Mahoning Valley Forum

I attended the meeting....Guy Burney, C.I.R.V. Program Coordinator, presented an update and review of the program with a power point presentation and a graph of the known gangs and location of those gangs in Youngstown.


Chief Foley and Sgt. Rutherford discussed the V.I.P. Program,and passed out stats for the past two months. He also discussed the need for more Detective/Sergeant's in the Police Department. He wants one stationed in the 911 Center full time to address concerns he gets from the public about calls coming in and the length of time they take to be dispatched.  He also discussed increasing the fee for police tows by $30.00...currently the fee is $40.00, the lowest in the area. He said the additional amount could go toward purchasing more police cruisers. The funding/grants they used to get for cruisers was drastically cut. He said the City of Warren currently charges $75.00 a tow.


They discussed Traffic Cameras, and how they will be used in the city. They want to start using them in school zones. A company will supply the cameras, and they will install cameras that take pictures of vehicles speeding, going through traffic lights, stop signs, etc. They will mail a ticket with a link to their site and a picture of the vehicle to the vehicle's owner. Several cities in Ohio currently use them. The tickets are not criminal offenses and the information on the cameras are stored for thirty days. If there is a need for the police department to review the cameras information for other crime fighting information, they can get access to that information.


Chief Foley also stated he is working on supplying police reports online. He said he will have a link on the city's website to access those reports, saving the public the trip to the police department record room.


The chief plans on having his crime analyst at the next safety meeting scheduled for September 27, 2012 at 5:00 PM.