Wednesday, October 10, 2007
A Voice from an Anti-Crime Veteran
Cindy Worden was for a long time one of the great warriors against crime in Tillicum, until her family moved. She still keeps track of events here in town, and her thoughts about the recent proposals to adjust community policing are worth reading in their entirety, posted, of course, with her permission:
Hi Walter,
It has been a little over a year since I moved from the Lakewood area to Gig Harbor. I read your newsletter and blog religiously as I miss living in my old hometown. I am writing this because I saw your article about two neighborhoods in Lakewood losing their community-policing program.
I agree with you about Tillicum losing. I spent 5 years of my life starting the program, and it was working. I know that Rudy (Rebel) Baker spent the rest of his life for the cause, not to mention the other 15-20 people who served on the patrol over the 5 years that I coordinated the program.
Since I left the area I have slowly watched the community going back to its old norm when no one bothers to call the police because they probably won't show up anyway. I am starting to see things crop up in town again and I rarely see an officer in town. Crime stats would appear to be down as there apparently is no patrol to make the calls about the things that area occurring.
Even though I moved out of Tillicum a year ago, I work in Lakewood, and I am in town nearly every day. The "problem children" from my reign on the patrol are now young adults, and they still shout the same unmentionable names that they used to call me then. That would not be flattering for most, but for me, it tells me that we had an impact and it has not been forgotten. Even now when the old "gang" of kids that used to cause trouble see me coming down the street, they disburse because they know I will call the police if I see them doing anything wrong. Now that is an impact. I would hate to see Tillicum go back to what it was in its unflattering days.
I still love my town, and I would not want to see them lose ground now. It looks like I may have to attend a counsel meeting or two or head back to the association meetings. Thank you for reading my two cents on the subject and thank you for keeping me informed.
Cindy Worden
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Hi Walter,
It has been a little over a year since I moved from the Lakewood area to Gig Harbor. I read your newsletter and blog religiously as I miss living in my old hometown. I am writing this because I saw your article about two neighborhoods in Lakewood losing their community-policing program.
I agree with you about Tillicum losing. I spent 5 years of my life starting the program, and it was working. I know that Rudy (Rebel) Baker spent the rest of his life for the cause, not to mention the other 15-20 people who served on the patrol over the 5 years that I coordinated the program.
Since I left the area I have slowly watched the community going back to its old norm when no one bothers to call the police because they probably won't show up anyway. I am starting to see things crop up in town again and I rarely see an officer in town. Crime stats would appear to be down as there apparently is no patrol to make the calls about the things that area occurring.
Even though I moved out of Tillicum a year ago, I work in Lakewood, and I am in town nearly every day. The "problem children" from my reign on the patrol are now young adults, and they still shout the same unmentionable names that they used to call me then. That would not be flattering for most, but for me, it tells me that we had an impact and it has not been forgotten. Even now when the old "gang" of kids that used to cause trouble see me coming down the street, they disburse because they know I will call the police if I see them doing anything wrong. Now that is an impact. I would hate to see Tillicum go back to what it was in its unflattering days.
I still love my town, and I would not want to see them lose ground now. It looks like I may have to attend a counsel meeting or two or head back to the association meetings. Thank you for reading my two cents on the subject and thank you for keeping me informed.
Cindy Worden
Labels: community policing
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Cindy is right in one regard.. the police show up when they can, but the Chief is handcuffed by the Andy the city manager. Yeah sure Andy has a job to do. He must make the budget work, or so he says. However Andy needs to come down to Woodbrook, Lake City, or even over on Steilacoom Blvd near the park to get a reality check. Now here in Tillicum, some of what Cindy says is true. Her old nemisis are at it again. They got out of jail and when they see her they hollor at her. Mostly because they know they can get a rise out of her. There are new "baddies" in town in Tillicum now though. A mobile meth lab who uses a a kid not more than 12 to go get quarters from the laundry mat.. but hey we got good news at the laundry.. they put in cameras and the people who were trying to sell drugs out of there moved on! Cameras work folks! Now if I can convince other people in the advisory boards the same..hmm.. will work on that Cindy... There are new really beat up bad used up meth head prostitutes roaming around. Scary. Of course they come around becasue the truckers don't have any place to park and they will park anywhere! ANd the old geezers who come over from Fort Lewis.. yuck..You can call all this in, but it don't mean too much because they took Mike away from us.. sad day sad day sad day! CSO Mike Miller did do all he could to help us, but let's be real. he's only ONE person! And I read that article where Andy said, that code enforcement would take over.. did Andy forget that HE MADE CODE Enforcement part of the job description of the CSO???? I guess so.. but so long as ANdy and his croanies are tucked in bed safe at night huh? We should be thank ful for that.. oh wait.. the meth heads and decide he isnt so safe afterall.. oh well.. sad days people...
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