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Boardman implements lost programs
By Kalea Hall
BOARDMAN
An elderly woman was an innocent bystander in a shooting outside of a Walgreens in Boardman in 2006 between a suspected thief and police.
Bullets hit her car and she became petrified — until a victims’ advocate worker for the Boardman Police Department worked with the woman to feel safe once again.
The worker “reassured her that she was in no danger,” police Chief Jack Nichols said. “It’s a really nice feature to have and to be able to offer to people.”
After about five years without a diversion or victims’ advocacy program, the department was able to bring it back last fall.
In addition to helping juveniles in trouble and victims, the department also would like to help the elderly and drug addicts and their families.
“We really do need some additional assistance,” Nichols said. “We wanted to put the program back in place.”
In 2008, about 35 percent of the police department was cut, Nichols said. The diversion program and victim advocacy were cut to save funds. In 2011, a 3.85-mill, five-year additional police levy passed to generate $3.8 million annually and enabled the department to start rebuilding itself.
In addition to hiring 11 police officers, the rebuilding included bringing back a staff for social services, including diversion and victim advocacy.
At this point, Andrea Clark, the new social-service case manager at the department, is the sole social-services employee. She is focusing on diversion for now, until more personnel are hired to help her with the additional programs.
“I am excited for all of it,” Clark said.
She has a background in working with mental-health patients, which is beneficial to her work now. Clark has about five cases of first-time offenders. She works with juveniles age 10 to 17 who get arrested, have truancy issues, are runaways or experience behavioral problems.
“We just go according to [each juvenile’s needs],” Clark said. “I want it to be tailored to each juvenile.”
Generally, if a juvenile gets arrested, Clark will have the youth perform community service, pay restitution and write a letter of apology.
“I am hoping it will open their eyes to what severe consequences could really happen,” Clark said.
In addition to helping juveniles and victims, the department wants to be able to do welfare checks on the elderly.
Nichols said the department receives several calls for elderly welfare checks and, on occasion, the police will go and check a house to find a person had fallen and could not get up for days.
The program would let people register elderly relatives for them to receive an automated phone call from the department to check on them every day.
The department also would like to be able to provide assistance to those addicted to drugs and their families.
“We need to be a gateway to help families,” Nichols said.