TOLEDO, Ohio — Toledo City Council members George Sarantou and Theresa Morris are sponsoring a resolution to "restrengthen" block watches and involve community groups in efforts to reduce crime and violence in Toledo, with the assistance of the Coalition for Peaceful Toledo Neighborhoods.
After introducing the resolution at Tuesday's council meeting, Sarantou said crime in Toledo "is out of control." As of Wednesday, there have been 59 homicides in Toledo in 2022.
Not all council members agree with "boosting" block watches as Sarantou suggested and explained their opposition to facets of the resolution.
Council Member Tiffany Preston Whitman said she prefers "neighborhood association" over "block watch" and that some of the language in the resolution needs to be tweaked
She urged other council members to oppose the resolution and said council should instead focus its efforts on programs to reduce violence the city has invested its own money and resources into, including the violence interrupter program.
Whitman said violence interruption is just one part of it city efforts, and that unified action with local school systems, community action agencies, hospital systems and police to curb crime will also need to be strengthened.
Council Member Sam Melden said encouraging Toledoans to join block watches should also integrate them into the city's approach to keeping residents safe.
He also said as the city enters its new budget season, council should be "putting its money where its mouth is" and consider ways to invest money into block watches, so they are not mostly dependent on residents who have enough free time to effectively lead and promote a community organization.
"We all know that block watch is not the block watch we've had in the last few years" due to the COVID-19 pandemic damaging participation in community block watches, Sarantou said.
Council Member John Hobbs said the downfall of Toledo's block watches had nothing to do with COVID-19, though. He said block watches "stopped working" because criminals were attending block watches meetings in high-crime areas and intimidating participants into silence or harassing them until they stopped attending the meetings.
"This is not something somebody told me. This is what I know because I grew up in these neighborhoods and I know the failure of it," Hobbs said.
Hobbs did not say he was opposed to block watches, but said it's necessary to understand why block watches didn't work.
"It's because citizens are afraid, because a smart criminal is not a dummy," he said. "They are not successful at what they are doing by accident. They bring intimidation any way they can."
Hobbs emphasized that he was not trying to invalidate Sarantou and Morris' effort though, because "we have to try," he said.
He said fixing the flaws of past community block watches means providing members with a safe meeting place.
Council Member Nick Komives brought the conversation back to the lack of public safety committee meetings that Council President Matt Cherry, the committee's chair, has called. Council Members Cerssandra McPherson and Sarantou echoed Komives.
Multiple council members have pleaded with Cherry in the past to call a public safety committee meeting to hear concerns and ideas from citizens and receive reports from police. The requests were revitalized in early October after three people were shot outside of a Whitmer High School football game.
All three victims at the Whitmer High School shooting on Oct. 7 shooting. There have been 12 homicides in the city of Toledo between then and Wednesday.
Cherry has yet to call a public safety committee meeting, but said he will "definitely call a public safety meeting as soon as we know that we're going to have people at the table."
McPherson said Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz's yet-to-lifted moratorium on his administration meeting with members of council stands in the way having a comprehensive discussion on public safety, since important members of city administration may not attend.
At a council meeting last week, the members unanimously passed a resolution to urge the mayor reopen the communication with council he closed. He has yet to do so.
In a radio interview prior to last week's council meeting, Kapszukiewicz initially didn't say whether he had shut down the communications, but after being pressed, he eventually said it's "not the case" and referred to the resolution as political theater.
Without those voices there, "I think we'd just be spinning our wheels," Cherry said.
Moline said if the administration does not show up to a meeting, council has subpoena power to force them into the room.
Council's next meeting as a whole is on Nov. 22.