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Published: Thursday, September 21, 2006

Residents, police discuss gangs and juvenile crime

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Officials said the court has served about 700 juveniles on probation from the South Side.

By NANCY TULLIS

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Residents should not hesitate to contact police or juvenile authorities, no matter how small the problem, police and juvenile court officials told Southern Boulevard Block Watch members.

Police Chief Jimmy Hughes and five probation officers from Mahoning County Juvenile Court spoke at Wednesday's block watch meeting at St. Dominic Parish Center.

The meeting topic was "Let's take back our neighborhoods," and focused mostly on criminal gang activity and juvenile crime.

"Don't be afraid to call about the little things," said Bill Ward, a YPD patrolman. "The little things are important. When your neighborhood falls apart, it starts with little things."

Liaison

Block watch members asked Hughes for a patrolman to be assigned as a liaison to their block watch.

Hughes said that he was working on a plan to assign officers to block watches all over the city, and to have those officers and their supervisors attend block watch meetings.

"If you give us an officer, we promise we can make your job a lot easier," said Maggie Lorenzi, a block watch member.

She said if police attend block watch meetings, members can personally hand them information about problems on their street.

Lorenzi said members have found there are 111 vacant homes on those three streets.

Some members told Hughes the vacant houses are often taken over by gang members and used for drug activity. They said gang members often move in as soon as tenants move out.

Members said in a recent case a woman was robbed and had her arm broken in her driveway by people who had taken over a vacant house next door to hers.

Lorenzi said block watch members plan to send letters to the owners of the vacant houses and tell them what is going on there and in general how vacant houses are an open invitation for criminal activity.

Juveniles

Juvenile probation officers and Janet Tarpley, Mahoning County Juvenile Court parent project director, said they strive to devote more time to intervention and less to detention. They said since 2002, the court has served about 700 juveniles on probation from the South Side alone.

Tarpley said the parenting project is an intensive 10-week intervention program to help parents be more involved in supervising their children and be accountable for their behavior, including school attendance and homework.

Probation officers said juveniles go to juvenile jail when necessary, but as a last resort. Some juveniles have curfews as early as 8 p.m., they said.

Block watch members encouraged one another to be involved with the juveniles in their neighborhood.

The probation officers said they can assign juveniles who have been sentenced to community service to neighborhood projects, but block watch members have to let them know of such projects.

Members said they need to be involved with the projects too, and not be afraid to interact with the juveniles on probation.

Probation officers said they have many activities aimed at keeping juveniles in school and off the streets. The juvenile officers said, for example, that there are volleyball, basketball, baseball and football programs, and there are coaches for those teams.

The block watch's focus on juvenile crime and gang-related activity in particular began after police charged 33 juveniles with participating in a criminal gang.

After Mahoning County Juvenile Judge Theresa Dellick refused to disclose the addresses of the juveniles in June, block watch members went door-to-door on Avondale, Lucius and Auburndale avenues to ask residents if they wanted to know where gang members live and if they would come to the block watch meetings.

tullis@vindy.com

Thursday, September 21, 2006