly middle aged white people were doing organizing a patrol in the first place. I was nearly blind to how deeply rooted these feelings are with some people. 

I will first say that these feeling are totally justified. If I was the subject of years of systematic bias I would be suspicious too. 

Next I will say that, to date, this problem to my knowledge has not been realized in any of the private patrol areas I am aware of. Maybe I missed something I should be aware of.

Finally I will say, for the record, that not all people of color feel this way. We, in fact, have one Black person in the current NUDL organizing group and we had another before the end of the CrowdTilt campaign. Additionally one of our former board members has children who are Black. That's not to say NUDL did anything wonderful. It is to say that the subject is VERY complex. 

To underscore that, some of the loudest objections to profiling I heard were at another groups community meeting. These were expressed by a person of middle eastern heritage. Given what this person has likely experienced since 911 I completely understand. 

Regardless, I know this impacted out ability to attract members and continues to impact the effectiveness of crime prevention all across this country.

Time suckage

I, for one, ran out of time and energy. This required multiple days of door to door canvassing, answering a seemingly endless stream of e-mails and posting on Nextdoor.com, taking, making and replying to phone calls & voice mails, setting up meetings, attending meetings ... the list goes on. 

Other patrol associations are seeing attrition and are strapped for the time and resources to recruit. If we go to do this again, a fee for a staff person or management company will be built in, I assure you of that.

NIMBY
There are a couple of pockets in the NUDL area where the residents believe they have historically had much less crime. There were two blocks in particular where NUDL was just not a sell. These totaled about 50 homes. So maybe we lost 5 or 6 members compared to blocks where they feel like crime is a problem. Here again, we need data to assess these perceptions.

If this is true, what can we learn from these blocks? Are there others in Oakland exhibiting the same outcomes? 

Perceptions of effectiveness & statistics

I think people fell into two big group on the pro-forma effectiveness:

1. Even if the data is off by a lot it's better than no improvement.
2. Even if the patrol responds fast, the crooks are going to be here and gone, so what's the difference?

So you have people with a sense of the macro level impact and people who are totally focussed on what it means to them on a per event basis. 

Of course there were a few data nerds like me that wanted to dismiss it because the data sucks. Well, all data sucks. You have to do what you can with it to improve your judgement. 

As I said above we are looking at the bigger data set now to see if we can figure it out. Right now there are too many narrow, one off PowerPoint slides floating around touting that one patrol or another is effective. Without assessment and analysis of context these are interesting but not decisive. If we find that yes, these patrols do show a 40% decrease in crime as compared to not-patrolled areas I will be back out knocking on doors and petitioning the City to start up patrols by civilian OPD staff. 

That would be the biggest no brainer of the century, right? 

What's next for NUDL?

Good question. The six or seven organizers remaining will be meeting over the next couple of months to brainstorm. The list of possible actions is long. 

I feel like we need to find one thing that is highly leveraged with a lasting, positive impact on public safety. It also needs to be something we can do well. 

Volunteer organizations are simply awash in half baked & half done efforts. Great motives & intentions. But, people can't or don't hang in there to see them to completion. I don't personally want to see NUDL be like that. I'd rather shut it down totally. 

That's my nickel. My fellow organizers can probably add different perspectives and I invite everyone to do so. 

NUDL now at 53 members!

We are at 53 members! Thanks everyone.
https://www.crowdtilt.com/campaigns/nudl-private-security-trial/description

-jd

Oakland Tribune Article on Oct. 23, 2013 22X Patrol Summit

Note the Maxwell park membership as of last October was 220. They started with less than 100. Growth there has been the result of nothing more than good experiences with the patrol. 

The idea is selling itself.  -jd


Original Article - http://www.insidebayarea.com/News/ci_24469687/Oakland:-Dimond-District-holds-summit-on

OAKLAND -- Nearly 100 residents gathered at the Dimond Library to hear about the experiences of neighborhoods that have hired private security patrols.

The Oct. 23 event was organized by the Dimond Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council for police beat 22x, which includes the Montera, Woodminster, Lincoln Heights, Oakmore and Dimond neighborhoods. A response to increasing crime and limited police resources in many neighborhoods has been to hire private security patrols.

While these patrols are no substitute for police, they can serve as the eyes and ears of a neighborhood, said Jeff Edman, a steering committee member for the Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council 22x. Many residents feel that their presence has deterred crime.

Resident groups that have organized their neighborhoods from Temescal, Rockridge, Upper Dimond, Oakmore and Maxwell Park shared their experiences about organizing their areas and hiring private patrols.

Doug Drummond, of Oakmore, has created a methodology for organizing neighborhoods that he has shared with neighborhoods around the city. He has helped 13 other neighborhoods organize since April.

"The process is straightforward, but, in reality, it's a lot of work," said Drummond, who spent nearly a year organizing his own neighborhood. "It's all in the planning."

Drummond suggested using websites such as google maps or nextdoor.com to define the neighborhood.

"A word to the wise, beware of the consequences of not planning ahead. Don't focus on your (immediate) neighborhood and close off the cul-de-sac that has no place to go. Expect gerrymandering," Drummond said.

"The more households you have, the cheaper the services will be. You will need at least 50 percent of the households in your targeted area," he continued. "If it doesn't work, shut it down and try again next year."

That was the experience of another Oakmore neighborhood, near Leimert Boulevard, known as "WTLC", for Waterhouse and Tiffin roads, Leimert Boulevard, and Clemens Road, some of the streets that were in their coverage area.

Organizer Leslie Fisher began to coordinate with her neighbors but abandoned the project in May when she realized she didn't have enough households interested in the idea. She joined forces with an adjacent neighborhood that she met at National Night Out, creating a larger group. The price of services dropped per household, enticing more people to join. Today, they are one of the larger patrol groups in the area.

"They were a small but mighty group. They brought energy to our group," said organizer Karen Richmond, whose neighborhood joined forces with Fisher.

"I feel a sense of ease," Fisher said. "I'm not seeing as much activity on the listservs," indicating that the patrols may have done their job in reducing crime, she said.

Neighborhoods are signing up for a variety of packages offered by different companies, including car and foot patrols, patrols on certain days of the week, random patrols or 24/7 patrols. Some companies also offer vacation patrols and nighttime escort services.

Some groups form a nonprofit to collect money in advance from residents, and then enter into a single contract. Other neighborhoods, such as Maxwell Park, bargain collectively, after which each individual household enters into a contract with the security company.

The Maxwell Park neighborhood is a well-defined area of 1 square mile with about 2,400 homes and 7,000 residents, said Jose Dorado, one of the neighborhood's organizers. To date, 220 houses have entered into individual contracts with a private security company picked by the group. The group did extensive outreach, using neighborhood listservs, postcards and phone calls and walking door-to-door to gather support for the project.

Paul Liu, from lower Rockridge, had a different approach. After a string of crimes, culminating in the robberies of commuters at the casual carpool spot in his neighborhood, interest peaked for hiring private security, but his community wasn't organized, Liu said.

Liu turned to Crowdtilt, a web-based crowdfunding platform used to support a wide variety of activities, from disaster relief to political campaigns to startups. Within a couple of days, Liu had more than enough interest to fund a four-month trial with a private security provider.

"It helps to have a well-defined package to offer," Liu said.

Claire Cooper, a neighborhood organizer from the Laurel neighborhood, cautioned groups to shop carefully. Her group of 20 homes each paid $30 a month for Bay Alarm patrols to pass by four to six times a day at random hours. However, Cooper suspected that the patrols were occurring less frequently.

"They unilaterally reduced the patrols because we didn't have enough houses," Cooper said.

Cooper also said that crime rates skyrocketed in the area. The group is now looking for other services.

"We were too quick to run into the arms of Bay Alarm," Cooper said.

Bay Alarm customers can access logs for their area online to verify when their streets have been patrolled.

"We are part of the community. We are not just here to make money. I take every complaint seriously," said Limor Margalit, regional sales manager for Bay Alarm.

"It's a personal decision," said Bruce Stoffmacher, a community liaison for District 4 Councilmember Libby Schaaf's office. "One benefit of the process is that neighbors will get to know each other. That's positive."

NUDL Enrollment Now Over 35%!

We now have 36 users who have pledged $3,350.00. Thank you everyone!

Best,
John

Online enrollment for NUDL is up ...

Check it out, please.

https://www.crowdtilt.com/campaigns/nudl-private-security-trial

Rockridge Data ... well ... Rocks!

Courtesy of the Rockridge & Temescal Organizers. 

Our neighbors in Rockridge implemented security patrols November 4 of last year for a 4-month trial period, and will be seeking to continue patrols after the trial period. The Rockridge patrol organizers have released a report produced by Ph.D. economist Paul Liu. Dr. Liu analyzed crime trends using data from the “official” crime data site for Oakland, CrimeMapping.com, and found that crime in Lower Rockridge is down by 46% relative to what it would have been absent the patrols, 45% after accounting for possible displacement. See the full report at http://goo.gl/P3aRXb. 

Now that I have your attention - Help! We need additional board members. Please e-mail me at jdelaney44@gmail.com.

Clarification - OPD response to security company calls

It has been brought to my attention that Capt. Orozco and a couple other police officers have said very recently that security companie do OPD does not respond to calls from patrols any faster than calls from citizens.
(corrected 12-Feb-14 - jd)

I will contact Capt. Orozco as soon as I can to see if there is any thing else we need to know here. 

This is contrary to information that I have heard unofficially at three different neighborhood meetings.

This does not dilute the fact that a patrol officer will be in the neighborhood during the hours we finally set and will respond to us. It also does not dilute the fact that, in my personal experience, OPD responds to calls based on the seriousness of the matter.

I also want to remind everyone that if you see something that you believe is an emergency, call 911 first regardless of your situation with an alarm or security company.

The FAQ has been updated below to reflect this information.