I believe there is a problem with distracted driving in Bloomington despite there being a state law about hands-free driving for a few years now. Please inform me what BPD is doing to directly address this danger to the public safety of this city. Thank you. Marnina Patrick
In response to uReport case # 181637: "Greetings. We need moving violation enforcement and an increase in people who can do traffic law enforcement. Can someone in BPD as well as OOTM please read this article and consider how the City of Bloomington may work to make their streets actually safe and civil... Please take note of the quote about their goal. I think Bloomington needs to make the goal of public safety a top and most important priority! This is what the city of New Orleans is doing to help their police department with their staff shortages. 'They will have duties such as monitoring phone and online reports, issuing traffic citations, surveying major events like Mardi Gras and the Essence Festival and even doing some investigative work. Civilians would additionally be dispatched to calls that may not require an officer, such as collecting preliminary evidence, securing loose pets and responding to forgery, certain medical episodes and some thefts, New Orleans Police Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said last Thursday. 'The goal of all of this is to make our officers feel safe so that they can make our citizens and visitors feel safe,' Ferguson said. 'This is also to reduce some of the workload currently placed on our patrol and district personnel. But more importantly this is designed to reduce response time and address the backlogs in which we have in some of our districts.'" Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/09/26/1125055305/new-orleans-police-civilians" RESPONSE: "BPD already has a program such as this in place in an effort to lessen the workload on sworn officers so they can focus their efforts on criminal behavior. MY REPLY: Thank you very much for the information. I was aware that there were Community Service Specialists but since I have still been told repeatedly over the past three years that BPD does not have the staffing to do traffic detail or do much work outside of responding to 9/11 calls, then I respectfully suggest COB budgets for and approves several more CSSs. Also, admittedly I had a poor opinion to the CSS position due to a car collision at a bad intersection that was attended to by a CSS and not a sworn officer and was never included in the official stats for that intersection. When I requested a four way stop from P & T, they cited there had never been a collision there when that is blatantly false. Please consider checking the protocol on how collisions attended to by CSSs are handled for reporting purposes as well as increase the head count, please. There is a problem with public safety in this town that the current business as usual is not curbing. Thank you for your time.
Followup to case# 181838 (I believe there is a problem with distracted driving in Bloomington despite there being a state law about hands-free driving for a few years now. Please inform me what BPD is doing to directly address this danger to the public safety of this city. Thank you. Marnina Patrick) I took Captain Pedigo up on the suggestion to contact the ISP and am now sharing the replies I go: "Thank you for taking the time to send us a note of concern for drivers utilizing celllular devices while driving. We have listed the statue below for your review and will forward you concern to the commander of the bloomington district. If you see a violation, please don’t hesitate to report the driver to your local police/sheriff's office or the closest ISP post." "The bloomington police department is still responsible for traffic infractions even if they have staff shortages. Police departments throughout the nation are experiencing staffing shortages however still continue to serve the public."
Hello - This year I have twice alerted the City to issues with individuals who were still actively receiving uReport cases in the uReport system and listed on the City directory as employees despite having terminated their employment with the City. I would suggest the City look into how it deals with former employee accounts and emails in City systems as it is wild to be that the City does not seem to have controls in place for it. See Case # 181859 and Case # 180664 for the two examples of the City allowing uReports to go sit in inboxes of ex-employees and go unresolved for the concerned citizens of Bloomington reporting issues to the City government. Time to audit the systems and clean this up! Good luck.
Garbage truck #960 has a headlight out.
Vehicle #876 has a passenger brake light out.
I just find it unacceptable that members of the city council can’t for some reason show up in person for a city council meeting. I just can’t wrap my head around in 2023 that we are still doing zoom? I don’t see this happening anywhere in other forms of government meetings. I would like to see the city end this policy. I wish I could go to work via zoom but like the majority of individuals, I have to show up in person.
Why for having such a vibrant and significant LGBT community does the City have basically no local recognition and programming? The City does a great job at promoting the Latino, black, women, children, and many other communities and groups. But as far as I know we have no LGBT affairs commission, no awards recognition, etc. Maybe I'm wrong? But none of my friends know either. It's more than about not being discriminated against, it's about celebrating a unique and important part of local culture. Thank you. Hope to see this changed. I know the mayor is a personal ally but how about showing it in office. There are so many things that can be done to do better on this front.
Trash 408 n Washington
Monday March 22 2021, I seen this City of Bloomington truck in Judah Indiana. Truck # 588. Not sure why it was heading south on highway 37 towards Bedford.