Richmond Police Department press release:

For Immediate Release

News Release
RPD Taking Crime Prevention to New Heights

Sept. 24, 2009
The Richmond Police Department has seized the opportunity to lift its crime prevention efforts by using confiscated funds to purchase the SkyWatch mobile surveillance tower.

SkyWatch is a mobile trailer and cabin that can be deployed to any area of the city. One to four officers can staff the cabin that, when positioned, can be raised 25 feet to allow the officers excellent surveillance opportunities.

The Department used captured property and currency from drug trafficking cases for the purchase.

The unit is equipped with tinted glass, video cameras with recording devices, flood lights, and a loudspeaker system. It is heated and air-conditioned and has a generator that can allow it to operate uninterrupted for several days.

It will be deployed at festivals, popular dining areas on weekend evenings and other events where large groups gather such as the Monument 10K and New Year’s Eve.

“The SkyWatch designers assure us that when this tower goes up, crime goes down,” Major John Venuti said. “As the special events in Richmond continue to grow in popularity each year, the Department is always looking for ways to help large groups stay safe and have a good time. And with SkyWatch’s 360 degree view, cameras and recorders, this tower will send a message to criminals: We are watching.”

The Department is offering the media a preview of SkyWatch and its features tomorrow, 3 to 4 p.m., at the City Garage, 2901 N. Boulevard.

The Times Dispatch reports:

Recent tests found high levels of toxic chemicals called PCBs in the James River and some tributaries between Richmond and Hopewell.

In some cases, levels of the chemicals were hundreds of times higher than the state limit, state officials said.

The PCBs pose a threat to fish but not people, unless people eat contaminated fish, said Bill Hayden, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Quality.

For Immediate Release

News Release
Richmond Police Recruiting for Citizen Academy

Sept. 16, 2009
If you have ever wondered what it takes to become a Richmond Police officer or how the Richmond Police Department operates, now is your chance to find out.

Richmond Police will offer an eight-week Citizen Police Academy for those interested in learning about the Richmond Police Department’s personnel, goals, community policing strategies and law enforcement-related topics.

There will be seven, two-hour classes held every Thursday, beginning Oct. 1 through Nov. 19. Classes will be held 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Richmond Police Training Academy, 1202 W. Graham Road. The academy concludes the eighth week with a graduation ceremony.

The Citizen Police Academy instruction will cover different areas of the Department provided by expert guest instructors from area law enforcement agencies as well as certified police officers. The courses are diverse and range from the Department’s organizational structure to forensics, criminal investigation, narcotics and firearms.

Anyone who lives or works in Richmond can attend the academy. You must be at least 18 years old with no felony convictions. Misdemeanor convictions will be reviewed and considered by Chief Bryan T. Norwood. The deadline to register for the academy is Tuesday, Sept. 29. Space is limited.

“The best way our citizens can help us help them is for them to learn what we do, how we do it and why we do it,” Chief Norwood said. “That’s the purpose of the citizen academy.”

Persons interested in registering may contact Citizen Police Academy Coordinator GiTonya L. Parker at 646-7648.

The Richmond Times Dispatch reports:

A Richmond city councilman’s nephew is being held without bond today in the malicious wounding of a Virginia Union University student early Sunday.

Jamir Lee Jewell, whose uncle is Councilman E. Martin Jewell, was arrested Sunday about 1:15 a.m. — minutes after a student was shot in front of Newman Hall, an all-female dormitory on the northern edge of campus near Brook and Graham roads. Jamir Jewell is not a VUU student.

University police confirmed yesterday that the shooting occurred as they tried to deal with a crowd that had grown to as many as three dozen people.

“I really have to hand the credit to our people for the way they reacted,” VUU Police Chief David Horace said, noting that one officer stationed in a guard shack about 30 yards from Newman Hall called for reinforcements as the crowd grew more unruly. “It could have been much worse,” the chief said.

At least a half-dozen students have been shot or stabbed on or near the VUU campus in the past decade, according to news reports. The school has sought for years to control access to the campus, especially from nearby neighborhoods with histories of violence. A fence encircling the campus is under construction.

Campuswide alerts were not sent to the university community until nearly an hour after the shooting.

Two of the three school officers responding to the crowd are not authorized to carry weapons, Horace said.

Jewell, 21, could receive up to 23 years in prison if convicted on a malicious-wounding charge and an accompanying firearms charge. He made a brief appearance yesterday in Richmond General District Court and said he will retain his own attorney. A hearing was set for Sept. 11.

VUU officials declined to release the identity of the student who suffered three gunshot wounds to his left leg. He was expected to be released from the hospital shortly.

Martin Jewell said the news of the arrest of his sister’s son was a shock to him, but he declined any further comment. His nephew lives in the 800 block of West Lancaster Road, a few blocks from the university.

As usual, I am usually the last person in the neighborhood to hear about things. The following I heard second-hand and only parts of….

The story begins in the alley behind the 600 blocks of Laurel and Cherry. It forms a ‘T’ with entrances on Laurel, Cherry, and Holly, but not China. For a long time after the old cobblestones were taken out, it was an increasingly hazardous, gravel-but-mostly-dirt alley.
It was eventually paved, which lead to more people speeding through it.

Citizens begged for some signage or speed bumps, but the City said it was an alley and not a street and therefore would not get additional signage. I found some novelty/party ‘stop’ and ‘yield’ signs at a thrift store and put those up on the utility poles, but then they were taken down when the power grid was worked on. Speeders go up the alley and skid on the brakes when they realize it does not go all the way through to China Street.

Anyway, sometime last week some young men in a mini-van were speeding up the alley and failed to brake. When my neighbor became incensed at yet another invasion of his backyard, the mini-van pilots panicked and drove between houses. Somehow they drove over an embankment that ended in a three and a half foot drop after a brick retaining wall on the front sidewalk on China Street. In the process they damaged the wall as can be seen in this picture:

I am not clear on what happened after that. I would love to hear some more details. I do know the alley now has a real stop sign. I am guessing the City put it in, or my neighbors “requisitioned” it.