Standing tall and confident, Syracuse Chief of Police, Frank Fowler, reflected on the STOP-IN program.
“When I first became the Chief of Police,” Fowler said. “One of the mandates that the mayor gave me, try to come up with a way to turn around our neighborhoods.”
A big step was beginning the STOP-IN program. Fowler opened portible police office spaces, what he called PODS, in local neighborhoods.
“It’s a pretty aggressive strategy,” he said. “Within the first week, they are required to identify the top five problems in those neighborhoods. Within that very same week, I want them to resolve the top three of the five problems.”
Officers that are assigned to the PODS can walk the street and give face-time to neighbors in the surrounding area. The thought was it would help curtail crime.
And, Fowler said it’s working.
“I’ve seen houses turned around,” he said. “Friday I was on my way home from work… I see about 18 children, sitting on a porch, and it was a birthday party. One of the guys said, ‘ Are you kidding me, he said, hey if that trailer wasn’t down there’s no way I would have these kids sitting on the porch like this’ and I was like Wow, this is it.”
The PODS are set up on the 100-block of Fernwood Avenue, on the corner of Bissell Street and Rockland Avenue, and at the intersection of Knaul and Highland Streets. Certain residents still don’t think the program is doing enough.
“I don’t blame them for thinking that it’s not enough,” he said. “Because the ones that are saying that it’s not enough, they really enjoying what is going on now.”
STOP-IN is at the half-way point but Fowler is already looking toward the future. He said in the past the citizens haven’t worked with neighborhood watch programs.
“The work that I’m asking them to do is to get organized,” he said.
Police recognize that organization is one of the ways to deter the criminal element. Saying crime works through fear and intimidation.
A task difficult to strike upon a community that stands together. Tall and confident.
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