Little Rock announced its rebranding of the city's 13 neighborhood alert centers Friday by unveiling the Wright Avenue center's new name -- the Wright Avenue Neighborhood Resource Center.
The renaming is one recommendation of several included in an assessment report delivered to city officials in April. The city commissioned the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's Institute of Government to study the alert centers and assess their effectiveness at a cost of $25,000.
The report's co-author, Christopher Diaz, told the Little Rock Board of Directors in April that the study found the centers are "highly popular with the neighborhoods," but underfunded. The recommendation to change the name to resource center was based on the idea of broadcasting to the community what the centers actually provide, the report said.
While they were established in 1991 to address escalating gang and drug problems throughout the city, over time they've morphed into a place to provide information about city services and resources for a neighborhood.
"What we found is that over the years, the alert center concept and idea has evolved. It has changed, and being so our service to the citizens has changed," Housing and Neighborhood Program Director Andre Bernard told the Wright Avenue residents at the news conference Friday. "We are not only rebranding what we call the alert centers, but we are hoping that our alert centers now are going to be a service, a resource and continue to be a vital center of the community."
City officials also announced Friday that they have re-established the community-oriented police officer positions known as COPPs. These are the officers that patrol a neighborhood on foot or while riding a bicycle or a horse.
The positions were defunded about 2008. As of last week, however, 13 officers began their new positions, Police Chief Kenton Buckner said. Seven will patrol the downtown area, four are stationed in the southwest part of the city and another two are in northwest Little Rock.
"COPPs do root-cause problem solving," Buckner said. "They have the extra time to try to get to the root of some of the problems that have been historical issues in our crime-infested communities. They look at it from a community standpoint."
City Manager Bruce Moore said the officers are an "integral" part of neighborhood safety and quality of life because "they are out during the day getting to know the residents and talking about the residents' concerns."
Along with the name change of the resource center at 1813 Wright Ave., the employees at the centers also got new titles. Those who were once called facilitators will now be referred to as neighborhood resource center specialists. The title change was recommended in UALR's report, which referred to a morale problem among the center employees.
Low pay, duplication of duties, the need for resources, and need for training and professional development were issues cited in the report as contributing to the morale problem. Bernard said Friday after the news conference that his department has added training and team-building exercises.
Code enforcement officers are also employed out of each alert center and the specialists are being asked to communicate better with the code officers when they see violations in the neighborhood so that work isn't duplicated, Bernard said.
With the announced rebranding of the centers, city officials hope residents will utilize the centers more and that they will serve as a place for the community to get information or help with any city-related issues, officials said.
"They are a place to congregate and to get to know each other and be a part of a family and community," Mayor Mark Stodola said during the news conference. "It's my earnest, earnest desire that this process -- now that we've evolved -- is something that will continue to grow as a real nexus for our community to grow."
A final recommendation in the UALR report that wasn't mentioned during Friday's event was the one to expand the centers to other areas of the city. That recommendation became a point of contention at the April board meeting when the report was delivered. Some city directors said they needed proof that the centers have served their purpose in order to approve more funding toward the concept.
"When we first started these, they were strictly to stabilize fragile areas of the city, and now they have evolved, as I hear, into this mini City Hall essentially. Convenience is something we want to have for people, but the reasons we have these centers is to make neighborhoods safer and better. I didn't hear anything in your report where you can tell me with any certainty how this made any area safer or better," At-large Director Dean Kumpuris said during that April meeting.
Vice Mayor and Ward 6 Director Doris Wright shared a similar sentiment at that meeting, but also said the board has fallen short in supporting the centers.
"The concept had been to put these centers in high-crime, poverty areas that were on the decline and need stabilization and revitalization. I don't think we achieved that," Wright said in April. "We need to evaluate why we put them where they are and see if we have eliminated issues we put them there for, and then you can expand. If they can't effect change right where they are, something is wrong. And if it's resources that they need, then we need to give it to them."
Metro on 08/09/2014