Hill leaders push for more police

CHCA president Maxine Dornemann makes a plea for increased police presence on the Hill during last week’s meeting. Pictured from left are: Dornemann, Anne McNally, president of the Chestnut Hill Business Association, Stephen Johnson, aide to Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller, and Lt. James Dambach, of the 14 District. (Photo by James Sturdivant)

by MICHAEL J. MISHAK

In the wake of the second set of assaults to rock Chestnut Hill in as many months, a small group of neighborhood business and community leaders sought assurances and offered help at an impromptu meeting with police brass last week.

The meeting, organized by Maxine Dornemann, president of the Chestnut Hill Community Association, came on a day when the neighborhood found itself under the microscope of the local media, who had descended on the Hill to report on a recent series of assaults and robberies perpetrated by a roving group of teens.

Gathered around the table were: Anne McNally, president of the Chestnut Hill Business Association, and local restaurateur Paul Roller. Two City Council staffers — Stewart Graham, chief of staff to Councilman Frank Rizzo and Stephen Johnson, an aide to Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller — also attended.

Emotions were running high in one of the city’s safest neighborhoods last Wednesday after it was revealed that at least four men had been beaten and robbed by teens traveling in packs of up to seven in the span of a week. The attacks bear similarities to a spate of muggings reported on by the Local last month.

At the meeting, the group petitioned Lt. James Dambach, of the 14th District, to increase the police presence in Chestnut Hill, floating the idea of another bike patrol. At one point, Dornemann offered to raise funds to pay the salaries of two additional officers. “If you could get the manpower, we’d get the money,” she told Dambach.

Still, such a move is unlikely. Resources are already stretched thin in the 14th District, which runs from Northwestern Avenue in Chestnut Hill to Wister Street in lower Germantown. Last year, it ranked third out of the department’s 25 patrol districts for its murder rate.

Reached by phone on Monday, Capt. Winton Singletary, commanding officer of the 14th District, said manpower has been scarce since the city enacted a hiring freeze in the police department last year. “It would be nice to have a bike patrol on every block but I just don’t have the people,” he said.

Chestnut Hill is currently serviced by one police bike patrol, comprised of two officers. The patrol works alternates between day and night shifts, Singletary said.

Asked about the veracity of rumors that the group of teens had started their crime spree months ago in Mt. Airy, Singletary said, “We have robberies all over the district.” He said police had not made any connection between the most recent assaults in Chestnut Hill and prior incidents in Mount Airy.

The Aug. 11 meeting capped a day of media frenzy. First reported on by the Local last month, the newspaper ran an update last week. The report, which hit newsstands on Wednesday, was quickly followed by an article in Thursday’s Philadelphia Daily News and evening news coverage on at least three local television stations.

By most accounts, the big media coverage sensationalized the problem. The Daily News said the beatings and robberies were “tied to gangs,” while Channel 6 painted the situation this way: “Chestnut Hill Shopping District Plagued by Violence.”

Police have not said the incidents were gang-related. All four of the recent attacks occurred on residential streets off the Avenue’s shopping corridor.

At last Thursday’s meeting, Dornemann blasted the news accounts, saying the “derelict reporting” had inflicted “psychological damage” on the community.

“We are a community of walkers,” said Anne McNally. “If this had happened in any other community, it would not be such a hot topic. It’s unsettling and unnerving, but I don’t think the solution is to stop walking.”

Chestnut Hill, McNally said, is a section of the city that many residents consider “a quiet, cozy town,” a place where people must be taught to lock their car doors.

While some may find that description comforting, criminals see it as an invitation, Dambach said. “It all begins with the individual response … If you are not alert, if you are not vigilant, the problem escalates, and it’s even encouraged.”

All sought ways to fight back and raise awareness, from holding crime-prevention seminars for local businesses to scheduling a neighborhood-wide “Night Out” vigil.

“We as a community need to say to the people who live here, ‘We take this seriously,’” Dornemann said. “What we have here we don’t want to lose.”

Graham and Johnson, the City Council staffers, said Council members Rizzo, Miller and Darrell Clarke had visited Baltimore earlier this year to observe that city’s use of security cameras in public places. While such a measure would be far off in the future for Philadelphia, Johnson said, Baltimore officials have already noted a drop in their city’s crime rate.

Concerned about police response in the short term, McNally asked if police had any suspects in the recent attacks and were set to present evidence to the district attorney’s office, as had been reported by the Daily News that day.

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Dambach said.

Describing the incidents as “under investigation,” he said detectives were following up “a lot of good leads,” including one stemming from a recent arrest. “We’ve directed our resources to this particular area,” Dambach said. “We’re working vigorously to solve this problem.”

McNally said she would encourage members and residents alike to press charges and show up at court hearings in the event of a crime. “We could all become such a deterrent if we just made a little effort,” she said. “Some of our business owners are our biggest problems.”

For their part, Dambach said police, under pressure from top brass, had stepped up their efforts to follow up with victims. Many times, traumatized crime victims decline to be interviewed by detectives, which hampers investigations, he said. Also, Dambach said officers patrolling the streets could evaluate their “list of jobs” at off-peak times to improve response time.

Still, the discussion shifted back to police presence on the Hill.

Riffing off one of McNally’s comments, local restaurateur Paul Roller said, “Being vigilant and smart is doing nothing for our quality of life. I don’t think there’s enough of a police presence here … And that’s being used against us in Chestnut Hill.”

In light of the recent attacks, Roller said he had found himself patrolling the streets on the lookout for the group of teens. “I’m getting tired of this,” he said. “Having a police officer nearby is important.” He pleaded for better police deployment, especially in the evening hours, if not more police presence.

“I don’t want to see another Russ Byers happen here,” Roller said, referring to the 1999 stabbing murder of Daily News columnist Russell G. Byers outside the Wawa convenience store on Highland Avenue.

Nancy Berger, a Germantown resident and the listings editor at the Local, testified to the effectiveness of a constant police presence in her neighborhood under Operation Safe Streets. “The officers sit in a car on the corner and it makes a big difference,” she said.

Late last week, Dick Martin, head of Chestnut Hill Town Watch, renewed his call for volunteers. “We need more people to catch these S.O.B.’s,” he said of the teenage attackers. “I would like to see these guys off the streets — and by that I mean under control. We all have the right to walk the streets without being harassed by anyone.”