Summer Vaca

The Side Bar operator is taking a break and so the site will not be updated again until Monday, July 9. That means no comments posted after today will make it to the blog until Monday, July 9.

But note that the next City Council meeting will be Monday, July 23 at 7:30 p.m. in City Hall.

Over the next few days look out for articles on:

-- Coatesville's Curfew
-- C'ville PD's Narcotics Enforcement Team
-- CSI Camp
-- City looking for state's help with financial management

Switching Back

Go here for an exclusive blog posting. (This is my way of getting you to go back to the old Side Bar.)

Technical Problems?

If you're having technical problems, as I've heard some are, you can still access the same information at the Side Bar's old site. You can still post comments there too. Some of you have already been doing so.

NEW

If you haven't seen them, check out the community videos posted on Coatesville's Home Page.

BUS SERVICE RALLY

There will be a rally Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall as an effort to prevent bus service suspension in Coatesville.

Assistant City Manager Kirby Hudson said Tuesday the suspension could be devastating for Coatesvillians, and potentially cause residents to lose their jobs if they're unable to catch a bus to work.

The evening Link service on the Krapf A takes passengers to Exton. Under the possible suspension, passengers would no longer be able to go to and from Exton after 6:30 p.m. on weekdays or after 5 p.m. on weekends. The bus service to Parkesburg would also no longer be in service.

BUS SERVICE IN JEOPARDY

Bus service into and out of Coatesville could be put into jeopardy. See the Business Section of the Daily Local News on Wednesday.

In today's paper

See today's edition of the Daily Local News -- page one -- for an update on the Brandywine Health Center coming to Coatesville. The Daily Local News has followed this project step-by-step since its inception.

Moment of Silence for Fallen Firefighters

There will be a national moment of silence tonight at 7 p.m., in honor of nine firefighters who were killed Tuesday. A fire in a Charleston, South Carolina, furniture warehouse caused its roof to collapse, killing the firemen. The deaths are reportedly the single greatest loss of firefighters since Sept. 11, 2001.

Officials with DUI charges work to get ARD status

By JENNIFER MILLER
Staff Writer

WEST CHESTER – City Manager Harry Walker and Assistant City Manager Kirby Hudson – both who police arrested for allegedly driving drunk earlier this year – are in the process of obtaining rehabilitative status.

Walker and Hudson both applied for the county’s Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) program, which is operated out of the District Attorney’s office and is intended to help eliminate court costs by defendants seeking help instead.

If the two are accepted into the program they can avoid jail time and have their records cleared. If they do not get into ARD, they could face 48-hours in jail and lose their licenses for a year.

Police arrested Walker for allegedly driving drunk on Feb. 1 on the Route 30 Bypass. The District Attorney’s office approved his ARD application May 31. He is slated to appear in court July 3 where a judge will officially accept or reject his application, according to the District Attorney’s office.

If accepted, Walker – who had a .13 blood alcohol content – will be on probation for six months, lose his license for a month and be ordered to complete 100 hours of community service, according to the District Attorney’s office.

Walker’s community service hours were doubled, compared to the norm, because he was arrested for DUI in 1989 and was recently cited for failing to report an accident to police, according to the District Attorney’s office.

Hudson’s ARD application is still pending. Police arrested Hudson for allegedly driving drunk Feb. 17 on Route 202.

In February, some City Council members criticized the behavior of Walker and Hudson.

“There’s no excuse. There’s no apology that’s going to cover this. It’s just unacceptable behavior,” City Councilman Martin Eggleston said in February.

At the time, Eggleston and City Councilman Ed Simpson said policy changes should be considered in light of the arrests. However, council has yet to publicly propose any related changes.

Looking Back

Before Harvey Legree turned over a new leaf, he made strong accusations against the Coatesville Police Department. These are his final words in his "stop snitching" movie, which he made in 2005 after getting out of jail:

"Coatesville police wanted me so bad they put drugs in my pockets. Once I witnessed Coatesville police lie on the witness stand. That's when I knew Coatesville Police was corrupt and that's when I knew the drug game was over for me. As the police watch us, someone needs to police the police."

Recently City Council gave the OK for Legree to film scenes of his newest movie in Coatesville. The filming will require city streets to be shut down for short periods of time -- with the approval of the police chief. Legree describes himself as an ex-drug dealer who is trying to make a positive movie.

After the vote, the majority of City Council members said they were unaware that Legree made a stop snitching movie. But some said it didn't matter because Legree deserves a second chance.

Surveys to Start Soon

In the next few days the Coatesville Police Department will begin conducting door-to-door community quality of life surveys focusing on public safety issues. Although the department will pick neighborhoods randomly, the effort will begin in neighborhoods where the department has experienced a rash of written citizen complaints, inquiries, or 911 calls regarding public safety.

Citizens who respond to the survey questions will not be asked to identify themselves nor will their identity or address be documented. The survey process will take less than five minutes.

The surveys are a prelude to formal community engagements that will be conducted in September of this year. Community Engagements are organized processes designed to collaboratively solve problems.

In addition to surveying selected neighborhoods, patrol officers will soon begin collecting quality of life public safety information in the city’s four patrol sectors for review and analysis. These actions are a component of the department’s new community policing strategy. -- Coatesville Police Chief William Matthews

CHIEF MATTHEWS' PLAN

The Coatesville Police Department
(Overview: The Future Direction of the Coatesville Police Department)

During the last four weeks I have met or spoken with police officers, law enforcement officials and community leaders. Although this process is far from complete I have a fairly good idea of the issues and concerns that trouble the Coatesville community. Consistent with the feedback I have received from many sources the following is a programmatic overview of several initiatives the department will implement. Several programs are in the development stage and will be implemented during this summer and fall season.

Community Quality of Life Assessments

Police patrol officers will soon begin assessing each neighborhood’s public safety and related quality of life conditions. Shifts will then be required to identify community leaders that are willing and able to work on improving deficiencies and weakness. Public safety issues will be highlighted and strategies for improvement will be developed and refined with the assistance and involvement of community leaders.

Community Engagements

Propose: Day and half collaborative problem solving sessions designed to experience and learn about community policing first hand. The sessions will involve resident, business, religious, social service, and police leaders, working together to solve quality of life and public safety problems. Together the groups will learn how to identify and avoid dysfunctional work group behavior and develop consensus and action plans addressing the community problems they face.

The Drug Culture: We realize that arresting individuals who commit crimes and sell drugs is necessary. Consistent with our responsibility to enforce the law patrol officers will focus on clearing our streets of drug dealers and investigators will focus on communities where dealers operate behind closed doors. But we also recognize that working with concerned community leaders, educators and parents to discourage and divert youth from dysfunctional and destructive behavior is also necessary. If a young person can be saved from a life full of dead ends, jail and worse we want to try. Accordingly, we will focus our weed and seed efforts in neighborhoods that experience the highest levels of arrest and disorder. We want to help families and others implement “Tough Love” strategies and work through their issues and problems with troubled youth, particularly problems related to the drug culture. We will encourage eligible individuals to utilize Drug Courts and other available vehicles to recovery.

Calls For Service Management System

The police department is experiencing 28,000 calls for service. The volume of calls makes it difficult, for small departments to pro-actively assist residents solve and resolve problems. By late fall we hope to implement a call management system designed to divert non-emergency calls for a more appropriate response. We are currently working on solvability factors that will assist us in determining, along with concerned citizens, the most appropriate police response. The idea is to free up time to work with citizens on the pressing public safety issues facing their neighborhoods.

Quality of Service Callbacks

Later this summer the department will begin calling back each citizen who initiates a police service response. We want to know if citizens were satisfied with the level of our service and our understanding of their concerns. We also want to assist citizens obtain other city services that impact public safety. We know that we cannot satisfy everyone but we will demonstrate a courteous and professional response, and commitment to the well being of our residences.

Community Out Reach: We will continue our current community out reach programs including Shop With A COP, The Police Athletic League, Youth Aid panel, and the Mentor Program at Scott Intermediate School.

Young Adult and Youth Bike Patrols

Community Out Reach: We will shortly submit a grant for assistance in developing citizens’ bike patrols in our parks and business communities. Under the watchful supervision of our police bike officers and occasional foot beat patrol, the program will encourage young people to participate in community service activities while presenting a positive image in and about our communities. We hope that the program will be a starting point for a police explorer cadet program this winter.

In-Service Training for Police Supervisors

All the initiatives we will implement require new responsibilities for police supervisions. Accordingly, soon we will begin a series of in-service training sessions for patrol supervisors. Awards and promotions will be based on the level of public safety and trust the department has achieved, particularly communities hardest hit by the drug culture and related crime and violence. Towards this end the patrol division will be given all the resources available, including drug investigators who will report directly to the patrol commander(s). Every member of the department, including supervisors and managers, will be expected to operate under the following values:

The following words illustrate the meaning of “Justice” and provide thirteen values to live and police by:

• Integrity – Reliability - Trustworthiness
• Courtesy – Civility – Respectful
• Professionalism– Proficiency – Community Service
• Honor – Principle – Reputation
Reorganization

In the months ahead the Coatesville Police Department will become much more patrol oriented. That means the patrol division, which is the backbone of any police department, will manage our enforcement services. Within the next several weeks our police lieutenants will be re-assigned as patrol commanders, each responsible for two patrol teams. In addition to patrol operations, one patrol commander will be responsible for vice enforcement and related investigations and the other inspections and criminal investigations. Consistent with this new direction, patrol officers will focus on eliminating street level drug sells and assisting community leaders solve or resolve public safety problem and issues. Our goal is to decease criminal behavior and enhance the community’s quality of life. Supported by “Weed and Seed” programs, our policing efforts can be best illustrated by the crime triangle.




Simply put, when police and the community eliminate any one of the (3) three sides of the triangle (i.e., offenders, victims or locations where incidents occur) crime will be solved, resolved or reduce.

National Accreditation

The department personnel will soon begin reviewing current policies, practices and procedures and comparing them to national standards. Within the next 15 months, the department plans to up-date its operating manual to assure compliance with national standards published by the Commission on Accreditation for law enforcement Agencies (CALEA) a body the Chief helped establish in the late 1970’s.

A private, nonprofit corporation, CALEA was founded in 1979 by the IACP, the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, the National Sheriffs’ Association and the Police Executive Research Forum. CALEA was created as a result of the nationally troublesome decades of the 1960s and ‘70s, which too frequently found law enforcement failing to meet its responsibilities.

Many of CALEA’s standards and goals are directly related to the Report on Police issued in 1973 by the National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals. This 668-page document was developed to provide guidance for law enforcement agencies as a way to improve them and provide better services to those they protect. Just as accreditation was part of the answer to problems of the past generation, so also is accreditation part of the solution to the issues confronting law enforcement today. Currently, CALEA accreditation embodies the only comprehensive and creditable standards for agencies within and outside the United States.

Besides bestowing recognition on outstanding law enforcement agencies, accreditation confers such benefits as an improved, more effective administrative system, reduced liability potential, greater supervisory accountability and greater governmental and community support.

The department will begin its review starting with the following Policy Areas:

Use of force
Vehicular Pursuit
Internal Investigations
Inspections
Dispatch
Citizens Complaints
Patrol Operations, and
Mutual Aid and MOUs

A citizens Advisory Committee is being formed. The department will use the newly re-organized Citizens Advisory Committee for feedback on any revisions to the above policies. The policies will be made available to the public.

In closing, the men and women of this department want to make a difference. We want to share our time, energy, and talent for the betterment of the community we serve.

Xavier "ZaZa" Gregory Funeral

Friday, June 15, 2007
11 a.m.
New Life Christ in Fellowship
One South Fifth Avenue, Coatesville

Relatives and friends may call from 8 a.m. until time of service.

Interment will be in the Rolling Green Memorial Park, West Chester.

Budget

The city will have to do more than lay off employees to fill its $1.2 million budget gap, which administrators hoped to cover with real estate sales. See today's edition of the Daily Local News.

What's the right number?

On today's Opinion Page of the Daily Local News, Police Chief William Matthews calls the right-sizing committee a great idea. The committee will determine the appropriate size of the Coatesville Police Department. (Read it online or on page A6.)

But at last night's City Council meeting, resident John Pawlowski cautioned the city about relying on yet another committee given that the police chief selection process -- which included a search committee -- created such controversy.

Instead, Pawlowski recommended that the question over the appropriate number of police officers be put to the voters. Pawlowski would like to see a referendum placed on the November ballot, asking whether the police department should maintain its level of officers.

"That would take a lot of heat off the city's administration," Pawlowski said.

What do you think?

LAYOFFS PUT OFF AGAIN

City employee layoffs were put off yet again by City Council. See Wednesday's edition of the Daily Local News for a look into why there's a delay.

"Stop Snitcing" Producer Claims New Path

Harvey Legree, who describes himself as an ex-drug dealer, produced a stop snitching DVD in 2005. Today he wants to create a different movie in Coatesville that depicts two guys who go to jail. One character goes back into the criminal lifestyle after jail and ultimately dies in the end. The second character turns his life around after jail and fulfills his dream of becoming successful. The movie is intended to show what life on the streets is like, Legree said. It's supposed to be positive and will take a different direction than the stop snitching moving, he said.

The stop snitching DVD, "The Sequel," started circulating in Coatesville roughly two years ago. The movie shows drugs and guns and attempts to intimidate people from telling authorities what they know about crimes. The stop snitching campaign is national and puts up road blocks for law enforcement officials nationwide.

BLOG NOTE

For those interested, you can still access the old blog, http://coatesvillesidebar.blogspot.com

It will contain the same postings as this location.

Senior Week Turns Deadly

Xavier Gregory, 18, was killed in a car accident while driving through Maryland. Gregory is a CASH 2007 graduate, who was on his way to Senior Week in Ocean City, Md. And it is believed that Halston Jennings, also a 2007 graduate, is still hospitalized after the accident.

City Council Tonight

City Council will meet tonight at 7:30 p.m.

The layoff schedule is on the agenda again. See Tuesday's edition of the Daily Local News to learn if council tabled the motion again or if layoffs were approved.

Full Matthews Interview

Read the full interview with Police Chief William Matthews here:

Interview With Chief

Joanne Chertok Died Friday

Joanne Steinberg Chertok, wife of longtime Coatesville civic leader William Chertok, died Friday.

Services will be Sunday at 2 p.m. at Beth Israel Congregation, 385 Pottstown Pike (Route 100), in Eagle. Interment will in Beth Israel Cemetery.

Leftover Election News

The county's Board of Elections released write-in vote tallies for the primary election candidates who requested the information. Will Thomas, who ran as a write-in candidate in Coatesville's 5th Ward, received 15 write-in votes under the Republican ticket. But the Board of Elections said the 15 votes were not enough to receive the Republican nomination.

Thomas regularly attends City Council meetings and is often seen with Richard Legree Sr.

Councilman Ed Simpson, a Republican, earned enough votes to be the nominee for both parties. Councilman Martin Eggleston, a Democrat, also received enough votes to be the nominee for both parties in the November election.

Also Monday

See Monday's edition of the Daily Local News for a Q & A with new Police Chief William Matthews. The Local will print in-full Matthews' response to key questions regarding the Coatesville Police Department and public safety.

City Council Meeting Monday

City Council will meet at 7:30 p.m. on Monday in City Hall.

POLICE CONTRACT APPROVED

Last night City Council approved the police union's contract, which will allow some officers to retire sooner. See today's edition of the Daily Local News for more details.

EMERGENCY PUBLIC MEETING TONIGHT

City Council will hold an emergency public meeting tonight at 7:30 to approve the police contract.

Remembering those who serve

Paige Thomas, 25, was the city's Human Resources director up until Tuesday. Thomas, a U.S. Marine, has been called to active duty. Read her story in Monday's edition of the Daily Local News.

Also, keeping in line with acknowledging those who serve. I am asking you to send photos of Coatesville residents who are currently serving in the military. E-mail their photos and a brief bio, and I'll post them up.

jmiller@dailylocal.com

Police Speak

(The following statement was issued to the Daily Local News Thursday.)

We, the officers of the Coatesville Police Department, would like to express our appreciation for the actions and efforts of the following organizations who rose to our defense when plans were in motion to deplete the structure of our department: Pennsylvania Fraternal Order of Police (F.O.P); Local Fraternal Order of Police (Lodge #11); Pennsylvania State Police, Drug Enforcement Administration; surrounding Police Chiefs and the officers within their departments; Chester County Commissioners; Chester County District Attorney’s Office; Chester County Detectives; Police Athletic League; and Coatesville Police Chaplains.

Individually we would like to thank Chester County District Attorney Joe Carroll; Pennsylvania F.O.P. Acting President Les Neri; Local F.O.P. President Ed Toner; Coatesville City Council members Edward M. Simpson Jr., Martin L. Eggleston, and Stephanie Smith-Dowridge; Coatesville Police Chaplain Sherry Crompton; and David DiSimone.

Without your diligence, influence, and active protesting of the pending devastating moves brought to light by members of the press, we the Coatesville Police would not have been able to continue providing many necessary police services for the residents of and visitors to the City of Coatesville.

Your actions helped stop a maneuver that would have eliminated 6 police officers, who are crucial to the future of our department and city redevelopment. Keeping these 6 officers will allow our uniformed patrol division to remain at a more effective level. Our uniformed police officers can continue protecting the City of Coatesville and its citizens, assisting them with the difficulties they face in their daily lives, difficulties which at times are understandably beyond their ability to solve themselves. Maintaining the number of officers at its current level allows us to continue responding to live threatening situations in a timely manner and continue protecting the citizens against dangerous encounters.

Keeping these 6 officers with the department allows our detective division to stay as effective as it has been in investigating serious crimes and will allow our drug unit to stay intact and operational. The drug trade and its lead players have been responsible for the majority of home invasions, shooting incidents, and murders that have plagued this city for years. Our current drug unit focuses on eliminating the drug trade by attacking its supply chain in its entirety.

Finally we ask for more support from our residents in the future. As much as it helps us to know when our performance is less than you desire, it is of equal or greater help to us if you let us know when our performance is acceptable to, or exceeds your standards. Too often our critics are the only ones who voice their opinions. We believe our supporters out number our critics. We recognize that comfort is quiet while discontent is boisterous. We call for our content citizens to become vocal and support us at City Council meetings.

To quote an unnamed Coatesville Police Chaplain who submitted a letter to the Distinguished Members of City Council in March of this year regarding the perceived lack of support for our police officers by this city’s government:

“Behind every badge, underneath every uniform, beats the heart of a caring human being.”

Our hearts are beating with gratitude. Thank you for your support.

-- The Coatesville Police Benevolent Association

Coatesville Coverage Noticed

A blog operated through the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, which focuses on the state's open records law, has noticed the Daily Local News' coverage of Coatesville. Check out today's posting here: www.passopenrecords.org.

Ray Fined

City Council President Patsy Ray was fined for a code violation yesterday. See today's edition of the Daily Local News.