6 Point Plan

Do you agree with the 6 Point Plan?

1. Election of Officers

Hold elections for Commissioners. The official terms of all of the Commissioners have probably expired. If this does not occur soon, it will probably appear, and/or may already appear that the Neighborhood Association is being run by an exclusive group of people who wish to stay in power for the sake of power. Personally, I dont think this is this the case. It is really a lot of work but the potential reward is an improved quality of life. But many years ago I can remember being on the outside looking in so I know how some of our neighbors might feel.

2. Budget

Reduce our spending on security. At the current rate of spending for security we will run out of money, exceed our budget, exhaust our reserves, or otherwise run a deficit.

3. Security Cameras

From small corner sandwich shops and private residences, to banks, Wal-mart, major cities, the Port of New Orleans, airports, etc. They use security cameras. The question is not Should we? But how do we catch up? If there is any question of whether we should get security cameras my response to you is the rest of the world cannot be wrong.

Move ahead full force with the implementation of security cameras. With what we spend on security guards in two months we could buy and have a total of 24 cameras installed throughout the neighborhood at six location recording 24 locations within the neighborhood, with twenty-four hour surveillance of our neighborhood which could then be monitored by anyone we give access to (any neighbor via the internet) including less expensive security monitoring personnel.

We have to be smart, take full advantage of technology just a modern police and security agencies are doing for major cities and large and small private companies throughout the country.

Someone asked me can you guarantee a conviction with the use of security cameras? My response is Will you even know about a crime by having one security guard planted at the entrance to the neighborhood only part of the day?

A network of security cameras installed throughout the neighborhood is many times more likely to catch a criminal in the act or deter crime than our one unarmed guard part of the day. The cameras have the ability to record the license plate number and description of every vehicle that enters and leaves our neighborhood twenty-four hours a day whether they enter legally through the front or illegally through the rear of the neighborhood.

Everyone in the neighborhood by now knows that out present security guard situation guarantees that we will never catch anyone in the act of committing a crime or help convict anybody. Studies have repeatedly shown that where security cameras have been implemented, SECURITY CAMERAS DETER CRIME. They do not deter people who or intoxicated or domestic violence situations and neither do our security guards -- because these people are not thinking straight. But they significantly deter property crime, theft, auto theft, and burglary. Security cameras give us the most bang for our buck and encourage criminals to move on to a less protected target.

4. Signage

Get rid of the cardboard signs and buy professional metal signs in both English and Spanish language warning of 24-Hour Video Surveillance and Private Security Patrols.

5. Overgrown Lots

Pay to have the overgrown grass cut and then each block or group of neighbors adopt a property to maintain.

6. Make Better Use of Technology

Use tape recorders to record the minutes of our meeting and post the audio files to the internet for anyone whos interested. Monitor security guard activity through the use of Global Positioning Satellites commonly know as GPS which is readily available as a feature of some cell phones. Plus neighbors could reach the on duty security guard directly through this same cell phone.