River Bend Neighborhood

The DM Register reports that a 13-member police team created to reduce central Des Moines’ crime problem will disband within the next few weeks. Des Moines Police Chief Judy Bradshaw decided this week to send officers back to their usual beats.

The Neighborhood Enforcement Strike Team, known as NEST, monitored the Drake, Carpenter, Sherman Hill and River Bend neighborhoods.

Police had planned from the onset to disband the NEST program, which borrowed manpower from other departments and forced those officers to carry the extra work.

The decision disappointed some residents, who credited the increased patrols and anti-crime block parties for improving safety in neighborhoods where children used to stay indoors.

The Neighborhood Association is working to convince the city to increase regular enforcement and actively enforce the law, instead of reacting to problems as they come up. Lack of enforcement is seen by many in the neighborhood as one of the biggest problems the area faces.

Effective today, the Neighborhood-Based Service Delivery (NBSD) law enforcement program has a new chief.

Officer Todd Dykstra writes:

“I am a Lieutenant with the Des Moines Police Department and beginning Tuesday September 4th, I will be replacing Lieutenant Scott Rounds as the commander in charge of the Neighborhood Based Service Delivery Program. Lt. Rounds will be taking a new assignment as an investigator in the Office of Professional Standards.

I am excited about my new assignment and look forward to interacting with all of you. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to call or e-mail. My numbers are:
Office: 237-1583
Cell: 205-2203
email: TTDykstra@dmgov.org”

The NBSD is a community policing program that, according to the Des Moines Police Department’s website, “empower[s] neighborhoods otherwise infected with high levels of crime. Citizens and police officers together find solutions to crime problems and conditions that affect the neighborhood.”

The Des Moines Register reports that a Des Moines cab driver was beaten and robbed by a passenger in the River Bend Neighborhood.

Frank Clark, 44, of Capital City Cab was instructed by a man in his late 20s or early 30s to take him to Fourth St. and College Ave.

Upon arrival the passenger walked to the divers side window and punched Clark eight or nine times in the face. The suspect instructed Clark to “give him everything” or he would kill him with a knife.

Clark gave him his wallet with a bankcard, drivers and lab license and social security card inside.

Photos were taken of Clark’s face and he went to the hospital for treatment.

There are no suspects at this time.

An article on the Des Moines Register website outlined a visit this weekend by Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa. Silwa formed the nonprofit Guardian Angels in 1979 to help safeguard New York City’s streets and subways.

During this weekend’s visit to Iowa, he announced that his organization has been approached about organizing patrols of trained volunteers through Des Moines’ River Bend neighborhood.

A band of Guardian Angels spent Saturday handing out fliers north of downtown Des Moines and urging people to visit www.guardianangels.org for more information.

“We’ve got a lot of educating to do, but I think we can help this community,” Sliwa said. “I think people want to improve, not move.”

According to the Register, River Bend, the city’s 28th-largest neighborhood, ranked fifth in June for most offenses reported to police. Sliwa’s news conference Saturday took place near the block where 35-year-old Michael Collins of suburban Ankeny was shot and killed last month, reportedly while trying to purchase crack cocaine.

Unlike typical neighborhood watch programs, Guardian Angels volunteers are taught to break up confrontations and detain bad guys if necessary.

“We get physical,” Sliwa said. “That’s the difference.”

Such involvement in crimefighting is not always welcome by police. Sliwa said Des Moines authorities have told him that the Guardian Angels are welcome if that’s what the neighborhood wants.

Officially, it probably isn’t, said Roger Thompson, a board member of the River Bend Neighborhood Association. Neighborhood leaders would prefer to give Des Moines police more time to deal with the crime problems. A new ordinance allowing city leaders to crack down on crime-ridden rental properties is expected to kick in next month.

“I really don’t believe there’s enough of a problem to justify” a group like the Guardian Angels, Thompson said. “I really don’t believe it will go anywhere.”