Group talks about how to make Baytown safer

By Barrett Goldsmith
Baytown Sun
Published August 7, 2007

More than 70 citizens packed the back room of El Toro on Monday night to begin the process of “taking back Baytown” from criminals who some believe have made the area a dangerous place to live in recent months.

The gathering was meant to garner written comments and ideas for how to make Baytown safer, which organizers ultimately hope to bring before City Council at a future meeting. The organizers themselves are folks who banded together on Baytown Talk, The Baytown Sun’s community message board, spurred by a letter in the newspaper about a reported assault at Barracuda Beach Club.

“Everyone here knows that crime is out of hand,” said Bert Marshall, who chaired the meeting. “People here are tired of the crime, they’re scared of the crime, and they want to do something about it.”

Marshall said the meeting would create a “course of action” that culled all the ideas and concerns of citizens into a working plan. But in the mean time, Marshall said, citizens should re-think their behavior and become more vigilant, both of themselves and their neighbors.

“We also want to teach the citizens who are tired of the crime to stop doing the things that make it easy for criminals,” Marshall said. “A lot the crime in this area is self-inflicted. It’s about making small changes in our way of life to make ourselves and our families safer.”

Fellow organizer Jerry Cates said the group would work with the city and with the Baytown Police Department, rather than pointing fingers or working against those organizations. He said the process would take time, and that ultimately the time would pay off.

“Don’t expect this to happen overnight,” Cates said. “If we’re not organized in what we’re doing, we’re just wasting our time.”

Resident Mike Kercher has set up a Web site, www.hotpursuit.com, that will serve as a hub of neighborhood watch associations throughout the city. Though the feature is not yet up and running, Kercher said it would ultimately compile all daily BPD crime reports into a searchable database to find out when, where and what type of crime was taking place in the city. Kercher said citizens who were unable to make it to Monday night’s meeting could e-mail their suggestions to ideas(at)hotpursuit.com.

Mayor Stephen DonCarlos attended the meeting, as did newly selected city manager Garry Brumback, who is in town for tonight’s National Night Out. DonCarlos praised the huge turnout — on only about three days notice — and said he sensed Monday night was the start of something big.

“I as the mayor have been the victim of crime,” DonCarlos said. “We all live here. Myself and council both understand acutely the problems with crime we as a city have. We can’t do this overnight. We have to start somewhere. But this tonight is the citizens starting somewhere.”

Capt. Roger Clifford and Lt. David Alford, along with detectives and sergeants from BPD, also attended the meeting. Alford said he was excited to see the community response, and he said citizens should all show the same amount of diligence as those that attended.

“If you see something that doesn’t look right, call us,” Alford said. “You guys have so much power. The hard part is when you’re at Kroger and you’re in a hurry. Keep an eye out. As an officer, the citizens are your back up. We can’t just have 100 pair of eyes — we need 70,000 eyes. But to see these folks out here, it just fires me up.”

Organizers have not yet set a date for a future meeting, but said they would communicate through Baytown Talk and the Baytown Sun when they make any decisions.