Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Vehicle Patrols

Neighborhood Watch Patrols are a long established crime prevention program. There are several websites on the subject. New York State Attorney - Eugene, Oregon - Wareham Massachussetts - Oakland Kansas

What happens on a Vehicle Patrol?

To become a member of the patrol you have to become a trained member of the Neighborhood Watch. Tampa Police Department provides the training. There are rules to follow.

You never patrol alone. Each vehicle has a minimum of two people. You don't carry weapons. Each vehicle has signs noting it as a NW patrol vehicle

Initially the two patrol groups patrolled differently. The OSHNA group tended to operate in wolf packs one or two days a week. The SESH group tended to operate with one vehicle at a time at mutliple days/time of the week. The just patrolled their own neighborhoods. Eventually both groups expanded to patrol each others area.

We carry a large spotlight to put some light on the activity of the prostututes and their johns. Sometimes we acted in a preventive manner, be shadowing the prostitute up and down the street, pushing them out of the neighborhood.

We have interrupted some criminal activity. One time we stopped a burglary of a tire store. Most of the time nothing happens. We help people who have flat tires or dead batteries.

My style was not to talk to the prostitute and not to respond to their attempts get me upset. Others would engage in banter.

We have engaged in confrontations with the Johns.

One night we were patrolling and had stopped at New Orleans just off Nebraska to watch a crack prostitute cross Nebraska. Then behind us up pulls some guy in a car. The prostitute gets in the cars. I become incensed that this occurred right behind us, in a vehicle laden with NW patrol signs. I lost it and got out and confronted the guy. I asked him what the hell he was doing picking up a a prostitute. He replied that she just got in the car. I told him to then tell her to get out. He did and she did. I told him to then get out of the neighborhood or and he sped off. Pretty stupid on my part.

We have had confrontations with the prostitutions. Several have been sent to prison as a result.

One night (3/24/04) as we disrupted Harvey Bailey's business.

"Thursday night, while patrolling we had an incident with transgender prostitute Harvey Jerome Bailey, DOB: 1/23/61. We first saw him sitting at a Northbound bus
stop on the east side of Nebraska around Shadowlawn. We proceeded directly down to MLK/Nebraska (at 10:24 PM) where we determined there was still one city bus running (#2) due to arrive at MLK at 10:28 PM and Hillsborough at 10:32 P.M. We speculated that perhaps he was waiting for a bus. Some time later (around 10:50 P.M. or so) we were patrolling north bound on Nebraska and spotted him hanging around the appliance
store at on the east side of Nebraska corner Louisiana. We spotlighted him. He began cursing and crossed the street saying he would throw things and break our windows. We moved on and accompanied him south on Nebraska, either staying slightly ahead or tailing behind. He would make threateninggestures as if he was picking up something. At Cayuga/Nebraska , he picked up a white rock and threw it at us while we were on Cayuga. We moved back and the rock missed the vehicle we were riding in.

At that point we called TPD.

At Emma/Nebraska he threw another rock while we were on Emma, and he missed us only because we moved away.

Around the Genessee area he had a bottle in his hand. As we went by we heard it break. Unknown whether it broke on the street sidewalk or something else. When
he reached MLK we called TPD again. Event Number 157926.

2 Officers responded. I was wearing a Vehicle Patrol T-shirt, our vehicle was also so identified, and I indicated my affiliation when I made both of my phone calls.

The Officer who seemed to be taking the lead and who spoke to us was Officer XXXXX. She performed an interview and came over to us where I explained what had occurred and I indicated I wanted to press what ever charges were appropriate. It was not
completely clear to me whether a report was taken. If not I would prefer that one be taken.

(In a side note, Harvey was interviewed in front of the KC lounge and at some point prostitute Joseph Washington popped up and joined the event.)

Officer's XXXXX attitude, both in this instance and in a prior encounter a few weeks ago, while not dismissive, did not match the very positive attitudes
of all of the other TPD officers I have encountered in the past months. My perception of her attitude was almost as if she rather not be bothered.

In contast, the more typical attitude is shown in our encouter with Sergeant Brian Dugan, who made a point of seeking us out while we were patrolling, advised of
of an operation he had running and asked us we had any info as to prostitution activity. He was very positive, concerned and interested in dealing with the
problem of prostitution. Good guy!"


I emailed this to then Major McNamara. As soon as he read it, he had an officer come out and take a report. Harvey Bailey had already been arrested on other charges. TPD added "throwing a deadly missile at an occupied conveyance" for which he was later convicted and sentenced to 36 months in prison.

At least 3 other prostitutes were arrested on felony charges after assaulting OSHNA patrol member's vehicles. Those members can their stories better than I. These incidents helped form the basis of an anti NW harrassment law created by then Capt Teague.

After those incidents things quieted down once the prostitutes realized we could not be intimated.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

why arent you allowed to have a weapon in your car when on patrol? What do you do if the hooker has a weapon, tell it to hold on why you call the police?

Anonymous said...

me I just wonder who Macnamara is?
mayor of where>

CouldBeSherry said...

We don't engage them so no need for weapon. They have thrown a brick or two but no guns.

Mac is a Major who used to be the head of our district. He is now Major - Criminal Investigations Division.

Anonymous said...

I have to say...in the last couple of months...the police have improved services tremendously.
I think that there is a renewed sense of cleaning up Seminole Heights again.
Things are starting to look up and I am proud that the police are helping us.
I really like major Guidara and Macnamara.
Both are compassionate people and can get to the heart of problems and solve them instead of just throwing everyone behind bars.
They spend the few extra minutes to figure out a solution and really try to help people in need.
Its hard to look at an 16yo prostitute who is out on streets and not try and help.
No one wants that here in SESH.
We want to help people as much as we want to put the bad guys away that need it.
If there weren't any pimps, then the kids wouldn't get into a situation that they can't control.

Anonymous said...

you don't need a pimp to sell yourself on the streets - all you need is someone willing to take advantage of the hooker on the street for that equation to work.

Anonymous said...

I'm in Northeast Seminole Heights north of Sligh. The neighborhood is generally very nice, but I have a neighbor who doesn't care for her rental property and blasts the radio between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. After approaching her and her family members numerous times personally, I called the police last night. They came but didn't take a report or issue a citation. After they left, the neighbor paced up and down next to my house yelling slurs and threatening to kill me.

I didn't call the police again because it seemed they just made it worse, and I don't think they can actually protect me.

Has anyone else dealt with a situation like this? What did you do? How did it end up? I am terrified. I work very hard to keep my home nice and I love it, but I can't enjoy it now.

Bungalowlady said...

Anonymouse 2:53 - - You should have called police again. If you call often enough they will dsolve the problem. Keep calling. Don't even leave your house. Just call, call call! When they figure out it's important they'll fix it.

Anonymous said...

Exactly call the cops!! However what can they do?




I LIVE in a rental unit, I dispise people screaming and yelling at one another at any time of the day or night .....and it happens here ONE STRET OVER AND THREE HOUSES DOWN FROM ME.and I MEAN no intent to be prejudicial at all but the two families are spanish orgin..
Swearing in espanola is just as loud and mean as in english
I cannot for the life of me understand why people must be so freakin loud to fight with each other? Or why people have no sense of dignity any longer.Family stuff used to be private ......WHAT happend to that?

These people are my neighbors and homeowners.We are renting. I did ask them politely please fight inside and ask your daughter to maybe lay off the cussing ok there are alot of younger children on my street whom had no problemo hearing her fight with her parents.
Did i get treated politely when I asked them to please stop.No!
They swore at me and continued to tell me to shut up my white tired ass...nice huh'?
Cops cant do anything unless of course your neighbor hits you or the sound is way out of bounds after dark and 11pm. its useless to me to bother with them any longer . I just leave some days and or wear my ear plugs out side when gardening.
I FOR one love peace and quiet and I DO REALIZE families have bad days
But to have to listen to it when Im not part of the said family can get me pretty fried...
The law officers are good but I sure do wish they could do something like a citation but hey its a situation that esculates to racial crap and I for one am sick of that card!

Anonymous said...

We had a similar situation about a year ago. Fortunuately for us the renters were on Section 8. We were able to put some pressure on the Tampa Housing Authority, TPD and we finally got their government funds revoked and they had to move out. Your problem is that these people own their homes. I will say that it will be your persistence that will pay off here in the long run. You must contact the cops EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU HAVE A PROBLEM. Eventually even the cops will get tired of dealing with the issue. Coincidentally our problem family was also hispanic. Yelling and screaming at all hours of the night. Are there any other neighbors around you that are willing to take up the campaign with you?? Together it will work even better! Good luck. Oh and another good idea is to put a floor fan in your bedroom at night that makes enough of a humming noise as to drown out the noise from the outside.

Anonymous said...

God I'd hate to see what would happen if y'all lived in a real city!

Anonymous said...

If, by "real city" you mean New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, LA, then I think that you can answer your own question. We like it here and we would like it to be quiet at night so that we can get some sleep. Is that really too much to expect? By the way, FYI a city doesn't have to have 10 million people in it to be considered a "real city".

Anonymous said...

Excuse me I am from a large city




THE CITY OF ANGLELS IS MY HOME CITY

I beg to differ.The problemo is not with a size of a city
ITS TO DO WITH THEOSE WHO CANNOT RESIDE IN THE SAID CITY WITHOUT DRAMA!!
I have traveled alot in my fifty years and seen alot

So young person that you are , wise up and before you open your snarky mouth ..be sure that your well informed

would do you some good in the future!

Thanks for your opinion but as we all know > i do know this for your self.> Opinions are like ass holes and yes perhaps your one.!

Anonymous said...

BTW.....
YA'LL?
WHAT THE HELL is that?

where did you graduate from
BUBBA UNIVER"CITY"......LMAO

how about that ?Bubba univer ci ty
O? lost on you .sorry perhaps a tad over you head.

Anonymous said...

dear fedupwithstupid...

"your" and "you're" are two different words, perhaps you should learn the difference before you comment on someone else's snarky comments. go back to l.a. or shut "ur" hole.

Anonymous said...

O my goodness
Havent I been "told" !
How about you shutting your PIEHOLE AND LEAVE .....
bitch about the people here your ONE

Anonymous said...

news flash Mr. fedupwithstupid if "your" big city is so much better than Tampa then by all means do us all a favor and please move back.