Mayor reacts to spike in crime

Mayor Mark Kruzan called a special session with city personnel Wednesday to coordinate a response to the high-profile incidents of violent crime that disturbed many across the community last week.\nFrom gunshots fired during a scuffle behind Dunnkirk Square early Sunday morning to Tuesday morning's alleged hate crime attack on a man and his wife downtown to Tuesday night's shoot-out in Bryan Park and Wednesday morning's shoot-out at a party on the city's north side, the city has weathered an unusually violent week, drawing the attention of city government.\n"It's disheartening to have this recent cluster of violence shatter the community calm," Kruzan said. "Crimes of hate and gun violence are unacceptable in this community, and our response will be swift and aggressive."\nKruzan met with Bloomington Police Department Deputy Chief T. Randy Williamson; BPD Capt. and city council member Mike Diekhoff; human rights attorney Barbara McKinney; Safe & Civil City Program Director Beverly Calender-Anderson; Parks & Recreation Department Director Mick Renneisen; Housing & Neighborhood Development Department Director Lisa Abbott, and City Communications Director Maria Heslin to coordinate the city's response to the recent events.\nKruzan outlined measures the city will implement:\n• The city initiated a five-year plan last year to add 10 police officers to the Bloomington Police Department. \n"Bloomington has a low per-capita officer-to-citizen ratio, and we are reversing that trend," Kruzan said.\n• BPD has already begun extra patrols in parks and along high-pedestrian traffic routes.\n• A BPD Motorcycle Patrol program began last weekend to increase police presence and visibility.\n• The City of Bloomington's Parks & Recreation Park Patrol will run additional sweeps by and through Bryan Park.\n• A neighborhood meeting designed for Bryan Park and Elm Heights \nneighborhood residents -- but open to all members of the public -- will be held this week. Police, Parks and Neighborhood Development representatives will discuss public safety issues and answer questions at the meeting.\n"We want every citizen to know how seriously we take their safety and that their input is absolutely welcome," Kruzan said.\n• Existing Neighborhood Watch programs will be reinvigorated and new ones created where neighbors express an interest.\n• HAND is available to meet with existing neighborhood associations or to help launch new associations to encourage more grassroots citizen involvement.\n• The City Human Rights Division and the Safe & Civil City Program will be meeting with community leaders to discuss hate crime incidents and to address manners in which to combat them.\n"We have to put these perpetrators in jail," Kruzan said. "But the goal is the prevention of these crimes in the first place. It is the common responsibility of this community to give meaning to life, and provide opportunities to be productive members of society instead of violent ones"