Housing Authority Meeting
Fine charged for questionable false alarms
The city of Muncie is fining the Housing Authority of Delaware County for alleged false alarms. The announcement came at the Housing Authority’s monthly board meeting that they have been fined $100 for three false alarms in March and April. But the police may not have responded to these alarms.
Executive Director Jennifer Edwards says the Muncie Police Department is making a claim of false alarms when the police are notified by the Housing Authority’s alarm company, ADT of a disturbance great enough to set off the alarms. These could be, she says, anything from a storm rattling the windows to people with mischievous intents. “But an alarm is an alarm, and they deserve the same response,” Edwards said.
ADT calls the police and Edwards when an alarm is activated. Edwards claims that when she arrived, police had not responded to any of the alarms the department mentioned in the list of dates the Housing Authority is being fined for.
An ordinance against false alarms says that three false alarms constitute a fine of $100, and more for each alarm afterwards. Amendments were made to this ordinance earlier this year to lessen fines for large buildings, such as those on Ball State’s campus, but are costly to the smaller, federal funded Housing Authority.
“I vote we fight this,” said Commissioner Evan Terry. “I remember back in 1982 to 1986 when [false fire alarms were happening frequently] at Ball State. That’s what this ordinance is supposed to protect. False fire alarms,” Terry said.
Commissioner Fred Fields said that if the police are going to charge the Housing Authority for protective services, they should at least show up.
The board agreed to consult their attorney, Casey Cloyd on the matter, and take legal action if needed. Board members noted that this is a case of the city of Muncie fining a federal office in Delaware county jurisdiction, so they may not possess the ability to fine the organization.
At 2215 hrs, on November 28, 1942, Fire Alarm Headquarters from Box 1514, situated at Stuart and Carver streets, received an alarm. When the responding apparatus arrived they found a small car fire at the corner of Stuart Street and Broadway. After the fire was extinguished the firefighters were about to return to quarters when their attention was called to smoke emanating from the Cocoanut Grove Nightclub a few doors away. Upon their arrival at the entrance of the Broadway lounge on Broadway they encountered numerous people leaving the premises admidst the cries of “fire”. The chief in charge immediately ordered that a third alarm be sounded from Alarm Box 1521 which the alarm was received by fire alarm headquarters at 2223 hrs. A civilian sent an alarm that was received at 2220 by fire alarm headquarters. As soon as the chief in charge realized that the immediate problem was one of rescue he ordered that a fourth alarm (received at 2224) and a fifth alarm (received at 1102) be sent. The apparatus responding was comprised of 25 engine companies, 5 ladder companies, 1 water tower company, 1 rescue company and various other apparatus. 18 hose steams for cooling purposes and three ladders were utilized (located at Piedmont, Broadway, and Shawmut for venting operations).
...o know for sure. What one can hope for is that someone will step up, do the right thing, and alert the police if something terrible is occurring.
...tinctive locations. It is vital for crime analysis to catch these particular flaws or else this would weaken or contaminate later analyses causing the CompStat process to be unsuccessful along with statics. (Exploring crime analysis:, 2008 pg.117)
Family homelessness is a fairly new social problem in America. Beginning in the early 1980’s, families with children have become the fastest growing segment of the homeless population.
Defining where the homeless stand in our society scale is one of hardest aspects in conducting a study of the population and understanding the definitions used in research is one of the most challenging tasks for people who want to use its results. Most would agree that people in Shelters or literally living on the street are homeless, but there is less agreement regarding people in the following circumstances: Youth on their own, with no permanent residence or even an usual place to sleep; children who have been separated from their homeless parents and are in foster care or are living with relatives; People living in stable but physically inadequate housing (having no plumbing, no heating, or major structural damage, for example) Which of these people should be consider homeless? There is no right answer; there can only be agreement on a convention. Homelessness is a term that covers a big territory. It seems that homelessness is at best an odd-job word, pressed into service to impose order on a hodgepodge of social dislocation, extreme poverty, seasonal or itinerant work, and unconventional ways of life.
The Dahlonega City Hall was crowded on the evening of March 1st 2010. The seats were full, except for at the very front, and the standing room was filled almost out the door. The crowd, mostly made up of students, leaned in to hear as the voices of the City Council members faded in and out of the faltering sound system. The six City Council members and the mayor sat along a bench as if they were the judges at a hearing. Because of the ongoing discussions and the crowd, I thought I had arrived a few minutes late; but I was able to find a seat in the front two rows. Despite how packed the small room was there were plenty of empty seats in the front. I had thought the meeting was well on its way by the way conversation was going and apparently I was not the only one who shared this feeling. After a solid forty-five minutes of talking about parking laws and if there was a parking problem in the city, the mayor stood up and thanked everyone for coming. Most people took this as a sign that the meeting was over and started to pack up and leave. However this was just the meetings call to order. Following a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance the City Council meeting began.
Stein, M. L., & Roseman, M. (1990). Homeless Children: A New Vulnerability. Child and Youth Services, 89-109.
McNamara, Robert Hartmann. "Homelessness." Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Social Issues. Ed. Michael Shally-Jensen. Vol. 3: Family and Society. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011. 1024-1031. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 2 May 2014. .
Giffords, E., Alonso, C., & Bell, R. (2007). A Transitional Living Program for Homeless Adolescents: A Case Study. Child & Youth Care Forum, 36(4), 141-151. doi:10.1007/s10566-007-9036-0.
For the past decade, Irvine California has been among the nation's safest cities to live despite its rapid expansion. Despite being one of the safest cities in the country, Irvine invests a good amount of time and money to design and,nonchalantly, implement security mechanisms that seem a bit excessive. Without prior knowledge about the city, one can easily find themselves going around in circles (literally), or going in the complete opposite direction. The architects of the city planned out the layout to match the one of the University. We don’t normally see just one location with these security measures in place, rather an array of buildings and “public” spaces that are barricaded or concealed away from people who aren’t residents of the area. Steven Flusty argues that cities like Irvine are built by either people who are paranoid of others breaking in or they become paranoid by the buildings that surround them. The physical boundaries that are put in place prevent any
As Roy Grant clarifies, “Child poverty increased from 16% in 1979 to 22% in 1983, with an inner-city child poverty rate of 31%. Families with young children headed by a single parent were the most vulnerable;” Grant also explains the effects that these types of conditions have on a child. ”Homelessness is an especially powerful negative life event for a child because it is generally associated with multiple stressors, including loss of property, disruption of school and community relationships, and dramatic changes in family routine.72 Studies by Bassuk and Rubin73 and Bassuk74 in the Boston area showed that half of homeless school-age children met criteria for a diagnosed psychiatric disorder based on screen with a standardized instrument. Children who screened positive for symptoms of depression frequently had symptom severity exceeding that of children treated for depression at community clinics”(2, 4). People often don’t think about the child’s mental conditions when the child is constantly living with the ups and downs of living in poverty and that the severity of it all can affect them for the rest of their
Homelessness is a widespread issue that in recent years has only worsened with the downturn in the economy and a never-ending war. Of this very vulnerable population however there is within an even more vulnerable population, the children affected by homelessness. We as a society need to understand why homelessness in childhood happens, and understand how drastically it effects children’s development overall. We must gain a better understanding of the specific issues arising from homelessness in childhood; Physical; Psychological; and Academic to understand how to minimize and reverse those effects of childhood homelessness.
http://www.ojip.usdoj.gov/nij. [Internet Website]. "Crime and Place: Plenary Papers of the 1997 Conference on Criminal Justice Research and Evaluation."
Reingold,D. (2006). The Characteristics and Causes of Homelessness among A Risk Families with Children in Twenty American Cites. University of Georgia.
By making building safe and secure through these principles, society can help deter vandalism and arson.