In phase 2 of their efforts to build a safer Pine Bluff, the United Citizens of Pine Bluff held a Neighborhood Watch Town Hall meeting for the Third Ward on Tuesday to discuss the survey results of a six-week public safety survey conducted in January.
Led by Kymara Seals, Kerry Williams, Rep. Vivian Flowers and Michael McCray, with well over 50 volunteers, the group sought to find solutions to help solve the violence and crime in Pine Bluff.
In May the organization presented the survey results that targeted the Police Department and various other issues to the City Council, city officials and department heads. Some of the same data was presented to Third Ward residents who met at First Baptist Church at 4500 Faucett Road.
In the survey, almost 55% of the respondents said they felt safe in Pine Bluff, while 40.2% did not feel safe and 5% felt very safe within the community. Some 20.5% of respondents said they did not feel safe at night in their homes.
Regarding the Police Department, 63.9% felt the police were responsive to their needs, 71.6% noted they had not been a victim of a crime in the past three years, 23.7% had been victimized and reported it to the police, and 4.7% did not notify the police of a crime.
[DOCUMENT: Read the United Citizens of Pine Bluff Survey » arkansasonline.com/826survey]
When asked if they felt that Pine Bluff police are honest and ethical when dealing with residents, 43.9% were neutral, 41% agreed; and 15.1% disagreed. When asked if they trusted the police, 40.7% were neutral, 40.4% agreed and 18.9% disagreed.
The top three issues from the survey results were gun violence, homicide and gang activity. Hot spots from 2010 to 2020 included:
• School Street to Needles Drive and South Richard Drive to North Richard Drive
• Roane Avenue to Pullen Street
• Shady Grove neighborhood
• Eighth Avenue to 31st Avenue and Olive Street to Fir Street
• 21st Ave. to 26th Avenue and Georgia Street to Pennsylvania Street
• Ohio Street to Commerce Road and Sixth Avenue to Belmoor Drive
Concerns from Third Ward residents included getting parents more involved in their children's lives, getting young people to respect the police, reporting crime and trusting the Police Department.
"There this perception that the 'Don't Snitch campaign' has won and no one is speaking out and no one is working with the police officers," said Flowers, D-Pine Bluff, adding more cases are being solved at a greater percentage than expected. "If we had a little bit more cooperation we could help our law enforcement do more."
Council member Ivan Whitfield represents the Third Ward along with Glen Brown Sr., who was also present at the meeting. Whitfield said neighbors and citizens needed to call the police before things got out of control in the neighborhood.
"It's not snitching, it's taking care of the neighborhood," said Whitfield. "If you don't call it in because you know Mrs. Sally's son is on the corner, then next week we got five young men on that corner ... now it's out of hand."
Harvest Lambert said they fill out nuisance sheets during their neighborhood watch meetings, only to have the neighborhood watch coordinator respond that the drug enforcement officer wants the civilian to get out and take pictures and surveil the area.
"We're doing their job," Lambert said. "You got 10 cars going in and out within 30 minutes. You see the people walking out in the rain to the cars. If we are going to have to get all the details, then we don't need the police department because we are doing their job."
Pastor Mack Koehler of The Refuge Church, 5400 Windham Road, said he knew where a couple of drug houses were but doesn't call them in due to the fear of retaliation.
"When I was growing up in Pine Bluff we used to have a number that was a drug hotline, an anonymous hotline you could call and report drug activity," he said. "If you knew you could call this hotline, then people would call in."
Many people expressed that when they do call the police, they show up hours later and lack the will to do their job.
Koehler recanted a shooting that happened in broad daylight near his church where children was present outdoors and witnessed the entire scenario.
"They shot four or five times out of a car and they weren't worried about hiding anything. They came to take care of business," Koehler said, adding a bunch of small children were playing in the yard the suspects targeted. "The police were called and when they showed up they never questioned none of the witnesses that seen the whole thing."
Some of the open-ended responses in the survey, according to Williams, said if they file a police report, their name is now on the document and the person they are calling on can see who made the complaint. She also said the distrust with the police was because citizens felt a lot of the police officers are involved with the gangs and are doing a lot of illegal activity.
"I don't know who hired some of the officers we have in Pine Bluff," said interim Chief Lloyd Franklin who said some things are going to come out that are going to be "kind of embarrassing."
"Some of them need to be working somewhere else and that's the honest-to-God truth," Franklin added.
Deputy Chief Shirley Warrior, who was born and raised in Pine Bluff and has more than 30 years with the department, said it's not just a department problem.
"It takes everybody in Pine Bluff to help correct the problems. It just didn't start with the police," she said. "Do we have bad police? Yes we do. Do we have bad teachers and bad ministers? Yes we do and some of the complaints are 'they sell drugs, they are gang bangers.'"
Warrior said she is vested to look after the community but the ball has been dropped and it is up to everyone to do their part to get it done.
"I got concerns. Do I feel safe when I hear gunshots? I get on the floor just like y'all do," Warrior said, not knowing if the gunshots are in her home or her neighbor's. "Not putting the blame off the police, because when we took that oath we took responsibility to provide safety in our community, but again it's going to take everyone involved. We know we got issues."
Franklin said not all of the police are bad and some have even signed up on their off days to enforce a new initiative called Blue Rain, a special assignment targeted to clean up the crime in Pine Bluff.
He also said an ongoing problem is the activity occurring from people who are not from the community.
"We are going hard two-deep in every car that we have on the streets," Franklin said. He added police will patrol the hot spot areas throughout the city.
"This is our town. I'm not going to call the state police or the FBI," he said.
Franklin said his officers are buying into his initiative but some of the command staff are not happy about it blaming politics as one of the reasons for the disconnect in the department.
Solutions were offered during the meeting as Teki Hunt, the director of 4-H Youth Development at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, talked about her experience volunteering at the juvenile detention center.
"These kids aren't afraid to go to juvie," said Hunt, who has been a volunteer at the center for over three years. "In talking to these kids, they are not afraid to go to juvie because at the juvenile detention center they are protected. Nobody can jump on them and beat them up, they don't have to worry about getting shot and they get three full meals a day."
Hunt suggested that talking and engaging with the troubled youth will clarify some of their behaviors. In conversing with some of the juveniles, Hunt said they have expressed how the teachers and the detention center care about them, help them obtain their GED and being locked up is better than being free.
"Every teacher can't give that one-on-one themselves; we have to volunteer," Hunt said. She mentioned the city started a mentoring program and people didn't show up to be mentors.
"If we don't show them that we care about them, they are going to take care of each other the best way that they know how," Hunt said.
Council member Brown suggested more tickets be issued during the day to help get guns off the streets and frequent patrol during the neighborhoods at night.
"At night time if we just cut those blue lights on and go to those patrolled areas, they may not have that much trouble because they want to get away," Brown said. "If they see the blue lights, it's a chance they won't commit the crime they want to commit."
The next town hall meeting is scheduled for Tuesday at the Reynolds Building at 6:30 p.m. for First Ward residents.