Mayor Coleman joins with residents on the far East Side to make their neighborhood safer by turning on new streetlights.

In the City of Columbus, in 1999, there were challenges in the realm of neighborhood safety, beyond the issue of crime.  The community was divided over issues of race, accountability and an internal management struggle.  Upon taking office, Mayor Coleman set out to bridge the divide, setting a course that has begun to rebuild community trust in the Division’s officers and managers.  A key indicator of the success of our strategy was the complete dismissal, on September 4, 2002, of the Department of Justice lawsuit against Columbus.

• Since late 2004, as part of the Mayor’s anti-gang initiative, Columbus Police have made approximately 225 arrests and seized 180 crime guns.  They have also seized $124,000 in cash, 150 grams of heroin, 1,774 grams of crack cocaine, 490 grams of powder cocaine and 155 pounds of marijuana.  These arrests have a significant positive safety impact on neighborhoods by taking some of the “worst of the worst” suspects off of our streets. In partnership with ATF and U.S. Attorney, we bring federal charges on many of the suspects which carry terms of 10 years to life imprisonment;
• Through 2007,  the Mayor’s Police Summer Strike Force has made 2,187 arrests and seized 447 guns;
• Created the Neighborhood Safety Working Group of citizens, civic leaders, judges, prosecutors and safety officials to focus on gang and gun issues; asking for increased citizen involvement, including participation in a Neighborhood Safety Academy, with 21 Academies and 614 graduates;
• Consistently lobbied for Homeland Security funding, the City has encumbered or spent more than $34 million to date on securing city facilities, training, and buying equipment for first responders following 9/11/01;
• The City’s work on Emergency Preparedness earned national recognition in 2007 as one of the top four cities in America for emergency preparedness and interoperable communications.  Columbus rated “A” in all three categories judged.  This includes $5.75 million Grant to construct a new communications tower and replace communications for the 800 MHz system to better link all 135 area partners, including city, suburban, county, state and federal agencies.
• In the City of Columbus, in 1999, there were challenges in the realm of neighborhood safety, beyond the issue of crime.  The community was divided over issues of race, accountability and an internal management struggle.  Upon taking office, Mayor Coleman set out to bridge the divide, setting a course that has begun to rebuild community trust in the Division’s officers and managers.  A key indicator of the success of our strategy was the complete dismissal, on September 4, 2002, of the Department of Justice lawsuit against Columbus.

• • The Mayor implemented new accountability and anti-racial profiling policies, fully reorganized the Division of Police’s Internal Affairs Bureau, added new digital video and audio recorders to patrol vehicles, increased anti-racial profiling training, began tracking data at traffic stops;

• Appointed City’s first African American Division of Fire Chief, Ned Pettus, Jr.;
• Underscoring the importance of training as the foundation for a 21st century Police Division, we opened the new, $21 million Police Training Academy in December 2004. The Academy serves not only to train new recruits and all Columbus Police Officers, but also as an Entrepreneurial Training facility for law enforcement agencies around Ohio and the Midwest;
• Built two neighborhood policing centers, and will broke ground in early 2007 for a joint safety facility in the Ohio State University District;
• Constructed new Fire Stations on Parsons Ave. (Fire Station #14), the Northwest (Fire Station #34), renovated the historical fire station in Clintonville (Fire Station #19) and in Linden (Fire Station #18); broke ground for brand new Fire Station in Franklinton (Fire Station #10) in spring 2007; capital funding identified for new fire station (Fire Station #35) on the far east side.

A Partner in Building Stronger Neighborhoods

We’ve worked to increase the development of new homes for families, spurring construction through City incentives of more than 12,500 new housing units in Columbus neighborhoods;

• This includes the work of the Columbus Franklin County Affordable Housing Trust Corporation and units in the Neighborhood Investment Districts, which Coleman created to leverage public funding to attract private investment in building housing for families.  The fund was capitalized with $4.1 million from City and $2 million from Franklin County, spurred the construction of 2,697 homes and apartments to date.  The CFCAHTC has leverage $6 million to drive more than $70 million from the private sector;

• Launched the HOME AGAIN program a $25 million 5-point plan of 1) enforcement 2) roof repair 3) demolition 4) acquisition and 5) rehabilitation to attack vacant and abandoned houses in our neighborhoods. To date, the City has spent $10 million and has impacted 600 properties with new homes, rehabilitation, demolition, and roof repairs.

• Launched Neighborhood Pride, a proactive initiative to engage residents and businesses as partners in revitalizing their homes and neighborhoods.  In Pride, city employees from multiple departments work together to provide focused services, point out health, safety and code problems.  In its first eight years, Pride toured 54 neighborhoods, helping bring thousands of homes up to code.

• Worked to improve pedestrian safety and safety for children in school zones;

• Building more than 11 miles of new sidewalks near schools, and investing in traffic calming, warning signs and speeding enforcement;

• TRANSPORTATION AND PEDESTRIAN COMMISSION - Created new 8-member commission to improve neighborhood livability, slow down traffic and protect pedestrians, the group assists in crafting policies for traffic calming, shared-use paths, multi-way stops, traffic signal timing, school walking routes;