Lawyer: Police, not citizens, must handle crime
The police chief said he believes his bosses know that the city needs more police officers.
WARREN — Atty. Frank Bodor, president of the Take Back the Neighborhood group, understands why a father of three confronted reported drug dealers near his Washington Street Northeast home two weeks ago, but says the police department needs to handle such matters.
Bodor talked to Police Chief Tim Bowers around the time of the Jan. 13 episode about ways he believes the police department can get a tighter grip on the drugs, prostitution and violence in the neighborhood, but he fears change won’t come quickly.
Bodor says the problem in the part of the city where TBTN operates — just north and east of Courthouse Square — stems from drugs.
“I think if you clamp down on drugs, some of the prostitution will go with it, but the key is safety,” he said.
“If you’re going to have people living and doing business in this town, you’ve got to drive out the drug dealers,” said Bodor, whose law office is on Porter Street Northeast.
Eric Collins, 31, confronted three men standing on the corner of Washington Street and Vine Avenue as his children were coming home from school and followed them a block north until one of them pulled a shotgun from his pants and fired it. No one was hurt, but Collins proved the point that drugs lead to violence, Bodor said.
A week later, Michael A. Travis, 30, of Detroit was found shot to death in Collins’ backyard after a gunbattle that a neighbor says involved Travis and two other men.
Travis was under indictment on a drug-trafficking charge at the time, and so was one of the other men police say was involved in the gunfight, Christopher D. Davis, 39, also from Detroit, who suffered multiple gunshot wounds.
Bodor has been urging the city to address drug dealing in a more forceful way since at least August 2008, when he wrote a letter, signed by most of the city’s dozen neighborhood-watch groups, asking that more attention be paid to drug dealing and prostitution.
Since then, however, the city dismantled its narcotics division when 20 police officers were laid off Jan. 1, 2009.
Bowers said he asks the mayor or service director on a daily basis how soon the department can receive additional manpower.
“I believe they know we need more people,” Bowers said. “They say it’s all about money. I believe when more money becomes available, we will get more people.”
On the plus side, the Trumbull Ashtabula Group Law Enforcement Task Force began several months ago to extend its reach into the city and has since made dozens of drug arrests.
Bodor said he told Bowers that if even one more officer were available to patrol the street, it could make a difference. He asked the chief to see if he could convince the police union to allow the patrolman who works security at the front door to the police station and Warren Municipal Court to be assigned to patrol duties instead.
Bowers said the department began having a police officer work the front door about eight years ago, when the Ohio Supreme Court requested improvements in court security, and now that the position is included in the union’s contract, it’s nearly impossible to change it.
But officers are giving as much attention as possible to the near northeast area as possible, with officers making more frequent visits there when not answering calls for service.
“It’s a juggling act to decide where to put people,” Bowers said. “What I need, I don’t have,” he said of additional officers to put on the street. “I have to rob Peter to pay Paul, kind of,” he said.
The chief said he’s also meeting regularly with the neighborhood groups, conveying to them that there are things citizens can do to help. Being involved in and caring about the neighborhood helps a great deal, he said.
“When police ask ‘What happened?’ Step up,” Bowers said.
runyan@vindy.com