"My Bad"

I apologize.  I got a little caught up and a little sloppy, and I fell down somewhat on the self-appointed job.  So I'm making it up to you now.

Last Saturday, August 4, we had a Village event.  It was a kids' safety day.  Let me just say it was a very nice event.  It was well-attended by kids and their families, there were lots of activities and displays/booths, and even three of our Commissioners came.  There was a bicycle training, with free helmets given out, Joe Chao put together a terrific program about preventing abduction, there were people from the public library, from the Humane Society, from law enforcement, from a branch of the County involved with wildlife (including a live snake), the Cushman school, and other presenters I can't even think of.  Did I say there were lots of kids?  There were lots of kids.  And they brought their parents, who were as intrigued and enthusiastic as the kids.  Did I say it was a very nice event?  It was a very nice event.

Today (Saturday), we had another Village event.  It was a crime watch presentation.  Chuck Ross can be a bit of a ham, and he did not disappoint.  But it was pure content, and very good and informative stuff.  He made plenty of room for Ray Atesiano, who brought Charlie Dayoub and Nick Wollschlager.  The turnout was satisfying, given low expectation.  Probably 30 residents came.  It would have been good if we had had 300.  More would even have been better.  (More than two Commissioners, which is all that were interested today, would have been better, too.  What do you have to do to interest these people in Village events?  Evidently, electing them to office and paying them doesn't do it.)  We learned about the safety state of our neighborhood, what can be done to improve it (not much, comparatively: more to follow), and what each of us can do.  There were simple tips, and more overarching themes.  The presentations were excellent, and Chuck, our CrimeWatch Chairman, put together a comprehensive and very valuable slide show.  Lots of people had questions, comments, and personal anecdotes to share.  It was all very relevant and valuable.

It turns out we are anomalous in the area (BP, Miami Shores, El Portal), as well as in the County and the State.  The performance of our police, which is dependent in part on the performance of the citizenry of the Village, is remarkably good, with very low crime rates, and very high "clearance" rates.  "Clearance" is the successful resolution of cases, including identification, apprehension, and prosecution of perpetrators. Our statistics are not in anyone else's ball park.  Clearance for the first half of this year is 80%.  Typical clearance for municipalites is maybe in the 20s.  El Portal is trying to crack double digits.  Ours is generally in the 30-50% range.  There is nothing in the world a municipal police force could possibly do for its residents that ours isn't doing for us.  And it's doing it way better than anyone else.

So here are the three things we need to do to perfect our environment.  First, we have to see what's going on and call the police if we have doubts about anything we see.  If it's a real emergency, as in we all know what a real emergency is, we should call 911.  If it's anything less than a real emergency, we should use the non-emergency number, which is 305-476-5423.  Why would they choose a number that is so impossible to remember?  Because it's also 305-4-POLICE.  Nice, huh?

The second thing to do is lock your doors, especially your car doors.  When you get out of the car, lock the door.  Do it with the key, not with the clicker.  As it turns out, a really sophisticated method used by burglars to get valuables out of your car is that they try the door.  If it's open, they take what's yours.  If it isn't, they go somewhere else.

The third thing we can do is secure the border along the railroad track, between the track and our eastern border.  Apparently, many mischief-makers simply cross the track and come into the Village, to make mischief.  The best way to secure this border is to build a fence or wall, about 10 feet high, and cover it with something like bougainvillea.

So there you have it, and again, I apologize for not having posted last Saturday's event last Saturday.