Diane Madigan, left, is new chairman of the Public Safety Committee and Regina Miller is vice chairman.
Forced Entry Burglaries are up 62% from last year this time in Van Buren Township.
At the March 7 meeting of the VBT Public Safety Committee, Public Safety Director Carl McClanahan reported there have been 37 so far this year, up from 14 at this time last year.
He said the breakings and enterings occur when no one is home. In one break-in, “quite a few” weapons were taken.
A woman from the far northwest corner of the township told the committee that her home was broken into the previous Saturday, while she and her family were attending the Monster Jam.
She said both her storm door and front door were dead-bolted shut. The storm door was bent open and intruders back-kicked her metal front door until the wooden frame splintered.
“They took my TVs, laptop, and other electronics. I’m wiped out,” she said, adding she has been told by other break-in victims that the intruders come back after the resident replaces belongings with insurance money.
She said she is terrified they will be back, so she’s keeping a loaded shotgun on her dining room table. She said she’s been told the thieves knock on the door first to see if anybody’s home and she is afraid she will be in the back of the house and not hear them.
“How do I get help?” she asked.
Committee member Raymond Bailey advised “Make sure they’re in the house when you shoot them.”
“It’s terrible that you have to do that,” she replied.
Director McClanahan emphasized, “We can’t advise you to shoot anyone.
He said police are investigating the rash of break-ins in the community of Denton near her neighborhood, as well as those on her street.
“We have identified locations, patterns, methods of entry, method of operation,” McClanahan said. “We have both uniform presence and invisible presence.”
He referred to the marked cars of police patrols and the undercover, unmarked vehicles.
“We can lock our windows and garage doors, pay attention to strange people in your community, be alert, notice things that don’t look right,” McClanahan advised, adding people should call police and if it’s the undercover officers they are seeing, fine, otherwise police will respond.
Committee member Ramone Crowe said sometimes solicitors without permits knock on doors to see if anyone’s home.
Committeeman Richard Wardwell said a Nixle alert should be sent out if the break-ins meet the criteria for alerts.
McClanahan said there have been no Nixle warnings to the community about the break-ins in the Denton neighborhoods, but, “We have approached the point of a dozen break-ins there.”
“Homeowners need to be warned,” said vice chairman Reggie Miller.
“We’ll take that into consideration,” McClanahan said.
[On Monday, March 12, VBT Police sent out a rare Nixle alert, informing the public of three break-ins to vehicles in the Denton community.]Chairman Diane Madigan asked about the shooting at Hidden Cove the previous Friday and if it shouldn’t have been sent out as a Nixle alert, so residents could be helping to be on the lookout for the shooters.
“What shooting?” Miller asked, and was informed of the crime. “Citizens need to be alerted,” Miller insisted.
“The shooting occurred between people known to each other,” McClanahan said.
“That doesn’t make it OK. It’s not OK,” Miller said.
“That’s not what I meant,” he replied. “It was among people known to each other. We’ll correct the alerts.”
“I’m getting two to three alerts hourly from the [Washtenaw County] Sheriff’s Department,” said Trustee Phil Hart. “We need to be informed. Nothing to get embarrassed over.”
Miller said the Ann Arbor Chief of Police called a public meeting to give residents ways to avoid break-ins.
John Delaney said from the audience that Nixle BOLOs (be on the look outs) are put out within minutes from Washtenaw County and people in the area can watch for the vehicles being sought.
“Nixle. We all have to be eyes and ears for the community,” said Cortez Brown. “I run Nixle for our neighborhood. You can sign up and dispatch messages. I can send out Nixle alerts and everyone can have it in seconds. It lessens a lot of work on the police. We should step out on our porches and look. We all have to work together.”
“We’ll have to revisit the whole process, obviously,” McClanahan said of the Nixle alerts to the community.
At the last committee meeting, McClanahan said the Nixle alerts are supposed to be put out by the command officers on duty.
Very few Nixle alerts have been sent out by Van Buren Township in the last year.
McClanahan pointed out a new crime map is available on the township website by going to the police department site and clicking on crime mapping.
In other business at the almost four-hour March 7 meeting, the committee:
• Unanimously elected Diane Madigan as chairman and on a 5-1 vote elected Regina Miller as vice-chairman, with the former vice-chairman Crowe voting no. “Let the record show the women have taken over,” said Committeeman Raymond Bailey;
• Heard a police briefing from McClanahan, which included a report on staffing: down seven officers since last year. Officer Jessica Shippey is out on extended medical and is due back in July, one officer gone (fired) is being replaced, two retired last December, two left last summer, and one is retiring April 1. (That refers to Captain Ken Brooks, who reportedly will have a job at 34th District Court after retirement.);
• Postponed discussion until the April 4 meeting on the committee’s annual report which Crowe said he sent to McClanahan who was supposed to send it on to committee members, but didn’t;
• Postponed discussion on Fire Chief Darwin Loyer’s proposed Cost Recovery Ordinance until April 4 after it can be reviewed;
• Heard a fire briefing from Chief Loyer. He said currently there are 37 fire fighters, not counting him. There were 39 people who applied for the most recent posting and they currently are being whittled down through tests. “We’ve made mistakes along the way and we’re working to correct them,” Loyer said of the hiring process, which they are trying to make faster and better;
• Discussed the Emergency Operations Center proposed by Loyer, with a subcommittee suggesting recommending that the township move forward with spending the $25,000 budgeted for Phase I of its implementation. A presentation will be made to the Downtown Development Authority, for more financing;
• Discussed at length, a proposal to contract with Romulus for animal control services. In 2011, VBT paid $63,712 for animal control services and Romulus would cost about $27,960, a savings of 56%. The proposal was tabled until the April meeting until suggested changes could be made;
• Discussed hiring of a K-9 officer and McClanahan said they will be using a current officer for the position once money is allocated;
• Heard Madigan ask about the “shoe flinging” that leaves shoes hanging from wires, including one at Rawsonville and Bemis. McClanahan said that is considered “gang tagging” and he will look into it; and
• Heard Delaney discuss Code Red, an emergency alert program that calls residents’ land lines and cell phones with alerts on the weather, crime, traffic, and other issues. Supervisor Paul White was going to present Code Red to the committee, but he left when the 5:30 p.m. meeting stretched out past 9 p.m. Delaney said Nixle can be expanded to do what Code Red does at less cost. Code Red will be added to the next agenda.