Case Date:

6/28/2022

There is a very active illegal homeless encampment located immediately south of the Indiana Rail Road overpass and immediately west of College Avenue and east of the Morton Street dead-end; in Google Maps: https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1747596,-86.5358286,3a,75y,39.76h,83.3t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sqPoXwFjh7ATdt8Gpx650kQ!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DqPoXwFjh7ATdt8Gpx650kQ%26cb_client%3Dsearch.revgeo_and_fetch.gps%26w%3D96%26h%3D64%26yaw%3D51.93823%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192. This is a heavily overgrown area. The encampment includes a large tarp roof area and at least one hammock. I observed yesterday at least ten (10) people clearly living in this area.

Case Date:

7/17/2022

uReport ID #180633 and #180632 both show they were assigned to Mallory Rickbeil. My understanding is that she quit her job with the City and left town. She is still listed in the City of Bloomington staff directory though. Maybe the City needs to do a little cleanup on the system. Or maybe I am mistaken about her status of employment. Whichever turns out to be true, I just wanted to make sure those rReports got to someone and did not sit in the inbox of a non-existent City employee. Thanks.

Case Date:

8/30/2022

Trash Truck 958 has a passenger side headlight out. I’ve reported city vehicles in the past, do drivers not do daily inspections of these vehicles? If not, this should be considered city wide. I see numerous city vehicles with lights out. Brake lights, headlights etc.

Case Date:

9/1/2022

The City is not the top place to work. Perhaps your organization once was but not any longer. People are unhappy. They talk constantly about it and then they leave. Worst work culture I have ever experienced. Even if you keep putting out there how great of an employee you are, we know. It stinks of MAGA nonsense to just keep repeating something that is blatantly false.

Case Date:

9/8/2022

Greetings. In my experience, as well as observations, it does not appear that there is much, if any, enforcement of the Hands-Free Driving state law that went into effect in 2019 in the City of Bloomington. There also doesn't seem to be much accountability to that law as in my experience, the person who rear-ended me told the BPD officer she hit me because she was looking at her phone, but following too close was on the citation and not distracted driving. Why is that? I was told that he didn't want to put more than one reason down. Well, why not distracted driving as that is what she admitted to? Also, there doesn't seem to be any sort of a public safety education campaign in any way... I could imagine that the social media accounts would be a great place for a weekly, bi-weekly, or even monthly Public Safety Announcement (PSA) for some friendly reinforcement, reminders, remedial lessons, etc. about the laws that provide structure around driving a couple ton heavy potentially lethal machine around these safe and civil streets. I think Bloomington motorists need a few reminders on some general laws about operating a motor vehicle, especially the hands-free driving state law. Can someone please speak a bit to this concern of mine? Much obliged for your time.

Case Date:

9/13/2022

Greetings. I'm aware that the Lime scooters have a barcode with a unique identifier on them. This is akin to a VIN that vehicles have and which Parking Enforcement uses to issues tickets. I imagine the other shared-use motorized scooter company's have unique identifiers on them as well, because how else would the companies keep track of their products? Why then does the City not work with those, essentially, Vehicle Identification Numbers (VIN), to issue citations to then send to the companies? I know the business license states the companies are to require their users to photograph the scooter when done and parked. What is the point of that? Why is this photographic evidence not being used by the scooter companies to then pass down the enforcement to the user since they are supposed to have received proof of them parking correctly? Can someone please speak to this subject matter? I have been confused about the City's stance on why it is so difficult to enforce the rules around parking the scooters. Thank you for your time.

Case Date:

9/19/2022

In regards to resolved uReport# 181500: Reply from City: Up until recently, we've been relying on the scooter companies to enforce their users behaviors with illegally parking of the scooters. We have two positions that we are currently hiring for that are funded with fees from the scooter companies that will focus on moving into a system where fines will be issued for improper parking. My reply with two (2) questions: I do not understand Adam Wason's reply in light of what was stated by City Attorney, Mike Rourker, in 2019 (please see below for quote). Additionally, I worked from March 2019 until October 2021 as the main point-of-contact (POC) working with the entities licensed by the City for providing the service and product of motorized scooters, and neither was I informed of any efforts to ticket the companies nor the users of the scooters. Can someone please explain to me what the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for holding the licensed entities accountable for the stipulations in the ordinance governing use and management of the scooters was prior to the recent creation and hiring of a new staff position? Also, why were no violations issued and no fines collected in over three years? Thank you for your time. "At its July 31, 2019 meeting, city attorney Mike Rouker told the city council that scooter companies would be fined if their users violated the parking restrictions. Rouker put it this way: “So just to be clear, at the same time, that Bird or Lime or another scooter company may be taking those additional steps against their own users, the city, if this is an issue, will be fining them every single time we see a parking issue.” Rouker continued, “I suppose if the company wants to move very slowly and pay lots and lots of fines to the city, until we’re fed up enough that we either revoke their license or geo-fence an area, that’s a business decision. But I don’t know if it’s a sound business decision.” For an improperly parked scooter, the fine called for in the city’s ordinance runs $30. The fee connected to impoundment is $100, plus $10 per day storage, and another $150 for disposal. As it turns out, the only payments the scooter companies have had to make to the city of Bloomington are the $10,000 annual licensing fees and the 15 cents a ride. The three companies now operating in Bloomington are Lime, Veo, and Bird." Source: https://bsquarebulletin.com/2021/11/22/electric-scooter-parking-violations-zero-citations-in-over-2-years-since-local-bloomington-law-was-passed/ Additional source: https://otter.ai/s/56nnFv2HQX2elRJ40z1X8A?snpt=true

Case Date:

9/27/2022

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

Case Date:

9/27/2022

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.

Case Date:

10/14/2022

City Vehicle #689 has a headlight out. When will the city have its employees make sure their vehicles are in working order. This has been about the 5th time I’ve reported city owned vehicles not in working order.