San Bernardino residents, police work to rebuild crime-ridden area
Photo: Escorted by police officers from the San Bernardino Police Department’s Bicycle Mounted Enforcement Team, Alvira Stovall, left, and Melody Segura Suarez, right, canvass a neighborhood near Sepulveda Avenue and 14th Street on Sunday, asking residents to attend Outdoor Family Movie Night on Dec. 30. It is part of the Institute for Public Strategies Byrne Project aimed at connecting residents, fostering trust with police and revitalizing the neighborhood. Photo by Joe Nelson
By Joe Nelson, The San Bernardino County Sun, November 16, 2014
SAN BERNARDINO >> The Police Department’s Bicycle Mounted Enforcement Team joined community organizers on Sunday to canvass one of the most crime-ridden neighborhoods in the city, asking residents to attend an upcoming event aimed at connecting the community and building better relations with police.
Escorted by the bicycle officers, members of the Institute for Public Strategies, or IPS, and the grassroots organization Taking Back Our Neighborhoods went door-to-door in the neighborhood near Sepulveda Avenue and 14th Street, asking residents if they’d like to attend an Outdoor Family Movie Night in the parking lot of the Center for Learning and Unlimited Educational Success, or CLUES, charter school on Dec. 30.
Officers will be at the event, part of the IPS Byrne Project.
Over a showing of the holiday classic “The Polar Express” in the charter school’s parking lot, event organizers are hoping it is a first step in getting residents interacting, bridging the gap between residents and police, improving the quality of life in the neighborhood and significantly reducing its crime rate.
“It’s an opportunity for people to network,” said Melody Segura Suarez, a community organizer for IPS.
She said Outdoor Movie Night is one of many family activities to be planned in the 20-block neighborhood bound by Base Line, Waterman Avenue, 16th Street and Sierra Way.
Getting residents communicating with one another and trusting police are initial steps toward achieving the IPS Byrne Project goal. Historically, the targeted neighborhood has been rife with gang and drug activity, prostitution, loitering, and vehicle theft. An IPS survey showed the neighborhood’s crime rate is twice as high as in other parts of the city.
Part of the goal is to also improve the neighborhood’s infrastructure by obtaining funding to add sidewalks and more street lights, said Deanne Truax Godinez, founder of Taking Back Our Neighborhoods.
The crux of the problem is a familiar story in many low-income, high-crime neighborhoods: Complacency and a fear residents have of the criminal element surrounding them hinds their desire to get involved and take action, Truax Godinez said.
“People want to hide behind their doors and fences and just exist,” Truax Godinez said.
That’s where the Police Department’s Bicycle Mounted Enforcement Team comes into play. The team patrols the neighborhood five to 10 hours a week, striving to achieve trust through friendly interactions, concern for residents’ issues, and creating a less intimidating presence by patrolling on bikes instead of police cruisers, said Sgt. Shauna Gates, who heads the team.
“We’re just trying to make sure we close that gap,” Gates said. “We want to bond with the community, and this is being proactive.”