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.

Door to Door Walk Around Saturday 08-Feb-2014 10:00 a.m.

We will be walking about Upper Dimond / Lincoln Heights this Saturday @10:00 a.m. The plan is to knock on doors, spread the word, and pass out some printed information about the patrol organizing effort. 

AND of course meet more of our neighbors. That's really the best part!

We need your help!

If you are interested, please e-mail me at 

jdelaney44@gmail.com

I will then provide you with additional details. 

Best,
John

Alternative

I received an interesting suggestion. Why not organize people who are regularly out walking around either for exercise, with their dogs, or whatever? It's possible. We could probably work out something with radios or cell phones. However there are two points I want to make about the idea and how the patrol overcomes some gaps.

First
During the week days the walking starts at about 4:30 a.m. and is pretty much a wrap by 10:00 a.m. It does not begin again until about 2:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. Then it's over by 8:00 ish although the evening has a longer tail on it. (These are my personal observations over the last two years working at home)

The patrol as proposed at least plugs the mid day gap.

Second
This is not just about patrol. It is also about response. As designed the officer will be able to respond to a call or an alarm trip(assuming you've set that up with your alarm company) in 5 minutes or less. (I'm targeting 3 minutes, we'll see). Walkers are not going to be able to do that.

Should we fail to raise enough interest in a private patrol based on a dedicated car and a dedicate patrol officer this is definitely something to consider. 

Internet Resources

Just posting this in case anyone is not aware of these sites:

We were on KTVU!
http://www.ktvu.com/videos/news/oakland-neighbors-take-crime-problems-into-their/vCPtJw/

Nextdoor.com
https://nextdoor.com/
Nextdoor is like a Facebook for just your neighborhood. You need to submit your address to join. It's nice because the postings are from and about events and issues that are local to us.

Yahoo Groups
http://groups.yahoo.com/neo
Yahoo Groups are discussion groups set up by people who are trying to communicate about specific issues. There may be a Yahoo Group for your street. You can search Yahoo Groups using your street name or some other name like the name of your area to see if there is a group for that.

Also, check with your immediate neighbors, they may know about a group for your specific block or area.

I don't post these groups publicly as the moderators often want only their blocks or smaller neighborhoods to know about them.

22X NCPC
http://oakland22x.org/
The 22X NCPC (Neighboorhood Crime Prevention Council) is a body created as a part of City of Oakland and OPD efforts to build direct lines of communication between neighborhoods and the OPD officers assigned to them.

22X is a “beat” covering part of the Dimond area roughly to the north / northwest of Coolidge.

22Y NCPC
http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/BHJM_NCPC/info
22Y is essentially the same as 22X but to the south / south east of Coolidge. This is group is restricted. I've posted this one because 22Y is relatively well known.

Dimond Improvement Association (DIA) (added 03-Feb-14 - JD)

eMail List Serv -
Dimond@lists.lmi.net is an e-mail list supported by the members of the Dimond Improvement Association. Shop local!

To post just end an e-mail to dimond@lists.lmi.net   I believe this list is moderated. I don't know how fast messages get posted.

To join:
I think you can send an e-mail saying you want to join to - dimond-request@lists.lmi.net
(That's what I did anyway ...)

Manage your account (unsubscribe) at:
http://lists.lmi.net/mailman/listinfo/dimond

More information about DIA at:
http://www.dimondnews.org/dia


Join & manage your account at:
http://lists.lmi.net/mailman/listinfo/dimond


Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the DIA.

CrimeMapping.com
http://www.crimemapping.com/
Pretty much what it says (added 23-Feb-2014 -jd)

Spotcrime
http://spotcrime.com
Spotcrime is a site that allows you to gather and do some basic analysis of crime data.

Walk Around Results - Feb 1st.

www.blessdesigns.com.au

Thanks to everyone who helped today with the walk around. Once more we were able to speak with many neighbors who were friendly, receptive, and who engaged us in meaningful conversation. We are very fortunate to live in a great community. It is worth defending.

I have already heard from two folks who will definitely become members. If the last walk around we did is any indication that number will grow this week a good bit.



We will be doing at least two more walk arounds on:

• Feb 8th 
• Feb 15th or 16th

Please leave a comment here if you are interested in helping with the walk arounds.

See below for the FAQs, there have been a couple of additions and clarifications.

Also, check out KTVU tonight or tomorrow night. We had a super nice crew from KTVU along with us for most of the day today. I'm really glad they have taken an interest in this story. 

Reminder - Walk Around Saturday Feb 1st.

Reminder, we will be meeting at 4015 Coolidge at 10:00 a.m. Saturday Feb 1. to go door to door to let folks know about our efforts to organize a private neighborhood security patrol. See below for more information.

Thanks!

Launch Message

Lincoln Heights

Private Neighborhood Patrol Organizing

Launch Message - 29-Jan-2014

Join us Saturday Feb 1st, 2014 @ 4015 Coolidge to help walk the neighborhood and spread the word.

What are we doing?

We are organizing our neighbor hood for the purpose of hiring a private security patrol. This patrol will utilize a dedicate car and dedicated patrol officer.

Where will the patrol be?

The patrol will cover the area above Macarthur to the top of Lincoln Heights between Coolidge and Lincoln.

When will the patrol be on duty?

That depends on enrollment. Other groups near us have started with 4 – 5 hours a day, five days a week and are expanding to 8 hours a day as their member ship grows.

What is this projected to cost me?

We are projecting between $25.00 - $30.00 per month per household which will be collected three months at a time.

How can I help?

1.)         Volunteer to be an association board member or block coordinator, AND / OR

2.)         Let us know you want to become a regular member of the association