Police, landlords meet to combat future local parties

For students who attended April’s SempleFest, the hangovers have long passed. But the Pitt… For students who attended April’s SempleFest, the hangovers have long passed. But the Pitt police and Oakland landlords still face the headaches brought on by the annual party.

Pitt police chief Tim Delaney met for the first time on Wednesday with members of the Oakland Landlord Committee to address concerns raised by SempleFest and to discuss crime prevention in the area.

Bob Eckenrode, a landlord who has been a member of the committee since its inception this January, wanted to know at the start of the meeting if there was any way to stop SempleFest from happening again.

“It’s gotten worse each year,” said Eckenrode.

Pitt police spokesperson Ron Bennett was quick to point out that landlords must be more involved if disruptions like student parties are to be prevented in the future.

“We can have landlords, police and tenants working together in the community – that’s the point of this meeting,” said Bennett.

Bennett’s assertion informed the rest of the meeting as Delaney, Bennett and the four landlords in attendance discussed how to reduce crime and improve resident behavior in South Oakland.

Much of the discussion focused on new ways to communicate the consequences of crimes such as underage drinking to student members of the South Oakland community because, as Delaney said, “the plan that we have is not working.”

New ideas included taking out ads in local media, talking to the parents of students and speaking to students starting with orientation.

“We need to advertise and communicate,” said Delaney.

The possibility of reducing South Oakland crime by placing surveillance cameras in areas that experience burglaries and graffiti was also raised during the meeting.

Eckenrode asked Delaney if police could place cameras around South Oakland and offered to have the cameras placed on his properties.

“I’m worried about kids going home for Thanksgiving or Christmas and their places get robbed,” said Eckenrode.

He hopes that cameras would deter or help catch the burglars who strike during breaks as well as the graffiti artists whom he said he has “been fighting for years.”

Delaney was receptive to the idea and said that the blue-light emergency boxes and surveillance cameras had not been placed in South Oakland before because the University doesn’t own any property in the area.

“Student Government Board has been entertaining the idea of getting more emergency call boxes in South Oakland,” said SGB president Sumter Link.

Link said he supports the installation of cameras in South Oakland if property owners are willing to have them placed on their buildings.

Kelly Wawrzeniak, who works with the committee as the community organizer at the Oakland Planning and Development Corporation, said that she will invite representatives of SGB to attend the June meeting.

Both Delaney and Eckenrode expressed interest in meeting with representatives from SGB. Eckenrode said that getting everyone in Oakland on the same page will help prevent crime in the area.

Link said that he wants SGB to become involved in discussions with the landlords and Pitt police in the future.

“Some good has to come out of this: the fact that we are communicating,” said Delaney.