| Landlord
Project
Broken
Windows
Sex
Offender Containment and Research Facility (SOCR)
CRIME AND VIOLENCE IN
OUR NEIGHBORHOODS
PROBLEM
The
escalation of crime and violence in our neighborhoods
SOLUTIONS TO CRIME & VIOLENCE
- Take the 2005 Athmar Park Neighborhood Association Landlord
Project citywide to give landlords a tool to
better manage their properties. Pass an ordinance to
require background
checks on all tenants on a lease.
- Find the will to take Broken
Windows
policing citywide with new funding and
staffing
- Support
the formation of Sex
Offender Containment and Research Facility (SOCR), a community-safe
residential campus for repeat sex offenders
RESULTS
If, as a community, we choose to take a stand against career
criminals by adopting the Landlord Project, funding
and staffing
Broken Windows policing, and investing in a SOCR-model
repeat sex offenders facility, we will see the face and future
of our whole city
change for the better:
- Empower
landlords to do the right thing and rent to law abiding
citizens
- Send a
message to career criminals that Denver is a law and order
community which will not tolerate the victimization of its
citizens
- Deter our
young people from engaging in a life of crime as we raise the
communal expectations about what it means to live in Denver
- Improve
the number of affordable rental units available to law-abiding
citizens, not by increasing the density and number of buildings,
but by changing the perception that some neighborhoods are
unsafe and
therefore, undesirable
- Property
owners with derelict properties will be more inclined or forced
by
economics to improve the quality of their property as
their pool of possible renters change
- As public
safety increases and blight decreases affordable neighborhoods
will be reclaimed by law-abiding citizens triggering further
economic redevelopment
- Children
will benefit from a natural integration in neighborhood public
schools as affordable neighborhoods regain diversity
- Perhaps we
can stop the cycle of sexual abuse and the self-destructive
behaviors that often come in abuse's aftermath as we put more
distance between our children and those who would prey on
them
- As we clean
up our collective act and start living on the up and up, our
police, neighborhood inspection officers, teachers, and social
workers will make progress toward making Denver a great place to
live for all its citizens
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to top LANDLORD
PROJECT
BACKGROUND
In 1994, Portland, Oregon commissioned the writing of the
Landlord Training Manual. The
manual educates rental property owners on how to screen out
potential tenants with criminal backgrounds and to use airtight
leases to define who will live in a property once a landlord
identifies a likely tenant. If the landlord uses the screening
process and lease forms in the manual, the eviction process can
be
more efficient and less burdensome for the property owner should
a tenant engage in criminal activity or not live up to the
agreements of the lease. The manual emphasizes the landlords'
responsibilities regarding proper property maintenance and
graffiti removal and further educates them on how to recognize
gang behavior and criminal activity. The Denver Police Department
(DPD) adopted the manual and uses it in periodically-held landlord
trainings.
HOW
ATHMAR PARK IMPLEMENTED THE LANDLORD PROJECT
During a one-year period (2004-5), there were three
drive-by shootings on my block. During the third drive-by, a
callous attack during which 13 shots were fired into the back of
a rental property two doors from my house, the shooters
temporarily parked in my alley driveway as they yielded to
an on-coming truck. We looked each other over as I worked
in my
garden. Seconds after they pulled out of my driveway, gunshots
shattered the evening's calm. In the aftermath of the shooting,
I heard about the Landlord
Training Manual and, upon request, received a copy
from DPD.
I immediately formed the Landlord Project committee through
the Athmar Park Neighborhood Association.
The goal was to identify all rental properties in our
neighborhood and get a manual, free of charge, to each of those
rental property owners. A committee volunteer and a bank in
the
neighborhood used property records to compile a list of rentals
in our neighborhood. I asked neighborhood
residents and city council for donations to help pay
for the needed materials, printing, and postage. The committee
members
volunteered their time. With permission from DPD, committee
volunteers updated the manual, digitalized it, burned 300
CDs, and
had hard copies printed for property owners who preferred paper.
I wrote a letter to rental property owners
explaining
what
they were receiving and asking them to use the manual
to better manage their properties and improve neighborhood
safety.
The letter was co-signed by District 4 Police Commander Sandoval
and Councilwomen Rodriguez and MacKenzie whose council districts
split Athmar Park. APNA returned the updated manual
to
DPD and made it available to Denver's neighborhoods through
the APNA's and Inner Neighborhood Cooperation's web sites.
If elected,
I'd
like
to take
this project citywide.
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WHAT IS BROKEN WINDOWS
POLICING?
New York City reduced its crime rate by adopting
Professor Kelling's pro-active Broken Windows
policing theory. Basically the theory states that crime and
neglected properties go hand-in-hand. Criminal activity increases
in areas where it appears no one cares as evidenced by tall weeds,
a
broken down car parked on a dirt-lawn, a couch on a front porch,
graffiti on a garage, or cardboard covering a broken window. Under
Broken Windows, the police are pro-active instead of
reactive. Each police district has a fulltime civilian who tracks
crime patterns daily; their Commanders staff immediately responds
to
those patterns saturating the problem area. They work closely with
Neighborhood Inspection Services and Zoning officials to improve
property maintenance standard compliance while also working with
citizens to find out what's going on in the neighborhood and root
out problems.
In 2006, Mayor Hickenlooper wisely commissioned a study of
the DPD by Professor Kelling and his Hanover Group to see if
Broken Windows policing could be applied to Denver. A
successful six-month pilot program was conducted in the Westwood
neighborhood from the end of February through October 2006. Crime
statistics show a 16.3-7% reduction in criminal activity during the
pilot program. Anticipated complaints about heavy-handed policing
were minimal and community support for the project was more than
enthusiastic. In fact, Westwood residents were distressed
to
see the pilot program end. Police continue to monitor the
neighborhood.
Another three- to four-month long pilot program began in the
MarLee/Harvey Park neighborhoods on January 28, 2007. Police
Commander Rudy Sandoval has written a template for how District 4
conducted Broken Windows policing in Westwood and this
model adapted to target areas of crime in other
police
districts around the city. If elected, I would champion dedicating
more resources and police officers to the streets so more
precincts can have Broken Windows policing efforts going
on simultaneously.
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SEX
OFFENDER CONTAINMENT & RESEARCH FACILITY (SOCR)
I support SOCR because it is a program designed
to remove repeat sex offenders from the greater community and increase
public safety. Sixty-five percent of sex offenders never go to
prison but live unsupervised in the community.
The SOCR facility has the potential for decreasing the number
of people victimized by sexual abuse. SOCR houses repeat sex offenders
in a controlled residential facility where they are closely monitored
and supervised 24/7 while living a productive life. The main purpose
of SOCR is to prevent adult repeat sex offenders from re-offending.
The benefits of placing sex offenders in a SOCR facility are:
- Pay
their own way - wages they earn go toward paying down the
cost of their placement in the facility
- Controlled 24/7
- Driven to and from their place of employment
- Free-time is spent
at the facility or supervised by faculty and staff
- Receive therapy
and treatment
The American Civil Liberties Union has ruled
that SOCR passes the civil liberties test. Click
here for a more in-depth understanding of
the SOCR facility proposal.
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