Newsgroup connects neighborhoods with law enforcement
Janet Somers, The San Francisco Chronicle
When North Oakland resident Rue Kreber-Mapp was concerned about cars speeding up and down her block, she sent an e-mail to the Oakland Police Department’s Internet newsgroup:
“I will never allow my child to play on the sidewalk in front of my home for fear of out-of-control vehicles. Please, enforcement in this area would be greatly appreciated.”
A reply came back a few hours later from Officer Robyn Clark: “Your wish is my command. I hung out there today and did some enforcement. I will stay on it when I can.”
Police departments in many cities have Web sites offering crime statistics, or maybe allowing citizens to submit a question. But Oakland may be the only city where residents can join an online newsgroup (an e-mail list where every message sent goes out to everyone on the list) and chat freely with their neighborhood cops.
Seventeen-year Oakland Police Department veteran Lt. Lawrence Green, 42, launched the first group, serving North Oakland, in June. Soon afterward, Lt. Edward Poulson started a simlar e-mail list for the downtown area. Chief Richard Word liked it so much that he ordered the creation of five more groups to blanket the city, and they’ve been up and running since March.
“I wanted to increase communication between the NCPC’s (neighborhood crime- prevention councils), community policing, and me,” said Green. “I started with the community, with the NCPC leaders and other people who were involved. Then I added important people within the city, like people from Councilwoman (Jane) Brunner’s office and the mayor’s office. And we have this better loop now, within the city.”
The forums, which are private groups on Yahoo, allow for open -- at times, lively -- dialogue between police officers and residents. No police departments in six other Bay Area cities, including Berkeley, San Francisco and San Jose, have anything like it; nor do departments in Los Angeles, San Diego, New York, Chicago, Baltimore or Philadelphia.
Police-watchdog groups gave the newsgroup concept a cautious thumbs-up.
Jordan Su, a police organizer with People United for a Better Oakland (PUEBLO), a community watchdog/activist group, said although the intention seems good, he would prefer a more “community-based solution.”
But Larry Carroll, a complaint investigator with the Citizen Police Review Board, the city-run police-oversight panel, says the positives outweigh any negatives.
“I like the idea,” he said. “Everybody is trying to improve police-citizen communication; we’re all looking for ways to share information.”
He said his only fear was the possibility of police targeting a specific person based solely on complaints sent to the group. “Officers should take their assignments from their command officers, not residents,” he said. “But this is a minuscule concern, compared to the goodness of it.”
Green, the moderator of the seminal North Oakland group (the other groups are run by other lieutenants), limits membership for security and traffic reasons, relying on members to forward news to their neighbors. There are about 180 members, including 60 police officers and sergeants, 40 members of neighborhood crime-prevention councils and 20 city officials. The remaining 60 are what Green calls “solid citizens” -- people interested in curbing crime in their neighborhoods, including many who live in problem areas.
Although friendly debates sometimes are waged -- a recent one centered on whether prostitution is a victimless crime -- the bulk of the group’s messages are arrest reports and crime statistics, usually posted by Green. The NCPC’s also send their crime-halting priorities, which Green passes on to his officers. He recently sent this exhortation:
“Officers: Please aggressively enforce scooter violations when you see them.
Residents in North Oakland are miserable over the noise & reckless driving associated with scooters. Thanks, Lawrence.”
A resident responded: “I would like to thank Lt. Green for this reminder to his troops.”
Since the department doesn’t provide e-mail for officers (lieutenants and higher have city e-mail accounts), they participate in the group using their home computers, often during their off-hours.
At first, cops were hesitant to join. Now they are converts.
“I envisioned this as more of a complaint line than a means of dialogue,” said Sgt. David Larson. “But my fears were never realized; no one has been overly critical of the officers.”
Officer Robyn Clark concurs: “I’ve learned about a whole plethora of problems I’m sure I wouldn’t have known about any other way,” she said. “The Yahoo group provides a nice medium where citizens and cops can get together.”
Occasionally, the newsgroup is directly instrumental in solving a crime, by letting residents compare suspect descriptions and photos online -- a sort of Internet “Wanted” poster. And once Clark read a series of arrest reports sent to the group and was able to connect several disparate crimes to one suspect.
In many cases, residents find out about crimes in their neighborhoods only through the newsgroup.
In December, Keiran Best heard gunshots but couldn’t find out what had happened. Two weeks later, she joined the group and posted a query. The next day, Larson posted a detailed, two-page missive: a security guard at a
liquor store had threatened some loiterers, one of whom had pulled a gun and shot the guard in the leg.
“Afterward,” said Best, “we had a much better idea of what’s going on in the neighborhood, and we were able to tell other neighbors.”
Green once posted his recommendation for a women’s self-defense class taught by a member of the group.
Rarely, someone uses the forum to gripe about a lack of police responsiveness; but Clark says that instead of dreading such complaints, as she did in the past, she now has the opportunity to defuse them by communicating with irked residents online.
When one member wrote that police didn’t respond quickly enough to her 911 call, the police dispatcher, Monica Hattoon, sent an immediate explanation:
“We take in just under 1 million calls a year utilizing only 45-50 dispatchers. That comes out to around 90,000 calls per month and 2,500-3,500 calls per day.”
Hattoon then gave members a crash course in how emergency calls are prioritized, ending: “If anyone has further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me personally or send a message through the group.”
Green doesn’t restrict talk on the group, preferring to allow free expression by everyone. Sometimes, that involves giving free reign to his own sense of humor, as in this recent message:
“Yesterday was Neighborhood Services Coordinator Angela Davis-Lincoln’s last day with us. She left to take a position with Quaker Oats. She is going to be writing the jokes for the individual cereal packets. Actually, she is going to be the Compass Compliance Analyst, which is essentially a management trainee position. Angela will REALLY be missed.”
The mild-mannered Green has enjoyed something of a following in North Oakland since starting the group. North Oakland City Councilwoman Jane Brunner says the newsgroup has taken the mystery out of police work for residents, making them feel safer.
“It’s also made his police work better,” she said. “Whenever I tell Chief Word about him, I feel like I always have to add, ‘But please, don’t take him away from us!’ Lt. Green is probably one of the first lieutenants I’ve worked with in six years who truly understands community policing.”
Green’s boss, Capt. Cyril Vierra, also praised the group and Green’s openness with community. “The thing I love about this,” he said, “is that this is what community policing is supposed to be about. How can you work together if you don’t provide the information? There has to be, on the part of the police, the willingness to share information. We’re all the same team. Some of us wear uniforms, and some of us don’t.”