Description of the Community

Lynchburg is a small to medium-sized city (pop. 66,049) located in Central Virginia. Like many older cities, its downtown area has experienced some inner-city decline. Lynchburg’s target area for the Weed and Seed project consists of two adjacent neighborhoods, College Hill and Tinbridge Hill. These neighborhoods are located near the downtown central business district and are just over one square mile combined, or about 2% of the city’s land area.

Both neighborhoods are primarily residential, and housing consists of mostly older structures, although College Hill does contain some newer subsidized apartment complexes. The two neighborhoods are divided by Fifth Street, a struggling business thoroughfare.

 Overview of Program Strategies

In general, Lynchburg’s Weed and Seed program emphasized: (1) drug offense reduction through increased surveillance operations, investigations, and checkpoints; (2) increased patrols to affect order maintenance; (3) targeting code violations and blighted properties; (4) youth activities and mentoring; and (5) home repair and restoration. During its three years of funding, Lynchburg’s Weed and Seed program maintained a consistent program structure. Only minor changes were made in activities over the three-year period as the program responded to changing community needs.

Suppression activities included drug offense reduction techniques such as drug sting operations and drug checkpoints, as well as the involvement of the Narcotics Strike Force (NSF). Investigations that included covert operations and surveillance techniques were also used to target drug offenses. Early in the program, suppression of prostitution was targeted with reverse prostitution stings. Increased patrols in the target area neighborhoods were also implemented to maintain order and reduce nuisance violations. In the last year of the program, a truancy reduction initiative was developed and implemented in cooperation with the Lynchburg City Schools.

Community-Oriented Policing activities included cross-training two NSF officers in code enforcement. These officers were able to identify code violations while they carried out their normal duties in the target area. Code violations were reported to the Code Enforcement Task Force (CETF), and forwarded to the appropriate city agency for response. The same officers also coordinated meetings with the managers of area housing facilities to discuss on-going problems and possible solutions. Additionally, blighted properties were referred to CETF by officers for eventual repair, rehabilitation, or demolition. Officers assigned to the target area also attended Neighborhood Association and Neighborhood Watch meetings throughout the three-year period.

Seed activities such as prevention, intervention, treatment and neighborhood restoration began in the first year with a needs-based approach. Neighborhood Summit meetings were resident focus groups conducted to discuss concerns and identify services needed in the neighborhoods. A Mini-Grant program was then established for groups and organizations to apply for funds to provide the needed services. Programs funded by the Mini-Grants generally focused on youth activities and education, mentoring, job skills, and home repair. In addition, an annual Citywide Neighborhood Convention, which included the neighborhoods in the target area, offered workshops and exhibits of community programs and services. A program called "Natural Leader" was also developed to train target area residents to become effective leaders. Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles were exercised and taught by community police officers in an effort to make properties less susceptible to crime. Finally, reduction of illegal dumping was made a priority to increase the attractiveness and health of the area.

Description of the Lynchburg Program – Third Year

For the third year of Weed and Seed funding, Lynchburg’s program was approved for the following activities:

• Overtime (3,650 hours) for police officers to supplement enforcement and community policing efforts in the target area;

• Surveillance and technical equipment to enhance the police department’s enforcement efforts (e.g., digital camcorder, surveillance van, cell phones, etc.);

• Salary, benefits, and other support for a Community Organizer position;
• Supplemental salaries for Community Centers’ staff to expand their hours of operation; and
• Various target area neighborhood programs awarded through the Mini-Grant initiative.

Funds were also made available to send representatives to a planning conference and for program-related printing / office supplies.

Weed and Community-Oriented Policing Activities

In the third year, activities started late due to delays in the Lynchburg City Council’s grant approval process. Most Weed activities did not begin until September 1999. Narcotic Strike Force officers led many of the activities in the target area and cooperated with numerous agencies in implementing these actions. Generally, Weed activities included:

• Additional patrols by beat officers and NSF officers;
• Attending Neighborhood Watch meetings in the target area;
• Meetings between NSF officers and area apartment managers;

• Cooperating with the city’s Code Enforcement Task Force to target blighted properties; and

• Numerous law enforcement operations such as surveillance operations, prostitution reversals, truancy details, warrant service operations, buy-bust operations, mock drug checkpoints, and directed patrols.

Two specific activities highlighted below, were particularly notable during the third year.

1. Meetings between NSF officers and area apartment managers. NSF officers met numerous times with housing facility managers from two target area complexes to find solutions to on-going problems. Crime prevention and reduction techniques were discussed at the meetings, such as posting and strict enforcement of a "No Trespassing" ordinance. Officers also encouraged property managers to exchange information about their problem tenants to help reduce the shifting of problems from one complex to another. The officers also discussed lighting and other design principles to help reduce crime and criminal opportunity. As a specific example, a problem identified by one complex was that much drug activity and other problems occurred around a gazebo on the property. The management and residents agreed that the gazebo should be removed, so it was donated to a local cemetery. After removal of the gazebo, neighbors noticed improved conditions and a decrease in the high volume of problems that occurred near the structure’s former location.

2. Truancy Reduction Initiative. The Lynchburg City school system and Lynchburg Police Department partnered to develop a truancy reduction program. Children identified as truant were returned to school (or returned home if on suspension), then referred to a mentoring program. Target area children were included in this effort and were referred to either Sisters of Unity and Leadership or Brothers United for Christ, two Seed-sponsored mentoring programs.

Weed efforts were often conducted in collaboration with other local organizations. Lynchburg’s multi-department Code Enforcement Task Force took the lead in the effort to target blighted properties, guided largely by referrals from NSF officers to specific problem properties in the target area. The Virginia ABC and Sheriff’s Offices of several neighboring localities also provided law enforcement assistance. As noted earlier, truancy operations were conducted in partnership with the City schools. Additionally, Lynchburg Police collaborated with area schools in developing crisis intervention procedures at schools that served target area youth. Finally, the Lynchburg Fire Department and Public Works Department assisted the Lynchburg Police Department with the removal of the gazebo mentioned above.

Seed Activities

Lynchburg’s Seed strategy is organized as a Mini-Grant program where organizations compete to obtain funds to serve the target area. Due to local delays in obtaining approval for the use of grant funds, the Mini-Grants in the Seed initiative adopted a different schedule than that of the normal grant year. Subsequently, the second year’s Mini-Grant programs did not end until September 15, 1999. Third year Mini-Grant seed programs were funded and began operation on December 21, 1999, and are scheduled to end on September 22, 2000.

Mini-Grant awards ranged between $1,000 and $4,000. The programs that received funding in the third grant year were:

• Sisters of Unity and Leadership (SOUL), a mentoring program for girls age 8 - 17;
• Brothers United for Christ (BUC), a mentoring program for boys age 8 - 18;
• Tinbridge Hill Youth Incentive and College Hill Youth Incentive, programs to educate and interest kids in the benefits and outcomes of community service;

• Tinbridge Hill Homeowner Assistance and College Hill Homeowner Assistance, programs to improve housing conditions through repair and improvement;

• Releve, a youth dance program sponsored by the Dance Theatre of Lynchburg; and
• the Dr. Johnson Video Project, a planned documentation of the oral history concerning Dr. R. Walter Johnson, a tennis coach / trainer whose students included Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe.

Some of the activities that youth in the mentoring and community service programs participated in included YMCA volunteer opportunities, organized neighborhood clean-ups, fundraisers to pay for field trips, and hosting various community events. The Tinbridge Hill Homeowner Assistance completed minor repairs on five homes and planted a community vegetable garden while the College Hill Homeowner Assistance completed minor repairs on eight homes and established a tool library so that members of the community can borrow lawn equipment and tools. Releve, the youth dance program, hosted the Alvin Alley Performance for a fundraising event. Finally, the Dr. Johnson Video Project participants researched background information and conducted interviews with family members. The tennis courts where Dr. Johnson trained Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe were rededicated in his name.

Other Seed-funded projects in the Lynchburg target area included the Citywide Neighborhood Convention, where neighborhood groups and area agencies displayed information about their programs and conducted meetings on topics such as employment skills and home ownership. Additionally, Lynchburg’s leadership training course for target area leaders continued in the third year. Lynchburg’s Seed monies also funded a full-time Community Organizer position that was staffed at Youth and Prevention Services within the Lynchburg Department of Human Services. This person coordinated the Mini-Grant program, provided technical assistance to the Mini-Grant program staff, conducted on-site visits to observe activities, elicited support from the community, attended Neighborhood Council meetings, and filed reports to the necessary agencies. The establishment of this position has greatly enhanced implementation of the Seed program in Lynchburg.

Other non-funded activities in the Weed and Seed target area included activities such as National Night Out, a national crime prevention awareness effort; an AIDS awareness workshop; and computer training for target area residents.

Obstacles to Program Implementation

Lynchburg’s City Council’s procedural process delayed local approval of third-year Weed and Seed funding. The program could not begin implementation until September 1, 1999. Also, the homeowner assistance programs experienced occasional delays in scheduled repair work due to contractors’ work obligations outside of the program.

Summary of Program Activities

Lynchburg’s Weed activities highlighted enforcement and community policing largely through increased patrol hours and interagency partnerships. Seed programming was primarily addressed through several Mini-Grant programs that addressed community needs.

During the third year of the Weed and Seed program in Lynchburg, Weed funds supported an average of 59 part-time and full-time officers who worked an average of 299 hours in the target area per month. Over the span of the final grant year, 105 law enforcement special operations were conducted. These resulted in 231 arrests, 32% of which were for drug violations. Additionally, two DUI checkpoint operations resulted in a total of 6 DUI charges and 7 drug arrests. A breakdown of additional enforcement activities is displayed in Table 2.

The truancy detail, which was initiated in the third year, resulted in contacts with 154 truant youth. Of these, 105 were returned to school, 39 were returned home due to suspensions from school, and 10 were not enrolled in Lynchburg City Schools. In addition, Weed and Seed officers attended 36 target area Neighborhood Watch meetings during the grant year.

Calls-for-service in the target area averaged 300 a month, comprising about 4% of the citywide total. Fifty-two firearms were seized in the target area during the third grant year, which accounted for about 40% of the firearms seized citywide. Based on street value, a total of $24,367 worth of illegal drugs (including opiates, cocaine, and derivatives; marijuana; synthetic narcotics; and other dangerous non-narcotics) was seized in the target area during the third grant year. This amount represents approximately 42% of the city’s total dollar amount of illicit drugs seized.

The Lynchburg Seed effort in the third year included a Neighborhood Summit attended by approximately 70 target area residents and Neighborhood Plan focus group sessions attended by over 50 residents of the College Hill and Tinbridge Hill neighborhoods. Participation in the Seed Mini-Grant programs is described in Table 3.

Arrest Statistics for the Lynchburg Target Area

Each Weed and Seed site submitted monthly IBR data to DCJS for their target area. In analyzing Lynchburg’s IBR offense and arrest data, no particular trends or patterns were found. While there was a significant spike in the number of most reported offenses between the second and third quarters, Lynchburg Police Department’s Crime Analyst attributed this to the installation of a new, fully IBR-compliant records management system.

Table 4 displays the three most common types of arrests made in the Lynchburg target area during the third year of the grant. This illustrates the most common arrest activities of the Weed and Seed officers.

* Includes drug equipment violations

The arrests made for these three offenses, drug / narcotic violations, simple assault, and DUI, represent 59% of all arrests made in the target area. Simple assaults made up 80% of all assaults in the target area. See Appendix C for the third year IBR offense and arrest data for Lynchburg’s target area.

Summary Assessment by Local Weed and Seed Coordinators

At the end of the third year of the Weed and Seed program, local program coordinators were asked their opinions about the grant activities they were most pleased with as well as those which did not fulfill expectations. Lynchburg officials identified several different facets of the Weed and Seed program with which they were particularly satisfied. Specifically, Lynchburg reports that response to the Weed and Seed program from the community has been very positive. The coordinators indicated that community really worked toward making positive changes and residents have shown great support for the program. Community leadership training and the youth programs were very popular with residents. Additionally, new partnerships were established between the police, citizens, government agencies, non-government service providers, and private groups. These enhanced partnerships have reportedly led to a more mutually trusting relationship between citizens and police.

However, some desired accomplishments were not realized. Lynchburg had hoped to encourage local government agencies to work with the communities and learn to respond to the requests and needs of the citizens. For example, when the College Hill neighborhood opposed a local restaurant’s application for a ABC permit, some members of City Council appeared not to consider the neighborhood’s wishes. Also, although many significant improvements were made and continue to be made, coordinators indicated that progress took a bit longer in the College Hill neighborhood as they did not have the same support organizations in place at the start of the grant as did the Tinbridge Hill neighborhood.

Continuation Plans

The following activities, which were initially funded with Weed and Seed funds, will reportedly continue to operate in the target area after the grant is terminated.

• The Community Organizer will continue to operate as a full-time staff position in Youth and Prevention Services and will be funded by the City.
• The homeowner assistance programs will continue with support from volunteers, churches, Habitat for Humanity and the local Housing Authority.
• Brothers United for Christ and Sisters of Unity and Leadership will collaborate on future projects and will receive support through the YMCA and a local church.

• Funds are currently unavailable to maintain heightened enforcement levels. However, the Lynchburg Police Department is undergoing a major restructuring in January 2001 due to the department’s new deployment strategy. The new departmental organization will result in a true community-oriented policing arrangement with officers assigned and accountable to their appointed neighborhoods.

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