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NEIGHBORHOOD COP! !

Three year old David Steele hangs on Terrance Allen like an ornament on a Christmas tree. Whichever way Allen turns, little David is right there.

Allen is one of the best things that has ever happened to David. Terrance Allen is a police officer and he is David Steele's neighbor. Allen's presence means David can play outside almost any time he wants and know the same safety of other three year olds.

Allen is one of three Elgin Illinois police officers participating in the experimental Resident Officer Program. He has become the consummate "beat cop" with one exception — his beat is also his own neighborhood. Allen and two other police officers volunteered for a daring program which places police officers into troubled neighborhoods as residents to maximize police presence.

The Resident Officer Program moved Allen and his family into a federally subsidized housing unit, Illinois Court, which was overrun with gangs, shootings, and drug dealing. Today, David Steele and other little children, including Allen's own son and daughter, play in the "courts" without fear of stray bullets or menacing street gangs.

Elgin Police Chief Charles Gruber implemented the Resident Officer Program in the Spring of 1991 as part of a three-pronged approach to fighting crime and reclaiming some of Elgin's neighborhoods. Department volunteers become both neighbor and police officer, erasing feelings of abandonment and misgivings about personal safety which helps renew a commitment between the community and its neighborhoods. Early results say this dramatic change in law enforcement is having a positive effect on crime and the residents' perception of their neighborhoods. It is also the zenith of community-oriented policing, which is the theory of Professor Herman Goldstein of the University of Wisconsin Law School.

Once the home of the Elgin National Watch Company, Elgin has suffered many of the plights of mid-western America beginning in the mid-1970s with several challenges lingering — a distressed central business district, older neighborhoods showing their years, increased gang activity, and the Alienation of those living in crowded and substandard housing. When Chief Gruber arrived in Elgin in June 1990, he found an ethnically, socially, and economically diverse community of 77,000, located 35 miles northwest of Chicago. The 1990 census figures increased 20% over the previous census with a demographic base of 4% Southeast Asian, 1% Black, 19% Hispanic, and 70% Caucasian.

USA TEAM BEGINS THE PROCESS

A police team called the Unit for Special Assignments (USA Team), comprised of a sergeant and five patrol officers, targets a specific neighborhood or troubled area in the city. This may be an apartment complex, cul-de-sac, dead-end street, neighborhood park or similar setting where residents are afraid to leave their homes and have a strong belief the community and the police department can do little to aid them due to gang activity, drug sales, burglaries, etc.

"Many of the residents have the impression that the police department is ineffective in dealing with gangs and may even be in league with them. They feel helpless and alone, so we saturate the area with heavy police protection on a short term basis," Chief Gruber said. "However, we know that as soon as we leave, the problems will return — so we have to take the process a step further."

SUBSTATIONS INCREASE POLICE PRESENCE

In order to provide a sustained presence after the USA Team has made an impact, police substations were opened. Two troubled areas of the city were selected: Crestwood-Huntington Park, a Section 8 housing complex, and a second complex called The Mill. Both were plagued with relatively high numbers of police calls for burglaries, thefts, drinking, loud music, fights, drug activity, and shootings.

In March of 1991, a single family apartment was donated by the Crestwood-Huntington Park complex to be used as the headquarters for the USA Team. The unit now serves as an around-the-clock substation for the Elgin Police Department. Patrol Officer Jesse Rouse, a 22 year veteran, was assigned as one of three police officers to the substation. At first he didn't want to go. "I thought it would just be aggravation after aggravation," he said. "There are 430 units here which are about 70-80 percent Hispanic. We had no idea how many people live here because there are as many as ten people living in one apartment. When I first came out here, people were sitting outside on cars and in doorways, playing music, drinking beer, and urinating in the street. On Sundays, soccer goals were set up in the street which would close off one portion of the complex. We met with the management and made a map of the complex, identifying problem units and residents who were causing the most trouble, and began walking the neighborhood," he said.

"I walked around and met as many people as I could and explained what were doing. Then I started telling these groups that things were going to change and this kind of nonsense was going to stop. I'd give them ten minutes to pick up their bottles, put the beer away, and move along. Gradually, it began to work."

For Officer Rouse, the change in the attitude of the people in the complex has been one of the most dramatic turnarounds in his police career. "The kids love me," he said. "On school days there will be 250 kids at various bus stops in the complex and I know most of them. I break up scuffles and stop the swearing and tell them we're not going to tolerate that kind of thing out here anymore." Rouse and the other officers worked closely with management to identify gang members in order to evict them from the complex. In the seven months since the police department moved in, the change has been dramatic.

March 1992 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 13


Officer Cecil Smith has had a similar experience at The Mill, where residents once feared opening their doors after dark. "The neighborhood was overrun by prostitution, open and notorious drug dealings, and gangs. We got together with the management and weeded out the troublemakers. I'd say the problems are 80 percent solved," Smith said. This past summer he encouraged the residents to have a picnic, which if tried a year ago, may have been marked by violence and dominated by gangs.

Chief Gruber said, "As we meet people in the neighborhoods and talk to them about their problems on a daily basis, we build trust within the community."

RESIDENT OFFICERS MOVE IN FOR THIRD PHASE

If police presence in the community in a non-threatening atmosphere is successful, why not place police officers in residences in troubled areas. The officers work on their own as problems arise, reporting to a sergeant who monitors the program.

After police administrators researched and analyzed problem spots, three areas were targeted. The first area has a large Hispanic and black population with gang and drug activity which is currently being reclaimed by young middle class residents interested in rehabilitating some of the 100 year old homes. This area offers the program high visibility because of the city's desire to return that neighborhood from decay to prosperity and the strong presence of a neighborhood group.

The second area is the Neighborhood Housing Services district. Homeowners in this area are eligible for low cost loans and a variety of other incentive programs designed to encourage rehabilitation and renovation of older structures. Also in that neighborhood is the Elgin Academy, a prestigious college preparatory school nearly as old as the city itself.

The final location for this experimental program is in a federally subsidized housing project located adjacent to a middle school in a poor section of the city, which contains many social service centers, small parks, and the parking area for the school district's fleet of buses. This area has been the scene of many shootings.

Patrol Officer Brian Gorcowski, who lives in the Elgin Academy neighborhood, has taken police work to new levels. In addition to being a neighbor and friend, he has been a marriage counsellor, social worker, and employment agency. His neighbors know him and are comforted by his presence.

Officer Gorcowski epitomizes what had been envisioned with this program. He knows the names of the people in his community, and more importantly, they know and trust him. In the first six months of the Resident Officer Program, he quickly affirmed that lack of employment contributes to the feelings of abandonment, which fosters drinking, aggressive behavior, and ultimately crime. He took it upon himself to find jobs for three people in his neighborhood.

Page 14 / Illinois Municipal Review / March 1992


"One guy with whom I had a hard time getting acquainted was well known to the police and didn't really trust me. He said he wanted to work but his record kept him from getting a job, so I called people at factories around here and was able to get him a job. I told him he had to be straight up and work, and so far he has. I didn't hear from him for a long time. He never said thanks until several months later when I received a call from him about 11:30 p.m. He told me that he really didn't want people to see him talking to me but just wanted to thank me for the job."

Officer Gorcowski has found that his neighbors consider him "their police officer" and only want to deal with him. "One time a lady called me at 3 a.m. and asked me to call an ambulance for her. She wanted me to do it because she said she felt better dealing with me because she knew me. That's what I see a lot of. People want to tell me things because I am their police officer. They know me because I live here and I'm going to be here for two years," he said.

A three year resident of the area, Vera Van Wambeke, would never let her children leave their yards before Officer Gorcowski arrived. She said, "They were dealing drugs right from this house. There were creepy people running through backyards and one night a bunch of them were out here fighting with baseball bats. Now because Brian is here, it has settled down and I feel a lot safer and so do all the kids. Kids get into scrapes, but Brian is always around and he's really good with them. He gets to the bottom of what really happened and they respect him." Christmas cards from neighbors hang on the wall of Gorcowski's apartment as testament to that.

"The Resident Officer Program is a great idea because it is a tailor-made program. It's not a police officer getting out of a squad car that deals with problems, it's the neighbor down the street that the residents know," he said.

Patrol Officer Allan Holder concurs. Holder, who lives and works in the historic district, has different law enforcement challenges than Gorcowski. The Gifford Park Association, a neighborhood organization, has donated $800 to help Officer Holder utilize the efforts of people sentenced to perform community service in that neighborhood.

"The (three-tiered) program is well integrated," Holder said. "The USA Team moves in and cleans up the neighborhood and we come in to maintain what they accomplished. The people see us in action. They see us run off the troublemakers and then move in to make sure they don't come back. The good people really appreciate us and are glad we're here."

Norda Landers, one of those "good people" Officer Holder referred to, is a 27 year resident of the area. Landers can't say enough about her neighbor and police

March 1992 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 15


officer. "He's Just been such a positive factor," she said in the doorway of her newly rehabbed 102 year old home. "The neighborhood was going downhill, but now the gangs have disappeared and it's nice again. I just redid my house (a massive project which involved restoring the home to be historically correct) and so did my neighbor. Al and I even had coffee together this morning," she said.

Patrol Officer Terry Allen's wife and children moved into the Illinois Court housing project with him — but not until he was sure it was safe.

Shortly before Christmas, Allen stood with his son and another preschooler in front of his apartment. Though the complex bares the scars of previous battles, the environment has changed to reflect a working man's neighborhood. "When they used to send a squad car here, no one wanted to come," Allen said. "When I moved in, people were pretty skeptical. I didn't get any cooperation but I never felt uncomfortable. When I'd come upon a group sitting out in front of their apartments drinking, I started by telling them I didn't want to see alcohol on the court anymore — and they moved along. Gradually as people saw I was serious, they began to help me. One resident even asked his guests to leave because they were causing trouble. Now we don't have congregations of people out here anymore. The kids are even able to come out and play in the summer."

To help improve his new neighborhood, Allen passed out a questionnaire asking residents to identify problems. When he learned that the largest single complaint was unsupervised children, he initiated programs to keep them busy. One field trip involved an obstacle course where children had to work together to overcome obstacles. A camping trip to a nearby Boy Scout camp was scheduled and other activities kept the children busy and out of trouble. "Kids can't stay away from me," Allen says sheepishly.

But others can. "The word is out — stay away from my court," he says.

Resident James Smith remembers what happened just days before Allen moved in. "There was a party in one of the other buildings that got out of hand. When the gangs showed up and somebody started shooting, I came back home. We couldn't let our kids (ages 5, 3, and 1 1/2) outside because of all the people just hanging around. Now, that's all gone and they can play outside whenever they want. It's nice to live here."

Cindy Steele, little David's mother agreed, "I have five kids and it used to be pretty bad around here, but Officer Allen has made a big difference, especially to the kids."

Is finding work for the unemployed and taking kids to daycamps a part of police work?

While evaluation of an experimental program like this is difficult, the results are encouraging. "When I called Washington to ask for federal assistance in evaluating the program, they just laughed," Gruber recalls. "They said we couldn't do that because it won't work. However, it is working and may drastically alter traditional approaches to police work. It builds trust with the

Page 16 / Illinois Municipal Review / March 1992


community and improves the perception that the police are there and are trying to make their lives better. This is a two year program but a long term process. There is no quick fix to deteriorating neighborhoods in our cities. It's like fixing the nation's decaying infrastructure — it takes time and commitment."

"We have to determine if there is a key evaluative tool to decide if the program is working. Calls for service in some of these areas are higher but we would expect them to be because we are encouraging people to contact us. Serious crime is down but the evaluation process goes beyond that. We need to look in the future at the teenage pregnancy rate and the dropout rate from schools to see if we are having a positive impact on the quality of life in these areas. If we can enhance the quality of life and make the area safe enough for people to live in without the fear of crime, we allow education, religion and family to thrive. The value setting influences in young people's lives can't prosper in a gang infested environment. Gangs and drugs degrade and negate the benefit of family and a strong moral structure. If we can remove the perception of fear, abandonment and Alienation to allow society's normal moral structure to prosper, we can remove the fundamental causes of crime." •


Ninth Annual
Illinois Women in Government Conference
April 8-10, 1992

State Capital Complex - Springfield, Illinois

Reshaping the Agenda: The Impact of Women on Public Policy

Date/Time: Wednesday, April 8 - (6 pm) - Friday, April 10 - (2 pm)
Registration Fee: IWIG Members $50
Non-Members $65
Non-Members joining IWIG* $75*
Full-time Students $40
Friday Breakfast Annual Meeting $6.50
*includes $25 annual membership fee

PROGRAM TOPICS

"Mediaspeak"
Politics of Women's Health
Electability of Women in the 1990s
Choice and the Electoral Process
Building and Leading a Winning Team
Realities of Financing Women's Campaigns
Family Leave: Pro-Family or Anti-Business
Ethics: Using or Abusing the Powers of Office
Sexual Harassment: Your Rights and Obligations

PRESENTERS
(partial list in alphabetical order)

• Bridget Arimond, Director, Women's Law Project
• Hon. Carol Moseley Braun, Cook County Recorder of Deeds
• Susan Bryant, political consultant, R.S.M.
• Dr. Alice Dan, Society for the Advancement of Medical Research on Women
• Dr. Debra Dobson, Center for the American Woman and Politics
• Vivian Eveloff, Missouri Women's Action Fund
• Hon. Jim Edgar, Governor, State of Illinois (invited)
• Dr. Louise Fitzgerald, University of Illinois professor
• Hon. Virginia Macdonald, Illinois State Senator
• Vicki Gordon Martin, Gordon Martin Associates
• Hon. Dawn Clark Netsch, Illinois State Comptroller
• Janice Steinschneider, Center for Policy Alternatives
• Lynn Sweet, Chicago Sun Times
• Dr. Eileen Trzcinski, Consumer Economics & Housing, Cornell University
• Harriet Woods (invited), President. National Women's Political Caucus

For additional information: Illinois Women in Government
c/o 707 Stratton Building
Springfield, IL 62706
217/782-6924

March 1992 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 17


IML ANNUAL CONFERENCE
PROCEDURES FOR
CONFERENCE REGISTRATION AND HOTEL RESERVATIONS

1. Complete the form included in this issue of the "Review".

2. For Conference Registration enclose a check for the type of registration requested.

3. For Hotel Accommodation Reservations:

a. Guarantee room with credit card; or

b. Submit a letter signed by the Mayor and the Municipal Treasurer requesting direct billing to your municipality. You must indicate billing for room charges only, or room charges and incidentals (i.e., room service, etc.)

4. Upon receipt of your Registration Form we will forward your room requirements to the Hilton Hotel. The hotel will mail confirmation of your room assignment directly to you. The hotel will also advise the League office of your room confirmation number as a double check to assure us that your reservations have been made.

5. Those requesting a suite may do so by advising this office. Suites are $200 for parlor and one bedroom and $250 for parlor and two bedrooms.

6. The hotel will not accept reservations other than from this office. For those who have made reservations with the hotel prior to February 1st, your reservations will be honored upon receipt of your Conference Registration by this office. Otherwise your room reservation is subject to cancellation.

This new procedure has become necessary to assure only those municipal officials, exhibitors and other commercial attendees registered for the conference will be afforded accommodations.

ON SITE REGISTRATION
WILL BE AVAILABLE
FOR PERSONS NOT REQUIRING
A HOTEL ROOM

Page 18 / Illinois Municipal Review / March 1992


79TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Thursday, October 8 - Sunday, October 11, 1992
* REGISTRATION FORM *

Please type or print:

NAME:________________________________

TITLE:________________________________

CITY OR ORGANIZATION:____________________

ADDRESS:______________________________

CITY:_________________________________

STATE:___________ ZIP:_________________

TELEPHONE: (     )________________________

 SPOUSE       GUEST

FULL NAME:____________________________

Please check the applicable Conference Registration fee and enter total fees in the right hand column:

ADVANCED REGISTRATION FEES
FULL REGISTRATION

 $80 Municipal Official Full Reg. $__________

 $65 Spouse of Official Full Reg. $__________

 $95 Commercial Full Registration $___________

 $85 Spouse of Commercial Full Reg. $__________

(Full Registration includes all sessions. Get Acquainted Party, President's Reception, Annual Banquet, Annual Luncheon, and Spouses Continental Breakfast)

PARTIAL REGISTRATION

 $50 Municipal Official Partial Reg. $__________

 $35 Spouse of Official Partial Reg. $__________

 $60 Commercial Partial Registration $__________

 $45 Spouse of Comm. Partial Reg. $__________

 $40 *Banquet and Floorshow $__________

 $15 *Spouses Continental Breakfast $__________

 $15 *Annual Luncheon $__________

(Partial registration includes all sessions. Get Acquainted Party, and President's Reception.)

* Must be registered to purchase these tickets

TOTAL: $_________

Make check payable for the total amount of the conference registration fees to:

ILLINOIS MUNICIPAL LEAGUE
500 EAST CAPITOL AVENUE
P.O. BOX 3387
SPRINGFIELD, IL 62708-3387

Cancellation letters must be postmarked by September 20, 1992. Later cancellations are subject to a $30 cancellation fee.
No telephone registrations or cancellations will be accepted.

HOTEL ACCOMMODATIONS
RESERVATION REQUEST

 Please make my hotel reservation as indicated below

 I do not require hotel accommodations at hotels listed

 Please contact me regarding suite information

Arrival Date: ____/____/____ Time:____

Departure Date: ____/____/____ Time:____

CREDIT CARD AUTHORIZATION

Major Credit Card:__________________________

Card Number:__________________________

Expiration Date:__________________________

Card Holder Name:________________________

The Illinois Municipal League is authorized to use the above card to guarantee my hotel reservation. I understand that one night's room charge will be billed through this card if I fail to show up for my assigned housing on the confirmed date unless I have cancelled my reservation with the hotel at least 48 hours in advance.

Indicate your first-choice hotel with the number 1. Number other hotels from 2 to 5 in order of your preference. You must number all hotels.

CHOICE HOTEL SINGLE DOUBLE
 Hilton $87 $112
 Hilton Towers $185 $255
 Palmer House $87 $112
 Swissotel $87 $112
 Congress $87 $112
 Smoking  Non Smoking

Plus 14.9 % State and Local Room Tax.

All major credit cards are accepted at the above hotels for room deposits and/or guarantees.

All sessions will be held at the Chicago Hilton Hotel.

FOR OFFICE USE ONLY
Ck #______________ Type_______ Date:______
Ck #______________ Type_______ Date:______

STH____________ Date________Int________

March 1992 / Illinois Municipal League / Page 19


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