--- title: "The Southridge Village Leopold Bike Club Project" type: "pdf" year: "2012" canonical: "/projects/751" --- # The Southridge Village & Leopold Bike Club Project ![img-0.jpeg](https://popdatasets.blob.core.windows.net/popdatasetmdimgs/12-29_madison/img-0.jpeg) Madison Police Department Captain Joe Balles Lt Stephanie Bradley-Wilson Lt David Jugovich Officer Andre Lewis Officer Deon Johnson Officer Thai Xiong Officer David Dexheimer South District Community Policing Teams 2009 - 2011 # Table of Contents - [The Southridge Village & Leopold Bike Club Project](#the-southridge-village-leopold-bike-club-project) - [Summary](#summary) - [Narrative](#narrative) - [Why is the Leopold Bike Club important?](#why-is-the-leopold-bike-club-important) - [Is the Southridge Village Project significant?](#is-the-southridge-village-project-significant) - [The Southridge Village Project and the Leopold Bike Club](#the-southridge-village-project-and-the-leopold-bike-club) - [A. Scanning:](#a-scanning) - [B. First Analysis:](#b-first-analysis) - [- Officer Xiong identifies loitering non-residents - Preliminary CPTED survey conducted - Tenant survey conducted by Community Policing Team Officers](#officer-xiong-identifies-loitering-non-residents-preliminary-cpted-survey-conducted-tenant-survey-conducted-by-community-policing-team-officers) - [C. First Responses:](#c-first-responses) - [D. First Assessment:](#d-first-assessment) - [F. Second Analysis:](#f-second-analysis) - [G. Second Response:](#g-second-response) - [H. Second Assessment:](#h-second-assessment) - [Appendix](#appendix) - [City of Madison News Release](#city-of-madison-news-release) - [Printable Version](#printable-version) - [For Immediate Release:](#for-immediate-release) - [For More Information Contact:](#for-more-information-contact) - [Informational Website Link:](#informational-website-link) - [The Leopold Bike Club](#the-leopold-bike-club) - [Building Communities One Bike at a Time](#building-communities-one-bike-at-a-time) - [Issues](#issues) - [Bike to School continued](#bike-to-school-continued) - [Another WIC Bake Sale!](#another-wic-bake-sale) - [Room continued](#room-continued) - [Safe Routes to School](#safe-routes-to-school) - [Sunday August 7th at 1pm](#sunday-august-7th-at-1pm) - [The Leopold Bike ClubSummary](#the-leopold-bike-clubsummary) - [Goals:](#goals) - [Results](#results) - [The Future](#the-future) - [Key Project Team Members](#key-project-team-members) - [Project Contact Person](#project-contact-person) # Summary On August $1^{\text {st }}$, 2009 a gun battle erupted at Southridge Village, a small apartment complex in Madison's South Police District. More than fifty kids live there; and single moms head most of the households. Multiple weapons were fired and dozens of rounds pierced walls and vehicles, but miraculously no one was injured. This incident galvanized the officers of the South District, and it immediately moved the area from a back burner to a full-fledged problem solving effort by the South Community Policing Team. Scanning first identified Southridge Village as an emerging problem in 2006 when Sgt Dexheimer compiled a list of South District problems. Officers' responding for even minor incidents were experiencing hostile and confrontational crowds. A CPT liaison officer was assigned in 2008. The Coho St complex was on the list of potential POP projects for the new CPT in February of 2009. Officer Xiong began meeting with property managers, studying of rent rolls, reviewing police incidents and using surveillance to identify persons loitering on the property. Within days of the August shootout the CPT conducted a survey of all the tenants. A CPTED review of the site was completed to identify design factors that contributed to the problem. The visible symptoms of the problem were groups of young men involved with gangs and drugs loitering on the property. A drug case began the drug abatement process, and that process plus the principles of shifting and sharing were used to coerce the owners to improve management practices and make design changes, such as lighting and fences. A new neighborhood officer position was created for Sector 308, which includes Southridge Village. Anticipating additional responses, the assessment and ongoing analysis were occurring simultaneously. The new NPO Deon Johnson worked to support the resident managers, while at the same time documenting the dysfunctional management structure. When Flad Development failed to make substantive changes the loitering, drug dealing and violence returned. Officer Andre Lewis realized that the hostility of many residents toward the police was an underlying cause of the problems and not just a symptom. Sgt Dexheimer and Officer Lewis conceived the plan of using bikes to overcome the chasm that existed between the police and this community. Based on the Safe Routes to School program and the social media based @30daysofbiking the plan was for kids to earn their bikes by riding to school every day in September with officers. # Narrative The Leopold Bike Club was an idea conceived by Sgt Dexheimer and Officer Lewis to use bikes to bridge the gap between the Southridge community and the police They were directly inspired by Rene Calloway coordinator of the Safe Routes to School program encouraging them to submit a creative and unique police project for a grant and the social media based 30daysof biking program out of Minneapolis in which cyclists are challenged to commit to cycling for thirty consecutive days in September and sharing their experience via Twitter. They were also influenced by Sgt Dexheimer's experience with the ZAP adventure program in the Broadway Simpson Neighborhood and Captain Balles's solution to the problems at the South Transfer Point. Observing that no biked at Southridge Village in spite of the fact that more than fifty kids live there, and acknowledging that previous attempts to overcome the intense hostility toward the police had failed, Lewis and Dexheimer proposed to sign up parents and kids for a program that allowed kids to earn a bike by biking to and from school with an officer every day in September. The officers of the South Community Policing Team made this idea work even when no funding was available and the sources of bikes fell through ten days before the program was scheduled to start. They did it by flexing their hours and volunteering their time. They did it by developing partnerships with the community, local businesses and the staff of Leopold School. No overtime was used in devoting hundreds of hours of direct service hours to the kids. It would not have been possible without the participation of Neighborhood Police Officers Deon Johnson and Morris Reid, the blessing and support of the south district command staff, and citizen volunteers. In the end fifteen kids, all who signed up earned their bikes. They learned safe biking skills, acquired a sense of community and learned lifelong habits of cycling for fun and transportation. The officers and the parents developed relationships and mutual trust. This idea built around the bike changed the ecology of the community comprised of Southridge Village, Leopold School and the Madison Police Department. # Why is the Leopold Bike Club important? 1. It was successful at so many levels - Improved student performance at school - Created a connection between officers and school - Expanded the kids sense of community - Engaged many citizens and businesses in partnerships to make it happen - An opportunity for officers to understand the challenges these kids face and ways to get beyond their facades - Demonstrates the potential for funded SRTS projects throughout Madison and beyond - Assured the success of the Southridge Village Project to make that complex safer for everyone - Generated an interest in biking to school at Leopold beyond just the club members - Taught fifteen kids biking skills and habits they can pass on to their friends and families 2. A model of engaging kids with bikes and building relationships with officers was accomplished with no budget and no police overtime because of the determination of the officers and because of partnerships with local businesses and the community. 3. This model for Safe Routes to School programming is an opportunity to move beyond infrastructure and traditional police proposals (speed boards and enforcement) 4. It illustrates the importance of $2^{\text {nd }}$ generation CPTED to Problem Oriented Policing projects and demonstrates a new way to effect change. 5. It is easy for police biking to engage Madison's affluent neighborhoods; but the LBC shows the ability to improve the relationship between the community and the police in neighborhoods that have a greater need. In preparing a grant proposal for Safe Routes to School, and we looked for other schools and neighborhoods to pair, new questions were raised: Why are some neighborhoods so much more hostile to the police than others? Are there environmental factors contributing to the differences? Are management attitudes and practices influencing the values of tenants? Are children in poor neighborhoods excluded from the benefits of the biking culture in Madison? If the Safe Routes to School grant is approved, the goal is to include 90 kids a year for three years. We believe that two hundred and seventy kids on bikes will be great ambassadors for forging a new connection between Madison Police officers and six new neighborhoods. ## Is the Southridge Village Project significant? No. Not by itself. Without the Leopold Bike Club the work at Southridge Village is just a run of the mill project using proven and tested POP strategies to turn around a troubled apartment complex. It does however have a few lessons about the problem solving process. - Scanning can be a process extending over several years and sometimes the transition to a Problem Oriented Policing approach is gradual - The benefits of off-the-shelf Problem Oriented Policing are that we have a blue print to proceed and responses that have proven successful. The danger is that it is easy to overlook a group of stakeholders or incorrectly understand their interests when we assume the current problem fits our past model. - Sometimes a young officer's gut instincts that something just isn't right will save the day. Listen to them. - We never fail to ask the question "Why here?" in our analysis. We need to make sure we also ask what social conditions are unique to this site. And not dismiss them as something we are powerless to change. # The Southridge Village Project and the Leopold Bike Club ## A. Scanning: - Patrol Officers notice loitering hostile crowds at Southridge Village - A district problems list compiled in 2006 included this area - A liaison was assigned to Southridge in 2008 - Southridge identified as potential POP project for incoming CPT officers A relatively small apartment complex generated an inordinate number of police calls. Most of the calls that were a concern to Officers were disturbances and fights, with a few weapons offenses. Officers noticed that this was a complex at which there were frequently crowds of people hanging out in the parking lots, many of whom were not residents. But what really made Southridge Village unique for officers, was that these crowds were often hostile and belligerent to the police. The potential for officers being harassed was always high; and it was not unusual to need backup on even the most innocuous call. There was an onsite manager for Southridge Village. For several years the person filling this position had a reputation of working with the police and attempted to reduce the calls and the loitering. In 2008, the first year the South Police district had its own Community Policing Team, one of the community officers was assigned as liaison to Southridge Village and worked closely with the resident manager. It was widely believed that this partnership was effective and kept a lid on things at the complex. In late 2008 the resident manager left and a new couple were hired; the community officer moved to a new assignment in January 2009. When the new Community Policing Team started at the beginning of 2009 Southridge Village was put on a list of problems that the CPT would address that year and Officer Thai Xiong chose to take the lead on it. Three years earlier, a patrol Sgt in the south district created a "Top Ten" problem list for the district and based the final product on interviews with patrol officers on all shifts and repeat calls for service. The neighborhood bounded by Coho St, Traceway and Post Rd was seen as an emerging problem area and was added to the list based on the changing nature of problems in that area and the concerns of patrol officer about the hostile crowds at Souhtridge though the number of CFS did not yet clearly identify the area. By 2009 several neighborhoods in Sector 308 seemed to be emerging as significant problems. The physical appearance of the properties deteriorated. There were less owner-occupied duplexes. the police incidents were becoming more serious and more violent. It was difficult to single out one particular area in this large sector yet, but Southridge Village appeared to be the worst in terms of disturbances and violence. Ironically this property was not physically in decline. Southridge Village was one of the best maintained and nicest looking apartment complexes in the whole district. Several things changed abruptly in early 2009. If Officer Xiong had not been working closely with the resident managers, we might have missed the changes in the tenants and their guests at Southridge. Thai reviewed tenant lists and correlated them with police calls. He also identified some of the associates of the residents who frequently loitered on the property or were living there as unauthorized guests. This was very valuable when a series of shooting incidents erupted citywide in the spring. The Department mobilized when the pattern was recognized and put out several bulletins identifying the subjects who were involved. Many of them were frequent visitors to Southridge, and most disturbing, though there had not yet been any actual shots fired there, both factions in the ongoing feud were represented on the property. Officer Xiong and Sgt Dexheimer met with the onsite managers in late April to share our concerns and to raise questions about management practices. Thai had been reporting that the site managers seemed cooperative but they were not actually following through on his suggestions. They claimed that though they took applications and screened tenants; they actually had no authority to accept tenants, commence evictions or even send formal notices to the tenants of warning them of lease violations or unacceptable conduct. That work was done by a woman named Pam who worked for Flad Development. The new resident managers, Jeannie and Jason, told us they were afraid to go out on the property. Southridge Village is comprised of 90 units of subsidized housing at the corner of Post Rd and Coho St, bordering on the City of Fitchburg. There are 40 townhouses in three buildings situated around two parking lots that because of the arrangement of the buildings, give the appearance of two separate courtyards in which people gathered. These units are entered by two separate driveways on Coho St. The other half of the complex is a single 3-story building, with 50 apartments which are occupied by seniors or persons with disabilities. This building is to the north of the townhouses, and has an entrance and address around the corner on Post Rd. Jeannie and Jason have an apartment next to the entrance that faces south toward Post Rd. It does not have a view of the townhouses and is not easily accessible to them. The whole complex sits on the top of a hill and backs up to a strip mall and gas station which are not in the City of Madison. Southridge Village was an anomaly in a neighborhood of well maintained rental properties that are well managed and have very low need for police services. It was stood out because of the gatherings of non-residents on the property and the associated fights and disturbances. It was also an anomaly in that it appeared as well maintained as the others. It was also unique in backing up to several businesses. On their own initiative, the owners had recently constructed at attractive, sturdy chain link fence that separated the property from the businesses. There were signs the fence was being defeated by several natural ladders adjacent to the fence. Efforts had been made on both sides to address people routinely vaulting the fence including moving and enclosing dumpsters and greasing the tops of utility boxes. # B. First Analysis: ## - Officer Xiong identifies loitering non-residents - Preliminary CPTED survey conducted - Tenant survey conducted by Community Policing Team Officers Officer Xiong met with the managers to develop a relationship and to learn about their management practices. He obtained rent rolls and analyzed them to evaluate the screening practices and to determine how many unauthorized tenants also lived on the property. He studied both the number of police incidents and also the nature of the incidents, focusing on disturbances, fights and other quality of life calls. He began doing surveillance as well as making contacts with citizens to determine who was present on the property legitimately and who was not. A door to door survey by community policing officers was undertaken several days after a major incident galvanized our problem solving efforts. The stakeholders identified in this problem were the tenants of Southridge Village and neighboring properties; the property managers and the owners of the property, the patrol officers and PEOs who had to respond to incidents at Southridge, the other residents of the South district who had to wait for police services because this one small complex was such a drain on police resources. The entire Southridge community was put at risk by the escalating gun play. In August 2009, 49 children officially lived on the property, 36 of them under the age of ten. There were other children who resided there unofficially and several of the tenants did day care. In debriefing the August $1^{\text {st }}, 2009$ shooting incident, there appeared to be some citizens in the crowd who wanted to assist officers but were very fearful of being seen talking to the police. One result of the citizen survey was that it confirmed that many residents of Southridge Village lived in fear of being killed if they cooperated with the police. The very vocal and active problem tenants were intimidating other residents as well as officers. Not only did the major incidents draw heavily on the police resources in the South District, but the ongoing harassment of officers and hostility of bystanders required twice the number of officers than would otherwise be sent. In response to the escalating violence, the District Captain implemented a protocol that Parking Enforcement Officers, non-sworn civilian employees in Madison, would not respond to Southridge Village without a patrol officer accompanying them. Before the problem solving project began in earnest it was addressed by having a liaison officer work with the onsite managers. Using the shifting and sharing model we made suggestions and attempted to educate them about management practices and design features on the property that were contributing to the problem. Analysis revealed a dysfunctional management at several levels who were unwilling to make any substantive changes and accepted no responsibility for the current conditions on their property. They were untruthful about calling for police when incidents occurred; they told tenants to not call the police; and during major incidents they hid from the police. Southridge Village had a reputation as a place where people could hang out. A resident who was interviewed said this reputation preceded her moving to the property and was a concern to her when she was offered an apartment. The presence of many unauthorized guests on the property was something that had been tolerated by both tenants and management prior to 2009. As is so often the case in drug markets in residential areas, private property has become public space. This sends the message that there are no controls and that no one cares about the space. There were other signs of the public nature of this property. A steady stream of pedestrian traffic crossed the property going to the businesses to the east of Southridge. Mobile food carts would pull in everyday and set up shop in the parking lots without the knowledge or permission of the management. Parking was not enforced and there were always many more vehicles present than were owned by tenants. Some of the vehicle traffic was due to both legitimate and illegitimate businesses in the complex. There were many geographic and environmental factors that contributed to making the property more challenging to control. The tenants were very aware of these factors. One resident when interviewed recommended several changes that would make her feel safer. She also pointed out that the location of the property on the crest of a large rise made it impossible for officers to respond without their presence be announced well in advance. She confirmed the presence of lookouts who signaled to the people gathered when officers approached. Analysis also revealed that the number and type of incidents were getting progressively worse from shortly after the new resident managers took over. They said they were afraid to be out on the property and that the next level of management refused to give them authority to deal with problem tenants. In reviewing the histories of newly arrived tenants we found them to be universally questionable rentals and the new tenants were the focus of many of the incidents. Site mangers, Jeannie and Jason, said they did background checks and recommended against some of the new tenants but that they were overruled by their supervisor, Pam. The property had $100 \%$ occupancy and they had a waiting list of prospective tenants. The presence on the property of several subjects with extensive violent and gang histories appeared to be new in 2009. We became aware of the extent of the problem when a series of shootings throughout the city prompted several of bulletins showing suspects thought to be connected to the incidents. Officer Xiong realized that many of them hung out at Southridge Village. Of even greater concern was that persons from both factions were present on the property. Management made no effective response when warned of these dangerous subjects. No calls to the police were made when these subjects were trespassing on the property. We saw no effort to work with tenants to exclude unaccompanied guests or unauthorized tenants. They repeatedly told us that legally there was nothing they could do. It became clear that the managers were responsible for many of the problems. They ceded control of their property to loitering gangsters and blamed their tenants and the police. In addition to weak management, the problem subjects were attracted to the location by several environmental and design features of the property. There was also a thriving drug market on the property, with several persons suspected of selling drugs. This was for a while, a secondary concern to the potential for violence and the inaction of management. After the August $1^{\text {st }}$ shooting incident the first thing the CPT did after the initial investigation was to go door to door to give residents a chance to talk in private with officers. Because many witnesses to the incident said we were endangering them by even approaching them, we realized there may be an opportunity for real cooperation if we visited every residence. Not content to just solicit information for the criminal investigation we included a survey seeking information about the community and the management of the property. And we sought to educate by providing a pamphlet on dealing with gun violence and alternative ways for citizens to contact the police and still stay safe. # C. First Responses: - Officer Xiong developed a relationship with management in hopes of working cooperatively to deal with the issues on the property. He sought educate them on our experiences with better management practices and made straightforward informal requests. - The CPT used traditional drug investigations to make cases that documented the sale or delivery of controlled substances on the property. - We then used the above cases to initiate the Drug Abatement Process with Flad Management - A Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design assessment of the property was done - The poor management practices and the lack of cooperation to date were documented - A drug abatement meeting was scheduled by Captain Balles with the mangers and representatives of the owners at the South District to clearly communicate expectations and elicit an action plan from the owners. - A Neighborhood Officer position for sector 308was added, to focus more resources on this emerging problem area. In the interim, until we met with management and asked them to accept responsibility for the design and management deficiencies, the South District took several steps to ensure the safety of the area after major shooting incident on August $1^{\text {st }}, 2009$ : 1. The Community Policing Team began high visibility patrol of the area. 2. Parking enforcement officers were directed to not respond to Southridge Village without a patrol officer 3. On August $6^{\text {th }}$, CPT Officers conducted a door-to-door canvass to solicit the support of the tenants in combating violence and disturbances. 4. This canvas also included a survey to get resident input into the reasons for problems at Southridge. Questionable property management practices at several levels and design issues leapt out at us from the analysis. In particular we were concerned that they were renting to citizens with recent histories of evictions. The first thing we learned in sending the drug abatement letter asking the owners to meet with us was that Southridge Village was in fact public housing owned by the Wisconsin Housing Preservation Corporation. Several times employees of Flad Development had claimed that Flad owned the property. At the first drug abatement meeting we learned that it was the mission of the WHPC to provide housing of last resort to persons with poor rental history or no rental history, hence the concentration of young single mothers. Given that the mission of the WHPC was to serve tenants who could not find housing elsewhere, we expected that they would provide the kind of services and enlightened management that they needed to be successful. Because we now understood that Southridge Village was public housing, we did not believe that the threat of closing or seizing the property was a legitimate option. But we knew the managers and board of directors, appointed by the governor, had an interest in avoiding negative publicity. Our primary goal was to eliminate the violence at Southridge Village. We also hoped to have effective property management in place to address the gatherings on the property that resulted in disturbances, to gain control of unauthorized tenants, and to enforce community standards of behavior that ensured the safety of both tenants and police officers. The command staff at the South District and the officers of the Community Policing Team were committed to holding the owners of Southridge Village accountable for the deterioration of their property and to work with them either cooperatively or adversarially to improve the management practices and design features on the property. Captain Balles recognized the serious issues arising in this area of the district and sought assistance from the Community Policing Team to make a case for the creation of a new Neighborhood Officer position. In assisting the Captain CPT Officers collected data and prepared a PowerPoint presentation, asked that crime analysts prepare several maps of the area including a quality of life map and a map of subsidized housing in the sector. The officers also attended several neighborhood meetings to build support for the plan. There was a flurry of activity by management after the first drug abatement meeting, but too much attention was given to evicting several problem tenants instead of dealing with the reasons these tenants failed here. The follow up meetings became confrontational and unproductive when Flad employees began showing up with an attorney. These meetings were not attended by the managers from Milwaukee. # D. First Assessment: - NPO Deon Johnson develops rapport with managers and tenants - Two significant design changes implemented - Police incidents exceed 2009 - Loitering and drug dealing - Hostility toward the police persists The problem tenants were evicted within several months of drug abatement meeting at the South District. Some of the environmental design changes were made. The management structure was clarified and a working relationship was established with the ultimate managers of the property. The mission of the owners, the WHPC, to provide housing to single moms with poor or no housing history was learned by the police. While applauding their good intentions, the need for an even more involved, hands-on management style was expressed to them by Sgt Dexheimer. Ongoing meetings with Flad were scheduled. Non compliance on some very simple requests (calling 911 for incidents, regular contact with tenants, being available to officers who respond to major incidents) soon became apparent. The arrival of new NPO Deon Johnson, added a new level to both working cooperatively to educate Jeannie and Jason on expectations of good managers, and to assess failures. Deon quickly developed relationships with both the mangers and the tenants. Sgt Dexheimer provided some coaching to Officer Johnson on how to be supportive without actually doing management tasks, a difficult line to follow for all new NPOs. And he requested that Deon keep records of his meetings and information he learned about the dysfunctional practices of the managers. Moving on to phase two of the Southridge Village Project would not have been possible without Deon's relationships and monitoring. Problems with disturbances and drug dealing re-emerged. Phase two officially started when Officer Johnson notified the Community Policing Team of the arrival of a known drug dealer, Adrian Green, as a resident on the property. The effectiveness of the effort was evaluated continuously after implementation until it became apparent that the first responses had failed to effect substantive change. The monitoring became much easier once the new neighborhood officer position was filled in January of 2010. It was never intended that Deon would devote so much time to this one property which represented less than $.8 \%$ of the area included in his neighborhood. The data to support the creation the NPO position in late 2009 became part of the assessment. From that data we were able to confirm that Southridge Village was a drain on police resources that continued to increase even after the eviction of several problem tenants. In trying to support the poorly functioning management, Deon was uniquely positioned to observe the inner workings of the Flad property managers. After adopting Southridge Village as a problem for a Problem Oriented approach, the south CPT continued to monitor the issues it had identified in analysis. Of particular concern was the reluctance of the onsite managers to call the police when appropriate and to assist police when they arrived. The Sgt of the unit read the incident reports and consulted with Officer Johnson. Another CPT Officer, Andre Lewis took over for Officer Xiong in February 2010 and also served as NPO back up on Deon's days off. Sgt Dexheimer also maintained communication with the managers in Milwaukee who had the authority to make physical changes to the property. Of the list of changes recommended in the CPTED analysis, only two were actually made. The additional fence to eliminate constant trespassing went up within weeks and seemed to be very effective. We had hoped that these changes would allow the managers to more easily control the property. The lighting took much longer to install and involved several consultations with the owners. The new lighting was installed in spring of 2010, and was a significant improvement making both residents and officers feel safer. But it fell short of the recommended goal of making observation onto the property from outside easier at night. The new fixtures greatly increased the amount of light but in retaining the old globe type fixtures, the glare continued to present people on the street with a wall of light. After an initial enthusiasm for working cooperatively, the managers became more resistive to many of the proposed changes. Officer Johnson was able to coach Jeannie to hold tenants accountable for their actions but there was little or no follow through by her. On one occasion Jeanie and Jason discovered a large cache of drugs in plain view in an apartment. they photographed the drugs, left them in the apartment and called Officer Johnson. When he arrived the drugs were gone. But the male present in the apartment admitted he lived in there; and that he occasionally held drugs for an unidentified third party. He was not a tenant. There were never any consequences for this incident. The drug dealer continued to live at Southridge Village for 18 months and sold drugs to a citizen informant in early 2011. The evictions in the fall of 2009 along with improving physical controls on the property sent a message and resulted in several months respite. The CPT continued to monitor progress at Southridge and it was anticipated that another round of responses may be necessary. Results were measured by the presence of unauthorized tenants and the loitering of criminal gang members and drug dealers. We quantified that presence with the number of disturbances and fights. We were also interested in whether officers felt safer and had to call for back up less often; and if the residents felt safer and were more comfortable talking to the police. The number of police incidents rose in 2010 from what had been a record year in 2009. Multiple officer calls, one indicator of officer perception of safety, after a couple month decline, returned to previous levels. Disturbances, fights and weapons offenses continued unabated. At least four individual drug dealers were identified through tips and observation. Monitoring of loitering on the property by management was non-existent which we confirmed while doing drug surveillance. Officer Johnson was developing rapport with some tenants. This did not translate into overall improved police community relations in that many tenants still refused to talk to officers other than Deon. It had been a mistake to not schedule regular meetings with all levels of management. Too much stock was put into evicting the problem tenants. It allowed the local managers to continue to deny responsibility for the problems. In fact at subsequent meetings they became more contentious and adversarial. They brought their attorney to the first follow up meeting involving just the Flad managers and the police. They continued to reject management practices used throughout the city for controlling unauthorized tenants and guests. They claimed to not have the legal authority to do what we asked because of Federal regulations. The managers in Milwaukee, though promising closer monitoring of Flad property management, seemed to accept reports from Flad at face value and did not continue contact with officers after the lights were installed. The gains that were made were quickly undone. When we realized in November of 2010 that the property had reverted to the way it was in mid 2009, it became clear that we needed to step back, and begin anew with more analysis and improved responses. Certainly the failure of the efforts made the case for even more drastic changes. It had been our hope in the first go round that more substantial change would be made in the management structure. Having gotten the owners attention and receiving assurances from them, we had to hope that the Flad employees would be able to improve and we supported them and gave them every chance to be successful. And had laid the groundwork for a second round if it proved necessary and it did. # F. Second Analysis: - Occurred simultaneously with the assessment - A second phase of the drug abatement process was anticipated - Community attitudes toward the police needed to be addressed - There is abundant evidence of a poorly functioning management While continuing to hope for better results from phase one of the drug abatement process and the meeting of August 2009, Sgt Dexheimer continued to see the situation at Southridge Village deteriorating to near the levels they were at in the previous summer. In spite of NPO Deon's Johnson's intense efforts with the resident managers, they were not being effective. Increasing drug traffic evident by the number of drug tips and confirmed by CPT observations, was the most significant clue that phase one had not succeeded. In addition the presence on the property of a new group of problem tenants and other individuals who were known to officers confirmed our worst fears. Sgt Dexheimer began collecting data to document management failures to meet the expectations spelled out in the August 2009. In particular he sought to document the failure of Jeannie and Jason to call 911 to report incidents on the property or to assist officers when they arrived. Jeannie alleged that she called dispatch frequently and got no response form the police. Though Deon remained supportive, the incidents he documenting were damning. In January the South CPT devoted resources to documenting the drug market at Southridge. Two new cases were the basis of a second drug abatement letter which required the owner to schedule another meeting with Captain Balles. In January 2011, while briefing the new district Lt, Dave Jugovich, Sgt Dexheimer said he believed that the property on Coho St was the most serious district problem and that it was likely to explode in violence over the next six months. In having to revisit this project 18 months after our first response we asked, "What did we miss or do wrong?" We had anticipated that a second round of drug abatement may be needed. We accepted that we had to give the owners and management an opportunity to make the necessary changes. The drug abatement process is a formal structure to make changes using the shifting and sharing model. After the initial meeting it is necessary for the officers to fulfill two roles. They must work cooperatively with the landlord to assist them to improve; while at the same time they must be collecting evidence of their failure if they should fail to follow through. It is necessary to give people time to make adjustments, and in many cases this ends up giving them enough rope to hang themselves. That was the pattern here. We were pleased with the initial response but follow through was lacking. When the violence, drugs and unsafe environment returned it was time to revisit the project. In another sense, the analysis was ongoing. As management continued to fail at basic expectations we sought to understand why. Why in spite of NPO Johnson's taking the site managers under his wing and guiding them through very basic interactions with tenants, were they unable to make more sustainable improvements? Why did Flad have this multilayered management structure that frustrated efforts to get more involved with tenants to make them successful? We became suspicious of what really motivated Flad's managers. The strangest thing was that Jeannie, the resident manger, who had been presenting herself as overwhelmed by the responsibility and fearful of being out on the property, painted an entirely different picture in police reports from the first three months of her tenure at Southridge. She appeared to be an assertive, confident and even demanding manger. It was difficult to reconcile the two images of Jeannie without being suspicious. Likewise when informed that a drug dealer of great concern to police was residing on the property why would she go to him and tell him "the police want me to get rid of you but don't worry we won't do anything." Documenting the case against management, was both part of the initial response and part of the follow-up analysis attempting to understand why they were failing (usually the reason property managers are failing is more apparent). # G. Second Response: - Drug investigations to restart the drug abatement process and bring the owners back to the table - Door-to-door canvass by Officer Lewis to determine bike use by kids - Engage parents and kids in a bike to school program including safety training and social events - The Leopold Bike Club - kids earn bikes by biking to and from school for 21 days with officers Based on the experience at the first drug abatement meeting it was believed that there was more to be gained from again involving the representatives of the owners, the Wisconsin Housing Preservation Corporation. They had been responsive and had asked the local management company to make changes. After eighteen months it was apparent that Flad had failed to make those changes. So initially it seemed that another meeting, with the added leverage of a second and third abatement letter, would be sufficient to resolve the problem. But then Officer Andre Lewis, pointed out an underlying cause of the problem at Southridge Village. We had recognized and had dismissed resident hostility as a symptom rather than a critical stakeholder issue needing to be resolved. Initially Officers Lewis and Johnson thought a tenant association would be useful to give the residents a voice and a forum for their victimization by management. After several attempts and finding only apathy, social events were tried as an alternative. These were poorly attended and abandoned. After gaining more insight into this group of stakeholders through these activities, Officer Lewis and Sgt Dexheimer sat down in February 2011, trying to find away to connect with the Southridge community. The idea that emerged was getting the kids bikes and biking with them to school. Our second set of responses included: - Second generation CPTED - The Safe Routes to School model - Partnerships and volunteers - Youth programming - More drug abatement and shifting and sharing We learned that the current property managers were untruthful, defiant and refused to do what was necessary to manage the property. We learned that the structure of the management was needlessly complex and fostered an attitude of excusing and blaming. Though Flad management was perfectly capable of overseeing upscale properties, they had no clue as to how to serve the tenants mandated by their contract with WHPC. We learned that we had made a serious error in our first analysis, to not include the tenants as important stakeholders whose issue and concerns needed to be addressed. That the hostility encountered by officers was not simply a result of a concentration of problem tenants but was an independent contributing factor to the disorder and crime at Southridge Village. That the tenants were also victims of the poor management practices as much as the community and the police. Goal number one was to replace the current management with a more transparent and effective management operation that better served the needs of the tenants and the community. It was not a given that this meant totally replacing Flad Development, but to this point they had demonstrated no insight or understanding of their deficiencies or a willingness to make the necessary changes. The primary resource for this phase of our response that involved changing community attitudes was the South District Community Policing Team. We had the support of local businesses and the biking community. We came to rely on the community at large to provide donated bikes and on volunteers to provide the staffing that we could not. # H. Second Assessment: Flad management was terminated and a new management company started September $1^{\text {st }}, 2011$. Prior to that, in the wake of the second drug abatement meeting for four months there was a flurry of active management as Flad attempted to prove it could do the job. The barriers between tenants and the police, that previously only Officer Johnson had been able to crack as an individual, were greatly reduced. The children of the community earned bikes, developed habits for life and saw officers as positive role models. Unexpected benefits were improved performance at school and developing a larger sense of community. Our goal was the removal of the ineffective managers. They were replaced. The police were consulted on the new managers, and the owners chose an established company that had a good record at other properties. Assessment of the tenants' attitude change and the perception of safety by officers were measured indirectly by looking at the number of multiple officer responses to incidents on the property. One small survey was conducted in January of 2012 of LBC families and more comprehensive survey of all tenants is in the works. Police data on incidents on the property is being monitored. Southridge Village is a safer place today. The need for police services has returned to pre-2009 levels. The demand for police resources, as a percentage of the calls for the entire sector, is even lower than it was in 2008. There were no problems making new drug cases and getting all the players back to the table with a second and third drug abatement letter. Helping the owners come to the correct conclusion and make the necessary changes was a long, complex and politically-charged effort. The failing management company went to great extremes to save their contract, including have the CEO come out of hiding to attempt to cajole, intimidate and bribe involved officers. The case we had built and continued to press with the owners for several months withstood all challenges. Believing for some time that Wisconsin Housing Preservation Corporation would not terminate them, the owners commenced a flurry of activity including eight evictions, to show they were capable of managing the property correctly. In our minds, it was too little, too late. The effort to change the relationship between the tenants and the police is a work in progress. It took Officer Lewis three separate door-to-door canvasses to begin to get some interest. At every turn roadblocks cropped up that needed to be overcome. First we learned that we were too late for grant funding in 2011. The obvious sources for bikes both reneged on their offers and left us scrambling ten days before they were needed. The challenge was to develop a successful model and a product that met the expectations of the residents of Southridge Village. Though they were skeptical in august, by the end of September we had made great strides in building a relationship with them. Goals accomplished: - Management was changed. - Officers connected with the residents of Southridge Village. - Police incidents declined. - Officer safety increased - The excessive use of police resources by one apartment complex was eliminated. - There have been no weapons offenses at Southridge Village since the LBC started - Kids in this community have earned bikes and have had safe bike use modeled for them. They have acquired habits of biking to school, have established positive relationships with police officers and developed a greater sense of community There was new management at Southridge Village effective September $1^{\text {st }}$. Fifteen kids earned bikes by riding more than 600 trips to and from school in the company of community police officers. Officers and residents attended three separate social events together over the course of the program and interacted positively together to make the bike club a success. Officer Lewis was invited into people's homes and has been a hero in the neighborhood. Attendance data from the school supported our belief that riding would be beneficial to the kids overall performance at school. Data on police incidents clearly shows a steady decrease in police calls, and since the inception of the bike club program quality of life calls have declined and officers need for backup has decreased. There have been no weapons offenses at Southridge since the Leopold Bike Club began on August $7^{\text {th }}, 2011$. The percentage of calls for service that Southridge Village generates has dropped to below the level it was in 2008. The drain on police resources has significantly decreased. The response could have been more effective if we had been able to include parents in the biking program. We would be more confident about being able to maintain the positive relationships we had built at Southridge if resources had allowed us to continue supporting the club members after September. We are especially concerned about being able to build on the connection we made to the residents of Southridge Village. Reassignment of members of the Community Policing Team in February 2012, made it necessary to try to hand the reigns over to a new set of officers. This transfer has been less than hoped. Plans to have a version of the bike club in may 2012 fell through because of staffing and events. There is hope for a grant to be able to continue in the fall of 2012 at even more schools. South District command staff while being enthusiastic supporters of the program decided early on that though they desired to repeat the program, it would require coming up with a different staffing model. # Appendix - Press release about the Leopold Bike Club - Sector 308 map showing quality of life incidents prepared by crime analyst Brayton Grinell - Birdseye view of Southridge Village showing critical fences - Two graphs: police incidents at Southridge Village and multiple officer responses - Data on attendance for LBC member for 2010 and 2011 - Newsletter article about the Leopold Bike Club - Photos of first training session and social activity on August 7, 2011 - Graph showing pattern of select incidents over five years - Bike club flyer for parents announcing the first meeting of the LBC - Summary report on the Leopold Bike Club - Photos of the kids riding with officers - On the cover: photos of celebration at Leopold School on September 30 ${ }^{\text {th }}$ ![img-1.jpeg](https://popdatasets.blob.core.windows.net/popdatasetmdimgs/12-29_madison/img-1.jpeg) # City of Madison News Release ## Printable Version ## For Immediate Release: Sep 29, 2011 ## For More Information Contact: Joel DeSpain 266-4897 ## Informational Website Link: http://www.cityofmadison.com/bikeMadison/programs/safeRoutes.cfm ## The Leopold Bike Club Pilot MPD Program Deemed A Success Usually Madison Police Department escorts are reserved for dignitary visits, but in this case, it is more about building positive relationships, and promoting bicycle safety, than it is about a need for protection. Make no mistake, those who have been traveling with South District officers over the past couple of weeks are very important people. About 15 Leopold elementary school students have been accompanied by MPD officers, to and from school, as part of pilot project: The Leopold Bike Club. And The Leopold Bike Club is part of a larger health and wellness effort - the Madison Metropolitan School District's Safe Routes To School Program - aimed at getting more children to safely bike or walk to their schools. Thanks to generous donations, each Leopold Bike Club member has been given their own bicycle. They've learned safe bike riding skills, and the hope is they will continue to peddle together when the September project wraps-up with an afterschool celebration Friday. The Leopold Bike Club is the brainchild of South District Officer Andre Lewis who saw it as a great way to build a better rapport between children living at the Southridge Village Apartments, 1914 Post Rd. and Madison Police. Past police contacts with some complex residents have been strained. Every morning, for 16 days, around 6:55 a.m., club members have set out with officers, and other volunteers for a 20-minute fun ride to school. When there's time, riders often do a few laps around a parking lot while enroute, and the route always concludes with a trek through a "secret" wooded pathway, which connects to the brand new Cannonball Bike Path, which leads to the back of Leopold School. The MPD will look to expand the program to other schools in the future. The department would like to thank many donors who made the pilot project possible, including: Pacific Cycle, Dream Bikes, and Wheels for Winners. ![img-2.jpeg](https://popdatasets.blob.core.windows.net/popdatasetmdimgs/12-29_madison/img-2.jpeg) Map prepared by analyst Brayton Grinell in support of the effort to create a new neighborhood officer position for MPD Sector 308 ![img-3.jpeg](https://popdatasets.blob.core.windows.net/popdatasetmdimgs/12-29_madison/img-3.jpeg) Illustration of fence locations at Southridge Village and the relationship of the businesses on the left to the property. The pink line was a fence put up by the owners prior to the POP project. The blue line is the fence recommended in the 2009 CPTED assessment and installed in September of the year. A graph of police incidents at Southridge Village from 2006 to 2012. The 2012 figure is projected based on 73 incidents year to date at the end of May. ![img-4.jpeg](https://popdatasets.blob.core.windows.net/popdatasetmdimgs/12-29_madison/img-4.jpeg) ![img-5.jpeg](https://popdatasets.blob.core.windows.net/popdatasetmdimgs/12-29_madison/img-5.jpeg) A graph of police incidents at Southridge Village from mid-2009 to present showing those calls to which more than three officers responded. In part these calls reflect the need for more than the typical number dispatched due to crowd control issues and officer safety issues. The yellow arrow indicates time of the first drug abatement meeting with the owners. The green arrow indicates the beginning of the Leopold Bike Club. ![img-6.jpeg](https://popdatasets.blob.core.windows.net/popdatasetmdimgs/12-29_madison/img-6.jpeg) | | 2010 | | 2011 | | | | :--: | :--: | :--: | :--: | :--: | :--: | | | absent | tardy | absent | tardy | | | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | | | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | | | 4 | NA | NA | 1 | 1 | | | 5 | NA | NA | 1 | 1 | | | 6 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | | | 7 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 1 | | | 8 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 1 | | | 9 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 1 | | | 10 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | | | 11 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | | | 12 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 2 | | | 13 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 2 | | | 14 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | | | 15 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | | | days absent | 16 | | 7 | | | | days tardy | | 36 | | 10 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Of the students who have data for both 2010 and 2011: | | | | | | | 56\% reduction in days absent | | | | | | | 72\% reduction in tardiness | Data from Leopold School on the punctuality and attendance of bike club members during September. Leopold Staff noticed an improvement by the second week of the program. Students who missed the cycle bus were brought to school by their parents, often brought their bikes along so they could ride home with the group. # Building Communities One Bike at a Time by Donna Collingwood Do you remember your first bike-and how much you wanted that bike? And what it felt like to ride it? Most kids long for that first bike and the memory of it lasts a lifetime. When members of the South District's Community Policing Team wanted to reach out and engage kids in the Arbor Hills-Leopold neighborhood, they found the bike-to-school program was a good fit. Members of the South District's Community Policing Team and the Arbor HillsLeopold neighborhood officer bicycled to and from school with area first through fifth graders in the inaugural bike-toschool event. Each morning in September, officers led members of the Leopold Bike Club on a 20 -minute ride to the Post Road School via the new Cannonball Bike Trail, arriving at school in time for breakfast. Fourteen kids participated in the program. All 14 completed the 21 days of biking (weather permitting) and and awarded the bicycle of their choice. They also attended two bike safety trainings as part of the program. ![img-7.jpeg](https://popdatasets.blob.core.windows.net/popdatasetmdimgs/12-29_madison/img-7.jpeg) Leopold Bike Club team photo People donated bikes and volunteers worked on the bikes to get them in good shape for the ride. "There was such a positive response from the community that we had more donated bikes than we could use," said Officer Deon Johnson, neighborhood officer on the Community Policing Team. The team had applied for a federal grant through the "Safe Routes to School Program," but did not get the grant this year. Instead they got a lot of help from the community. "Members of the community helped us and different organizations including Pacific Cycle, Wheels for Winners and Dream Bikes. Police spent their own money, too. People in the community donated bikes-we went as far as Brooklyn to get bikes for the program. Pacific bicycle had bikes built for the program. They also donated about 40 helmets. Wheels for winners donated locks and helmets as well. Dream Bikes and Pacific Bicycle worked on the bikes at no charge. We had a lot of help," said officer Lewis. This is Officer Lewis's second year on the Community Policing Team. And while he feels it will take more than two years to see significant changes in the neighborhood, he has already noticed a change in how the residents interact with him. "They know my name. We talk about things. I go to meetings with them. Now if I come to the door I'm invited in. continued page 6 ## Issues Issues h a quictedg publication of the Womes'h Issues Committee; editors, Donna Collingwood and Mariette McGuire; newsletter design and layout, Donna Collingwood; contributing writers, Adobe Rortz, Lisa Donahd and Merissa Gombar; copy editing and proofreading, Christy Thiele and Antie Forts. Will reserves the right to edit, publish or not publish submissions to issues. Send comments, questions, letters and photos to: mmcguire@cityofmadison.com or dcollingwood@cityofmadison.com. www.cityofmadison.com/Employmentof/MK.com. htm ![img-8.jpeg](https://popdatasets.blob.core.windows.net/popdatasetmdimgs/12-29_madison/img-8.jpeg) ## Bike to School continued It's not adversarial." Both Officers Lewis and Johnson found working on the program rewarding. "Yes. Yes. Yes. We accomplished our goal of being able to have a positive influence," Officer Lewis said. "We had a training program, sat down with the parents and talked and laughed and ate together. They got to know us and we got to know them as individuals, not as officers. We got to know the children, their names and what they liked and didn't like. A positive interaction all the way around. "We also found that their school attendance was better when riding with us than it was the previous year. Even if they missed riding with the group they still rode their bikes to school," he added. "Our role is to help support this effort," said Linda Horvath, Neighborhood planner. "The Leopold program was going on before we started our neighborhood plan so our role is to support it however we can with our plan recommendations. When we're out in the community talking to stakeholders, and when we're talking to parents and others, we talk this up." Linda said that there may be a similar program starting in the City of Pitchburg. When working on neighborhood plans, a program like "bike-to-school" will be included as a way of creating better connections between a neighborhood and the city center, she said. The Leopold Bike Club can learn safe routes to the city center, safe routes to the park, and how to get around safely on their bikes. ## Another WIC Bake Sale! Where: November 16 Where: OOB Lobby What: Fair trade coffee and cocoa and yummy desserts, even some healthy choices! Proceeds help fund our programs ![img-9.jpeg](https://popdatasets.blob.core.windows.net/popdatasetmdimgs/12-29_madison/img-9.jpeg) Members of the Leopold Bike Club are ready to ride! ![img-10.jpeg](https://popdatasets.blob.core.windows.net/popdatasetmdimgs/12-29_madison/img-10.jpeg) The kids learn bike rules and safety ![img-11.jpeg](https://popdatasets.blob.core.windows.net/popdatasetmdimgs/12-29_madison/img-11.jpeg) The kids learn bike rules and safety ![img-12.jpeg](https://popdatasets.blob.core.windows.net/popdatasetmdimgs/12-29_madison/img-12.jpeg) Leopold Principal John Butkholder ## Room continued Tanya knew she wanted to breastfeed because of its many benefits to babies, their moms and society. She credits breast milk for Lily's healthy weight gain, which probably helped her recovery from surgery for pulmonary stenosis. According to womenshealth.gov, breast milk fights illness for both baby and mom, meaning less medical care costs, fewer days away from work and more peace of mind. Breastfeeding facilitates bonding and breast milk is easy for baby to digest. It's economical and environmentally friendly. Tanya recommends these web sites for more information: for PMLA leave media.cityofmadison.com/mediasite and for general breastfeeding information, workandpump.com and www.breastandbottlefeeding.com. She also recommends La Leche League discussion group Illmadison.wordpress.com, which offer meeting times convenient for working women. To use the City Channel MMB break room to express breast milk, call ahead-(600)266-6501-as their offices are often locked. Room 507 in the City County Building is also available. Bring pumps and attachments. The Health Department (City County Building) has a pump for rent, but not the attachments. ![img-13.jpeg](https://popdatasets.blob.core.windows.net/popdatasetmdimgs/12-29_madison/img-13.jpeg) August 7, 2011 Leopold Bike Club The first meeting of kids, parents and officers at Southridge Village ![img-14.jpeg](https://popdatasets.blob.core.windows.net/popdatasetmdimgs/12-29_madison/img-14.jpeg) ![img-15.jpeg](https://popdatasets.blob.core.windows.net/popdatasetmdimgs/12-29_madison/img-15.jpeg) Southridge Village select police incidents that reflect on the quality of life: Felony assaults Weapons offenses Disturbances Fights Drug investigations (Note that 2012 data is projected based on 8 incidents year to date) # Safe Routes to School Kick Off Party at Southridge Village ## Sunday August 7th at 1pm ![img-16.jpeg](https://popdatasets.blob.core.windows.net/popdatasetmdimgs/12-29_madison/img-16.jpeg) Flyer prepared by NPO Deon Johnson for the first event of the Leopold Bike Club # The Leopold Bike ClubSummary The Leopold Bike Club had its roots in the problems at a nearby apartment complex. Violence, disturbances and drugs increasingly plagued Southridge Village in 2009. The situation was made worse by citizen reaction to the police when they responded incidents there. The South Community Policing Team adopted Southridge as a project and by the end of 2010 had settled on a three-pronged strategy of working to improve management practices, making environmental design changes and seeking to build rapport with the tenants in order to improve the relationship between the citizens and the police. Officer Andre Lewis, working in conjunction with Neighborhood Police Officer Deon Johnson, took it upon himself to form a tenant group in order to engage them in positive situations and solicit their support in working to change Southridge. ## Goals: - Decrease police calls for fights, disturbances and violent crimes - Provide an opening for Officer Lewis to connect to the community - Schedule positive events to change the community's perception of the police - Reduce adversarial incidents at the complex - Increase officer and citizen safety When Officer Lewis adopted the idea of using biking for the children of Southridge as a means to achieve the above police goals, several other goals evolved: - Develop a program of value that would benefit both the parents and the children of Southridge - Provide bikes and safety equipment to facilitate biking in families that could not afford it. - Encourage safe biking through training, modeling and parent support - Develop habits of biking to school to increase fitness, promote learning and increase the joy biking. Inspired by the Safe Routes to School Program and Thirty Days of Biking Program, we decided try get a commitment from a group of kids to ride with officers to and from school every day in September as a way of earning their bikes. the biggest obstacle was having adequate officer hours available to staff the program for the entire month. Originally we had hoped to get funding to supplement the hours the CPT was able to cover. When we realized that it was too late to secure funding for 2011, we decided to scale back the plan to provide a more inclusive plan, to limiting the program to residents of Southridge. With the support of the south District command staff we were able to patch together a plan to use CPT officers and Neighborhood Police Officers flexing their hours to cover the core assignment of officers to the 8 minimum 84 positions we believed were needed to ensure success on the 21 school days in September. ## Results 1. Fifteen Leopold students successfully completed the program and earned their bikes. 2. The kids made approximately 270 trips between home and school 3. Eight different officers rode with the bike club contributed to the 138 hours required to train and escort the kids. 4. Several citizens and school staff assisted with the rides for an estimated additional 50 hours. 5. Three bike companies contributed to the maintenance repair of the bikes in addition to the work done by the officers on a daily basis 6. More than fifty bikes were donated by citizens and local business; in addition to locks locks, helmets and lights for each participant. 7. All of the police goals were accomplished before school started. 8. Reportedly LBC members' attendance improved and several kids continued to ride to school after the program ended. ## The Future - Is Leopold School interested in continuing or expanding on this success? - What is the likelihood of obtaining funding to support the program? - The South District is committed to continuing the Leopold Bike Club. - What different configurations could that take depending on the availability of funds? - How can citizen and parent participation be increased? - Can Fitchburg Police be included? ![img-17.jpeg](https://popdatasets.blob.core.windows.net/popdatasetmdimgs/12-29_madison/img-17.jpeg) ![img-18.jpeg](https://popdatasets.blob.core.windows.net/popdatasetmdimgs/12-29_madison/img-18.jpeg) ![img-19.jpeg](https://popdatasets.blob.core.windows.net/popdatasetmdimgs/12-29_madison/img-19.jpeg) ![img-20.jpeg](https://popdatasets.blob.core.windows.net/popdatasetmdimgs/12-29_madison/img-20.jpeg) ![img-21.jpeg](https://popdatasets.blob.core.windows.net/popdatasetmdimgs/12-29_madison/img-21.jpeg) ![img-22.jpeg](https://popdatasets.blob.core.windows.net/popdatasetmdimgs/12-29_madison/img-22.jpeg) # Key Project Team Members Officer Andre Lewis Officer Deon Johnson Officer Thai Xiong Officer David Dexheimer Sgt Jim Dexheimer Lt Stephanie Bradley-Wilson Lt Dave Jugovich Captain Joe Balles The South District Community Policing Teams Officer Dave Wixom Officer Chris Kobinsky Officer PedroOrtega-Mendoza Officer Steve Chvala Officer Nick Ryan Officer Jeff Pharo Officer Amy Bramlett Officer Michele Walker Analyst Brayton Grinell ## Project Contact Person Sgt Jim Dexheimer Community Policing Team Supervisor McKenna Blvd Madison, Wi 608 235-8889 jdexheimer@cityofmadison.com