Saturday, April 10, 2010

April Coffee with the Chief

Each month the Woodstock police chief, Robert Lowen, hosts a Coffee with the Chief. It's held on the second Monday of the month from 7:00-8:30PM at police headquarters, 656 Lake Avenue.

The topic for the April 12th Coffee? "Dr. Brian Sager, Mayor of Woodstock, will provide a community update and answer questions regarding the state of the City."

What happened to the open meetings where residents could turn out and ask questions of the chief and not be spoon-fed "presentations"? Residents don't want to be "talked to". They want to be listened to.

There are plenty of problems in Woodstock and residents want to know what the police department is doing about them. Spring is here; school will be out soon.

And residents want to be told exactly how they can cooperate with the police to make their neighborhoods safer.

What will be done to keep the Square open to the civilized public and free from the roaming gangs that create an atmosphere that drives away visitors and customers?

What were the surges in thefts about, which were reported to the City Council in monthly police department reports that the public never sees?

Have the GPS thefts from vehicles on streets, in the depot parking lot, at Walmart stopped? Were there any arrests? Were any GPSs recovered?

Exactly what are the directions to officers about ticketing drivers for minor traffic violations, understanding that a $40 ticket will cost the driver $187 by the time he walks out of the courthouse?

What is the City doing to stop driving business away from Woodstock with that type of enforcement?

What other gripes do residents have?

2 comments:

Toa said...

For starters, do you honestly believe the crap you write? Here you are bitching about not being able to go and jump on the chief. Instead, you're going to have an opportunity to jump on the mayor. Pssst! Big secret here, Gus, in the overall scheme of things, the Mayor and City Manager are the chief's boss. If you can convince them of your position you might have an effect on how the chief runs the department. Try going to the meeting, LISTENING instead of making baseless accusations founded upon rumor, self-generated innuendo, and supposition before the facts are in (all neatly tailored to match your goals - whatever they may be)and THEN offering your solutions to creating the perfect world while lowering taxes, providing all things to all men, and so on. No one can please you, Gus, with you there is ALWAYS a "But." If they don't enforce all the traffic laws equally, you are upset. If they DO enforce the traffic laws, they are gouging the public. You get all pissy over a failure to signal (that may have resulted in a near miss because either you DON'T know the facts or DO know the facts and chose to hide them because they don't look good in the context of your post)but just LOVE the red light cameras and the folks who are trapped with the notorious right turn on red violations that aren't. Gus, you would complain if somebody hanged you with a new rope.

Gus said...

Darned right! Why waste a perfectly good used rope?