Maintain a safe community

All Evanstonians have a stake in keeping Evanston safe and secure. We need to work together to identify problems and solutions to the public safety issues that affect the citizens of Evanston and visitors to our community.

Public safety initiatives should be multifaceted to address the wide range of safety concerns that affect our neighborhoods, from Howard Street on the south to Isabella on the north. Residents should be encouraged to get to know each other and become organized through neighborhood watches and block clubs. Our citizens must be educated on how to minimize the likelihood that they will become victims of crime and how to report incidents that do occur so that the police can do their job effectively.

As a community, we need to provide positive activities for youth, especially during the summer, so that these impressionable individuals don’t go from gang “wanabees” to gang members and criminals. We should work to link at-risk kids with the range of activities that already exist and fill in the gaps with new programs as needs are identified. We also should support efforts to reintegrate ex-offenders with strong Evanston roots back into our community in positive ways so these individuals become community assets and not liabilities.

We need to support efforts to get rid of slum landlords who do not properly screen tenants, providing a base of operation for criminals and anti-social behavior. Everyone deserves to live in safe and decent housing and we should be doing everything possible to ensure that no one has to live next door to a drug dealer or thief. Northwestern students who choose to live off-campus must be educated so that they understand that late night partying disrupts neighborhood tranquility and that there are real consequences to their actions.

As with many issues, communication is key to maintaining safe neighborhoods. The Evanston Police Department has operated the Citizens Police Academy for a number of years. The mission of this program is to create better understanding, communication and partnership between citizens and police. Block clubs and groups like the Brummel Park Neighbors have worked closely with ward aldermen and police to craft effective community policing strategies. NU’s periodic Community Conversations bring students leaders and neighborhood residents together to discuss ways to minimize student/resident lifestyle conflicts.

As Mayor, I will work with the Evanston Police and the City Council to convene a neighborhood safety summit to identify neighborhood-specific and citywide community policing issues. Depending on the nature of the issues of concern, I would then convene a summit of service providers to identify ways that safety issues can be addressed through existing programs or new initiatives that can be implemented by Evanston residents and community organizations using available resources. Once comprehensive community safety strategies have been developed, a network of service providers that the public knows about and can easily access should be established to supplement and support the City’s community policing initiatives.