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
Does Eli McCormick still work for the City? It seems like if a uReport gets routed to Eli McCormick, it is lost. I had an issue previously with the City not updating its directory after an employee quit and Ureports were being assigned to that person and no one seemed to realize it. Case #181740 has not been touched in 14 days after being assigned to Eli. Case #181758 is at 9 days. Case #181718 is at 13 days. Case #181222 is approaching 2 months. Just checking in. . . There is a problem with a lot of trash around a bus stop and someone living in the bus stop basically, and nothing has been done about it for 2+ weeks now. Maybe Eli is working towards a resolution, or maybe Eli is no longer in town! Who knows. Thanks for checking.
There is a person living in their car on 300 w kirkwood by the frame store. They have been there for about 2-3 weeks now. Vehicle is a silver Volkswagen sedan. Can the city have this person move along or tow the vehicle? Definitely an eye sore out of my apartment.
Blocked Street requests go to Paul Kehrberg, and nothing seems to happen after that. There is a considerable back log here: https://bloomington.in.gov/crm/tickets?query=;enteredDate%5Bstart%5D=;enteredDate%5Bend%5D=;fields%5BenteredDate%5D=on;fields%5Bcategory_id%5D=on;fields%5Bdepartment_id%5D=on;fields%5Bstatus%5D=on;fields%5Blocation%5D=on;fields%5Bdescription%5D=on;category_id=17
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.
Power in Park Ridge East is frequently out. Neighbors and the Association have flagged this unsuccessfully as an issue with Duke. Outages often take time for restoration beyond what would be expected. Basic power in neighborhoods should be a staple of good governance. I understand both the State and Duke are primary contacts for this, but can municipal governance please help flag this to Duke as a concern. Our household lost power yesterday and then again today (still out). Power reliability here has been less than anywhere I have lived, including internationally. Sentiment is similar among many other residents. As a sample from another resident's posted concerns yesterday: "I thought Duke did a lousy job of tree trimming this yea, and I'm beginning to think that was a correct observation. AC power in Park Ridge East is the least reliable of any place I've lived in the US and compares unfavorably to Ankara, Turkey, where I lived in the 1960s." Another poster from yesterday: "Agreed, power outages in PRE are a regular occurrence." I also had to contact Duke to correct dangerous power fluctuations in their line this year near my home, which was corrected after being flagged as a major fire hazard by my electronic monitoring company. Your advocacy for improvements would be appreciated and expected. Thank you.
Tyler Steury closes out uReport questions about water quality without answering them whenever the submitter is anonymous. Here's a few recent examples: #181901, #181513, #181504. I would like to see the answers to these questions, and I feel it's inappropriate to refuse to answer a question just because it was submitted anonymously. This is a public record and citizens monitor it for current issues that may affect us.
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."
There are city/county/government employees smoking outside by the sidewalks, trash enclosure, bench, bike parking, etc. all the time. This hurts pedestrian health as people walk around the whole building and use the space all day.
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.