Wednesday, June 25, 2003
The police initiative will run through August.
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- Anyone driving through the northern end of the township is likely to have seen them: officers in marked and unmarked units aggressively targeting crimes and traffic infractions.
Trustees have given the department $50,000 to cover overtime and other expenses of the newly implemented Street Crime Unit. Twelve township officers have been assigned to work the program on overtime. The program will run through August.
Police say they are stepping up traffic enforcement and crime surveillance in the northern half of the township and anywhere else viewed as a potential problem.
But some members of the black community say the initiative is more about stopping blacks from coming into the township than putting the brakes on overall crime.
Police Chief Jeffrey Patterson and Captain Jack Nichols spent an hour addressing the issue with several black callers to a WASN 1330 AM radio talk show a week ago.
Callers complain
Several callers said police are unfairly targeting blacks coming to the township from Youngstown and are pulling them over at a disproportionate rate.
One caller said officers towed the car of a black man and woman with a small child, leaving them to walk back toward the city. Patterson said he had no specific information about that but told the caller he would look into it.
The message, most callers to the show said, is that city blacks should not drive across the Midlothian Boulevard dividing line between the city and the township.
Patterson said that the perception is incorrect but that crime initiatives such as the Street Crime Unit leave officers to battle deeply rooted beliefs in police bias and unfair treatment to the entire minority community.
"Society as a whole makes crime a race or class issue," he said. "I tried to make it clear in implementing this program that it is not a race issue, class issue or city vs. township issue. This is a crime issue."
Survey of the numbers
Patterson said he conducted a survey two years after another complaint of racial bias and found that on average about 23 percent of traffic stops involved blacks and about 75 percent involved white motorists -- a figure he says is reflective of the area. He said a similar survey will likely be taken at the end of the this crime initiative.
In the meantime, Nichols said he has not received any complaints from individuals stopped or arrested by officers in the crime initiative. He said he does not have a racial breakdown of those stopped by officers.
Patterson said officers wanted to curb any surge in crime here before it gets out of hand. He said the crime initiative idea was pitched to township trustees using four examples of major crimes -- two burglaries, a theft and one murder. All four suspects in those crimes are white, he said.
Patterson said that officers are investigating crimes believed to have been committed by blacks as well, but that the initiative is about catching criminals regardless of who they are or where they come from.
No black officers
Several callers also addressed the fact that the township, like several other departments in the area, has no black officers.
According to Patterson, the last civil service exam was given in 2002 and no blacks, to his knowledge, applied. He said representatives of the department attend the exam and physical agility exam that follows and they saw no blacks.
Patterson also said many candidates apply to be police officers in the area in which they live. Boardman has a relatively small black population.
One thing that might open suburban police departments up to more minority candidates, Patterson said, is a change in the way civil service exams are handled. He said an applicant must apply at each department in which he or she wishes to be considered, but one all-inclusive exam shared by departments would be better.
Patterson and Nichols said distrust of the police is unfortunate, but there is no real means of addressing the issue that will satisfy everyone. He said only time and efficient, fair police work will change the perception.
"This is a very tough issue, but aside from that, I have to do something about the crime in Boardman Township," he said.