Description of the Community

Winchester is a small city (pop. 21,947) encompassing approximately nine square miles in the northwest region of Virginia and is located about 70 miles west of Washington D.C. Winchester is an education and employment center for the northwest region and has a daytime population that swells to 70,000. Winchester also has a seasonal workforce due to its large orchard operations.

Winchester’s Weed and Seed target area covers just over 1/2 square mile and consists of three neighborhoods: North End, South End and Bellevue. These neighborhoods are in the city’s center and lie along the busy Kent Street corridor. Bellview is home to a large and emergent Hispanic community.

Overview of Program Strategies

Winchester’s Weed and Seed activities focused primarily on increased law enforcement and prosecution, greater interaction and understanding between police and residents, and targeted community services. Winchester’s Weed and Seed program adapted its program structure to address some administrative problems that emerged during the first and second year. The overall program emphasis, however, remained consistent.

Suppression activities in Winchester emphasized increased enforcement through intensified foot, bicycle, and vehicle patrols in the target area neighborhoods. Traffic checkpoint operations were used as an enforcement technique and were sometimes accomplished with assistance from the Virginia State Police. In the first two years of the grant, funding was also made available to the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office to enhance prosecution of Weed and Seed area offenders.

Winchester’s Community Policing activities focused on increased interaction between police and residents. For example, the Residential Officer program provided assistance for officers to live in one of the target area neighborhoods. Winchester also had a Citizens Academy course for citizens who wanted to learn more about law enforcement. The Volunteers in Policing (VIP) program was an outgrowth of the Citizen’s Academy. Additionally, the officers assigned to the Weed and Seed target area attended Neighborhood Association and Neighborhood Watch meetings in the target area neighborhoods. A residents’ survey was also conducted in 1999 and 2000 to gauge attitudes about neighborhood crime and police / citizen relations.

Seed strategies focusing on prevention, intervention, treatment and neighborhood restoration covered many areas of service. Family-based services such as domestic violence workshops, family counseling and parenting classes were offered during the second grant year. The third-year Seed activities were offered as a Mini-Grant program where local groups and organizations applied for funds to provide community services. Funded programs emphasized youth education and recreation, scouting, Hispanic community outreach, and daycare tuition subsidies.

Description of the Winchester Program – Third Year

In the third year, funding was approved for the following activities:

• Salary and benefits for one police Sergeant to coordinate all police efforts on the Weed and Seed program,

• Overtime (485 hours) for police officers to maintain enforcement efforts in the target area neighborhoods,

• Rent subsidies and other supplies for four officers to participate in the Residential Officer program,
• Equipment, supplies, and clothing for the VIP program,
• Equipment and supplies to furnish a community meeting room, and
• Additional lighting for the target area neighborhoods as determined by a Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) assessment.

Also, funds were made available to offer Mini-Grants to agencies and groups who provide services to residents of the target area neighborhoods.

Weed and Community-Oriented Policing Activities

Weed activities in Winchester’s target area were coordinated by a grant-funded Sergeant at the Winchester Police Department. His responsibilities involved supervision and scheduling of enforcement and crime prevention activities in the Weed and Seed area, coordination of the Residential Officer program, planning and documentation of Weed and Seed meetings, and writing statistical and narrative reports. Activities in the target area focused on community-oriented policing, citizen involvement, crime prevention, and volunteerism. Enforcement operations were primarily accomplished through checkpoints and special patrols.

The Residential Officers initiative continued in the third year. For the first half of the grant year, there were five police officers living in the three target area neighborhoods. This number was reduced to four officers in December 1999 when one officer retired. These officers received a rent subsidy and were assigned marked police vehicles. The vehicles helped to increase police visibility in the target area. The residential officers worked to become important resources and trusted members of the neighborhood.

The VIP program continued to add new members to its ranks in the third year and participated in numerous events, handling many assignments which were formerly covered by sworn officers. This effort made sworn officers available for other assignments. The VIP group met monthly and volunteered for various assignments as needed. Some of the VIP activities included: conducting crime prevention activities, hosting recreational events, providing citizen’s patrols for special events, conducting community surveys, and organizing community benefits.

The target area community survey conducted in the third grant year was a follow-up to the survey conducted in the previous year. The survey was designed to measure residents’ fear of crime and their thoughts about the police in their community. Overall, there were only slight changes in the results from the second grant year to the third grant year. The most significant change indicated a large increase in police visibility. Further, residents reported a strong increase in their familiarity with their neighbors and a slight increase in their fear of crime.

Other Weed activities that occurred in the target area included: Neighborhood Watch meetings, the Annual National Night Out event, a robbery prevention workshop conducted by police for taxi drivers, a multi-agency Public Safety fair, and a CPTED street lighting assessment.

Seed Activities

In the third year, Winchester organized the target area Seed activities as a Mini-Grant program. This structure allowed organizations to apply for funding to provide services to the target area. Five groups applied for and were awarded funds:

• Caretakers,
• Girl Scouts of Shawnee Council,
• Frederick County Schools / Northern Shenandoah Valley Adult Education English as a Second Language (ESL),
• Freemont Street Nursery, and
• Winchester Day Nursery.

The majority of activities awarded funding through the Mini-Grant program provided supervision, education and / or recreation to target area children and youth. The exception was the ESL program which specifically assisted Winchester’s growing Hispanic community. Funding was also awarded to Winchester to hire a Neighborhood Development Coordinator. This person would be responsible for monitoring, organizing and providing technical assistance to the various Seed program providers.

Caretakers

Caretakers provided academic, social and recreational activities for youth in grades K – 12. Opportunities for field trips, discussion groups, and youth choir were also made available. Specific academic programs included Early Learning for children in grades K - 2, a program to reinforce basic skills such as reading, math, and writing; Academically Improving Minds (AIM), a homework assistance program for grades 3 and up; and Special Tutoring which provided one-on-one tutoring for students that needed help with particular subjects.

Girl Scouts

Girl Scouts of Shawnee Council planned to recruit girls from the South End neighborhood to form a new Girl Scout troop in the southern part of the target area. This neighborhood has a large Hispanic population so informational materials were produced in both Spanish and English. However, not enough interest was generated and no troop was formed.

Adult Education / ESL

Adult Education / ESL worked with Spanish-speaking residents to improve their proficiency in English and help expand their job skills. Grant funds provided the program with computer equipment and a TV / VCR to be used for instruction and job-seeking tasks. Activities concentrated on two program goals: improving English skills and sharpening job skills. These goals were pursued through literacy and vocabulary workshops, first aid and CPR training, and employment referrals. Other activities included participating in community events and organizing area sports teams.

Freemont Street Nursery

Freemont Street Nursery provided assistance with daycare costs to qualified families who demonstrated financial need. These subsidies enabled parents to maintain employment or to seek employment. During the grant year, more assistance was provided due to surplus program funds. This enabled more families to receive daycare services at reduced or no cost through this program.

Winchester Day Nursery

Winchester Day Nursery originally planned to provide assistance with daycare costs to families who had a qualifying emergency, were temporarily unemployed, or who needed to reserve their child’s enrollment in the nursery while the child was out due to extended illness or hospitalization. However, these types of situations did not occur frequently, and funds were not being used. Consequently, the qualifications for assistance were changed to accommodate families who demonstrated financial need and were striving to maintain or find employment.

State funds were also awarded to Winchester to hire a full-time Neighborhood Development Coordinator. This position would conduct needs assessments, develop neighborhood initiatives, and provide coordination between neighborhoods and various City departments and services. However, Winchester’s City Council rejected establishing the position. The unused funds that were set aside for this position and for the Girl Scout troop were instead used to fund two other projects: production of a public service video to promote Hispanic cultural awareness and the revitalization of a park in the target area. Park revitalization included landscape improvements organized by private citizens and help from area Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.

Obstacles to Program Implementation

The Winchester City Council’s decision not to approve funds for the Neighborhood Development Coordinator position was a set back to the implementation of the Seed programs. The types of assistance that a Neighborhood Development Coordinator could provide may have enhanced the provision of services to the target area neighborhoods.

Sadly, a Winchester Police Department Sergeant was murdered while working in the target area on October 29, 1999. An event of this magnitude in a city as small as Winchester greatly disrupted the department’s ability to conduct many routine procedures. Grant activities in the Weed and Seed target area occurred at a reduced level for a few weeks following this incident.

Summary of Program Activities

The Winchester Weed and Seed program highlighted community policing through its Residential Officer and VIP programs. Seed activities were conducted by local agencies who were awarded funds through a Mini-Grant program.

During the third year of the Weed and Seed program in Winchester, Weed funds supported an average of four full-time officers who each worked an average of 20 hours in the target area per week. Over the span of the final grant year, four checkpoint operations were conducted which resulted in a total of 28 traffic and DUI charges.

VIPs held five meetings during the grant year, added three new members, and ended the year with a total of 13 members. In addition, 14 Neighborhood Watch meetings were held among the three target area neighborhoods. One-time community policing events that were held during the grant year are cited in Table 10.

Calls-for-service in the target area averaged 1,770 a month, about 35% of the citywide total. Four firearms were seized in the target area during the third grant year, or about 24% of the firearms seized citywide. No data were available concerning the amount of illegal drugs that were seized in Winchester’s target area during the third grant year.

One of Winchester’s approved Mini-Grant programs and the Neighborhood Development Organizer position did not use any designated funds. As previously mentioned, these unspent funds were used to support two other projects in the target community. Program participation for Winchester’s four active Mini-Grant programs is detailed in Table 11.

In addition, Caretakers academic programs served between 80 - 100 kids during the school year. Enrollment for their summer youth program (Summer Madness) was up 156% over last year.

Arrest Statistics for the Winchester Target Area

In analyzing Winchester’s IBR offense and arrest data for the third year of Weed and Seed, no significant trends or patterns were found. The three most common types of arrests made in the Winchester target area are displayed in Table 12.

The arrests made for these three offenses, simple assault, DUI and liquor law violations, represent 21% of all arrests made in the target area. Simple assaults made up 91% of all assaults in the target area. (See Appendix C for the third year IBR offense and arrest data for Winchester’s target area.)

Summary Assessment by Local Weed and Seed Coordinators

At the end of the third year of the Weed and Seed program, program coordinators were asked their opinions about the grant activities they were most pleased with as well as those which did not fulfill expectations. Winchester officials identified several different elements of the Weed and Seed program with which they were particularly pleased. Winchester was very satisfied with the Residential Officers program and the relationship it has forged between the Police Department and the residents of the target area. The program has also reportedly led to the development of new partnerships between the neighborhoods and the public and private agencies that serve them. Additionally, the VIP program has helped to create a supportive relationship between citizens and police.

However, some desired accomplishments were not realized. The rejection of the Neighborhood Development Coordinator position by the City Council was noted as a disappointment, but there are indications the community may gain such a position in the near future. Also, coordinators suggested that the South End area could have used more encouragement and resources to establish Seed programs in their neighborhood. Instead, many of the programs were clustered in the North End area. Additionally, the Kent Street business owners should have been recruited to be more involved in the initiative.

Continuation Plans

Because the Residential Officers program was enthusiastically received by the community and valued by the police department, this initiative will continue. Funding for rent subsidies will be provided with City funds, and the program will expand citywide. Overtime funds will also be made available to maintain the additional enforcement operations in the target area and expand these operations to other areas of Winchester. The VIP program will also continue to operate with funding from the City.

All of the Seed program organizations were in existence prior to Weed and Seed and will continue to serve the target area in at least their pre-Weed and Seed capacities. Winchester’s City Council has recently decided that a Neighborhood Development Coordinator position should be established. It has proposed establishing the position and is now going through the necessary procedures to add the position to the City’s staff.

A memorial for the Sergeant killed in the line of duty is underway. The City bought property in the neighborhood to create a park. The park will be dedicated to Sergeant Richard Timbrook, and Winchester’s new public safety building currently under construction will be named the Timbrook Public Safety Building.

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