Chief's Update: December 2009

Gordon Ramsay
Chief of Police

Earlier this year Duluth participated in The National Citizen Survey in order to gauge resident opinion on various city issues. The National Citizen Survey is sponsored by the International City/County Management Association in cooperation with National Research Center, Inc. The questionnaire and survey procedure was designed based on the experience of hundreds of local governments of all sizes, from small to large. Scientific sampling and weighting of the responses in each city ensure accurate and reliable results. Questionnaires were sent to a random sample of 1,200 Duluth citizens, asking for feedback on the quality and usefulness of city services. So how did the Police Department do? I was intrigued and surprised by some of the results.

Residents said they felt safe in their neighborhoods during the day at a higher rate than the national average. During the night residents reported they feel safe at the national average. Further results from the survey indicated that residents do not feel as safe downtown and ranked below the national average in this category. Interestingly, this does not fit with crime statistics downtown.

We can speculate as to why this may be. I think most people realize the news media are always quick to report on crime in Duluth….and to keep reporting on the same story over and over and over. Earlier this year the Chamber of Commerce initiated a First Street Crime Safety survey that was covered in the news for almost an entire month! The old saying goes “if it bleeds it leads” and to be fair, the public has an insatiable appetite for news about crime. Crime stories are frequently the most read stories on the Duluth News Tribune website.

The truth about crime in Duluth is that it is driven by the same people time and time again.

While working a Saturday night a couple weeks ago I spent a fair amount of time in the early evening downtown. Some of our known felons were hanging around in front of the Kozy Bar. I moved them along, knowing if they stayed there we’d surely have problems. Guess what? Of the two major felonies that occurred later that night, both involved the crooks that had been hanging on that corner. One of them robbed other drug users of marijuana at a motel on London Road and the other was found very drunk, stumbling around the 100 block of East 1st Street with a minor cut from a knife. The word on the street was the cut was from an acquaintance over a drug debt. The common denominator here: drugs, violent crime, and repeat offenders.

That night I recalled the old Shishka Bar located at Lake Avenue and 1st Street and remembered all the problems that came from that bar; it brought down the entire block. Pressure from the police and a taxi cab driving through the front of the building closed that bar permanently; what a difference a few years can make! Look at that block now.

While our crime statistics show Duluth is a safe city with a crime rate below the national average, we need to do better. If our resident’s perception is they are not safe, then statistics don’t mean anything. We have added plain clothed patrols as well as extra foot and bike patrols downtown; our bike patrol and foot patrol has put on thousands of miles and written many tickets for nuisance behavior since June; and we will soon be purchasing technologically advanced surveillance cameras for problem areas downtown.

Cities that have implemented these systems have seen dramatic decreases in crime. It does help, of course, when business owners and landlords take a stake in making things better. While many building owners downtown are actively trying to make improvements there are still one or two that hold us back and allow a criminal element a place to live and hang out, but it seems I’ve digressed a little.

So back to the survey, besides the perception of safety, the survey also rated the police department. Overall satisfaction with the police department was as follows: 24% rated police services as excellent, 55% as good, and 15% as fair. While these numbers are good, there is room for improvement. The same survey will be conducted again next spring and we are using this year’s statistics as benchmarks for improvement. We are here to serve and help make our City the best it can be.