New Safety Coalition picks up where
Crime Commission left off

LANCASTER NEW ERA
MONDAY, JULY 14, 2003

Group represents residents, businesses and other organizations. It offers surveillance cameras, training and other resources to improve city neighborhoods.

By KEVIN M. BENEDICT New Era Staff Writer

There's a new blip on the city's radar screen.

The Lancaster Community Safety Coalition formally became the bearer of the Crime Commission's torch last week.

The 50-member non-profit organization will now publicly operate citywide to organize community safety efforts and employ the Commission's "Fixing Broken Windows" philosophy.

"Today the Lancaster Community Safety Coalition not only announces its new home on Conestoga Street but also reaffirms its ongoing commitment to making the City of Lancaster a safer, more prosperous place," said Dale Witmer, interim executive director, in a statement issued Wednesday.

Here's what the coalition is offering to city neighborhoods:

• More video surveillance cameras on city streets to assist police in crime prevention.

• Training in crime prevention to get residents to think about common sense solutions to crime problems like improving lighting and visibility in parking lots and on streets.

• Resources, including pro-bono attorneys, that will help neighborhoods attack problem properties and bars.

"We want to have the private sector and the public sector get together, and oddly enough, in the past they have not been," said AI Lewis, former vice chairman of the now-dissolved Crime Commission. "It's the salvation of the city."

Funding for the coalition has already come from the Lancaster Alliance and city police, and it is expected that a mixture of public and private contributions from businesses, organizations and residents will support the coalition for the next few years.

The coalition has leased 1,800 square feet of office space in the UGI building at 262 Conestoga St. It will serve as the home base for the group's operations. At least one room will be devoted to monitoring cameras, both Witmer and Palmer said.

The coalition has studied other video surveillance efforts by communities in Wilmington, Del., Philadelphia and Johannesburg, South Africa.

"We've studied what they've done from a technology standpoint and also a procedures standpoint," Witmer said. "We've learned from their experience on that."

City police wanted the organization to be community-led, not police-led, said city police Capt. Don Palmer.

"We don't want to do the monitoring, we didn't feel it should be police department-led, but we want to be part of it," Palmer said.

Palmer, a member of the coalition’s 18-member Executive Committee, said the police department took on a less prominent role so that "Big Brother wouldn't be pushing this whole thing."

The coalition, representing residents, businesses and various other institutions, determined in August that it could carry out its objectives efficiently with support from the community.

"The Coalition's work is not based on 'quick-fixes' but rather 'long-term' solutions to make Lancaster a safer place to live, work and raise a family," said Stephen Shull, Lancaster Area Manager for UGI and chair of the coalition's executive committee, in the statement.

Last summer, the coalition installed video surveillance and lighting along the 200 block of East King Street in order to improve public safety. Footage obtained through surveillance was used as evidence in six drug dealing arrests, an arson investigation and a hit-and-run incident. In one year, police calls to that area were reduced by 22 percent.

"We are at the table, but we know that the answer lies in neighbors, businesses and institutions being enabled to improve the environment to prevent crime, to work with the Police to zero in on specific problems and to keep an eye on our public spaces," Palmer said in the statement.

Theresa Moore, a South Ann Street resident and executive committee member, said she likes the coalition's efforts to get residents to participate in the crime prevention process.

"As residents, we don't want to be told about the problems in our neighborhood," she said in the statement. "We want to be part of the process of identifying the problems and finding solutions."

(Staff writer John M. Spidaliere contributed to this report.)

"I support the use of video
cameras as an important tool
that law enforcement and residents
can rely upon to enhance
public safety."

Mayor J. Richard Gray