Evanston Grocery Store Will Soon House Police Station

Evanston, IL Patch:

The Evanston Police Department outpost currently being constructed within the Evanston Plaza Dominick's grocery store was the topic of a heated debate at the Dewey-Darrow and Florence-Crain Neighbors meeting held Thursday night at the Perla Café, 1813 Dempster St.

Proposed in response to a rash of juvenile liquor thefts and theft-related violence in and around the store, the outpost has come under heat from local neighborhood groups and business associations, which contend that other preventative methods have not been adequately examined, that taxpayers should not have to fund the staffing of a security center in a private business, and that the outpost would foster a perception that the neighborhood is unsafe, scaring potential home-buyers and businesses away.

Read the whole story: Evanston, IL Patch

Comments

[Avery Owen]

08:20 AM on 08/01/2011

So the community is complaining that the police out post in the store will lead some folks to think that it's not safe in the neighborhood? Ya think?!?!? Look, I say put police out post in every high crime area with foot patrols! Are you kidding me, the police aren't going to run business and home buyers away, the thugs will and are doing that.

[mikey09]

04:14 PM on 07/31/2011

I live in a rural area and abt 20 yrs ago we still had the cafe/grocery store with a bank window, post office window and the "constables" desk in it, could pay your property taxes etc....you could pay your electric bill, telephone bill etc all in this one little country store....then the bank built a bank, the post office moved into another building and the county built a Sheriff's office....guess what, the bank is now closed, the post office is now closed and the Sheriff's office still doen't have any cells to house a prisoner, but the cafe/grocery is still open.

[bryanzth]

01:44 PM on 07/30/2011

Well, it's not as easy as all of that. Providing cops who interact more with people might be a good thing. And if someone could get killed/hurt as a result of a theft or robbery, well, ok.

You know, you can't reduce every problem to "taxpayer money", libertarians!!!

BZ.

[Barbara E. Royal, D.V.M.]

01:46 PM on 07/31/2011

Or, maybe sending armed thugs into a situation that doesn't require that is bizarre. Why would you send these psychopathic pigs to harass people for stealing. We are living in extremely strange authoritarian times where people accept tyranny as just a bureaucratic decision or a question of property values. strange strange times.

Let the anger at this comment reign down....

[bryanzth]

03:23 PM on 07/31/2011

Actually, I have some different experiences with Police. In particular, the "bike cops" in my small town where there was a growing drug, prostitution and crime wave. And we created a Neighborhood Watch, a Parents Escorting their kids to School and Campaign against drug-buyers and johns. We put up a sign that said: "Goofy Gang Guys and Pugly Crack Hours do their stuff here." (spelling changed to protect the guilty) but in essense, we named the frame by saying, buy your stuff here. And it scared the daylights out of the buyers who got their license plates photoed as they entered the buying circuit. We had patrollers who informed potential buyers "Did you know that it's very dangerous here? We are a Neighborhood Patrol and here to tell you that since your plates have been photographed by other members of the patrol, we participate with the cops to send letters home warning you of this dangerous neighborhood." Stuff like that. We probably never sent any letters, but we used this gaslighting method to spook the buyers, never EVER confronting the sellers (we let the squads and bike cops do that).

Worked like a charm. It's like in a classroom. If you have a disrupter in the back of the room, you teach from back there, sitting next to your problem child if need be. Presence rather than confrontation. But always accompanied by proferred respect and comeraderie. As soon as potential perps realize that you like them and that you really are on their side, they do a 180º and you can start to do some good.

It's all in the nature of the operation and the people who carry it out. ;0)

BZ.

[bryanzth]

03:26 PM on 07/31/2011

One more thing, btw. It's about Cop Shows over the decades.

Naked City was one kind of cop show. Barney Miller and Hill Street Blues might be other ones like that.
Dragnet was ANOTHER kind of cop show. The current CSI and other shows might be like that.

So, what I suggest is that they be the first kind of cops (members of the community who work with people rather than against the problems) rather than the second kind (Calvinist negative types).

BZ.