Indiana Editorial Roundup:

The (Fort Wayne) Journal Gazette. December 21, 2019

An expanding neighborhood watch

Almost every night, members of the TenPoint Coalition walk through the Oxford neighborhood, an area of southeast Fort Wayne that has been plagued with violent crime.

Though the program is overseen by Fort Wayne United, a city initiative, the walkers aren't there to enforce laws or official policies. Their walks, which began in October 2018, not only reassure residents but, according to statistics released by the city this fall, appear to have helped lower crime rates in the area. Their consistent presence in the neighborhood also means walkers are often the first to spot and report downed trees or problems with lights or sidewalks.

As trust has built between TenPoint Coalition members and the residents of the areas where they walk, residents feel free to talk about other problems, said Fort Wayne United Director Iric Headley. Sometimes the walkers can connect them with help through the coalition's own or other city programs or through churches and other groups allied with Fort Wayne United. 'œIf it's a threat to their success and a threat to their safety, we want to dive in and we want to try to help,'ť Headley said.

In order to take on another neighborhood in 2020, and to continue the nightly walks in Oxford, TenPoint needs to find more citizens willing to don a reflective vest and walk a couple of nights a week.

The prerequisites are not daunting. 'œThe criteria is simply individuals who want to be a part of the solution, and who like being outdoors, engaging and talking,'ť Headley said. Walkers go out as a group and spend about 21/2 hours in the neighborhood. On the cold nights ahead, the groups make stops in churches, service stations or other 'œwarming stations'ť; residents sometimes offer the groups coffee and hot chocolate. Though some TenPoint events are volunteer-powered, walkers are paid for the time they spend on the street, Headley said.

In the months ahead, you'll be able to find no shortage of reasons to stay indoors. For those who want to resist that temptation, TenPoint offers an opportunity to earn a little extra money while getting some exercise, meeting people and supporting an organization that's trying to make a difference in our community.

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South Bend Tribune. December 22, 2019

Steps forward on body cam policy for South Bend Police - don't forget about transparency

Six months after a fatal police shooting revealed a lack of clarity guiding the use of body cameras, the South Bend Police Department has updated its policy.

The changes, approved Wednesday by the city's Board of Public Safety, require supervisors to randomly inspect officers' footage and for officers to state a reason before ending a recording. Another new provision requires an officer, before stopping a recording, to speak into the device with the reason.

The new requirements call for sergeants to randomly sample at least five videos each month from officers they supervise, and to review at least 15 minutes of footage from each subordinate three or more times per year. The sergeants are to check for discrepancies between the videos and officers' reports, and to pass positive and negative findings up the chain of command.

The body cam policy has been under scrutiny since June, when Eric Logan, a black man, was fatally shot by a white police officer who did not have his camera activated. Two days after the shooting, at the mayor's direction, Police Chief Scott Ruszkowski issued an order that 'œofficers should activate their body cameras during all work-related interactions with civilians.'ť

Ruszkowski told the board that Wednesday's changes provide a 'œanother layer of oversight'ť by supervisors.

The additional oversight is welcome. And as we said in a comment after the shooting, it's critical that the policy is fully understood, that the time for questions and clarifications is before an encounter, not in the aftermath of one.

Less welcome is the news that the struggles with technology continue. The department had explored adding holster sensors that activate body cameras when officers draw their weapons, but they have not been fully rolled out because the technology was not 'œworking out as expected,'ť according to Ruszkowski.

Also needed, but not addressed by the approved changes: a commitment to full transparency. The city failed to provide a copy of the updated policy at Wednesday's meeting, and later released a copy of the policy after The Tribune, at the direction of a city spokesman, filed a public-records request. This is a long-standing complaint that The Tribune has brought to the attention of city officials in the past. Instead of immediately releasing public documents that are available at public meetings to any interested citizens, the Board of Public Safety requires them to jump through hoops to obtain the information.

That's inexcusable - especially considering the tension and mistrust that has surrounded the relationship between police and members of the community. The new policy is a step toward building trust and accountability - city officials should make sure the public is quickly informed about their efforts.

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(Terre Haute) Tribune-Star. December 21, 2019

City encounters another environmental challenge

Strong, careful management of the environment matters in several ways. The quality of the air, water and land affects people's health, prosperity and quality of life.

Often, efforts to protect the environment get dismissed as an unnecessary drag on the economy. Such an outlook is shortsighted. Environmental protections, prudently applied, ensure a safe, clean atmosphere for residents, businesses and public facilities to thrive.

Terre Haute is dealing with another costly issue of contamination from the city's earlier industrial era.

Construction work on a new $54-million sanitary sewer lift station near the Wabash River was immediately halted after contaminated water was discovered Oct. 28, when hundreds of fish died in a contained lagoon pond. Groundwater had been pumped into the containment lagoon as a contractor dug down more than 40 feet as part of the new lift station project.

The contaminant appears to be creosote "as was used in the former railroad tie plant," City Engineer Chuck Ennis told the Tribune-Star after a meeting of the Terre Haute Board of Sanitary Commissioners on Tuesday. "So it looks like we are pulling that from the (old) tie plant, but we are over 1,000 feet north from the plant" property.

The city contacted the United States Environmental Protection Agency in October, and the EPA began testing north of Interstate 70 earlier this month to discern the origin of the contamination. The EPA was already performing remediation of coal tar under the surface of property south of I-70.

The city owns the property, formerly part of Western Tar Products, which manufactured coal-tar-based chemicals and treated railroad ties. The ponds are located on property formerly occupied by the International Paper mill, which closed 12 years ago.

When the Wabash River overflows and recedes, fish get trapped in the ponds. Those killed were not game fish, but Asian carp, an invasive species, Ennis said. Still, the stalling of the lift station project has fiscal costs, too.

At last week's meeting, city engineering staff said a large crane on site for he project's construction has sat idle at a cost of $30,000 a day. And, the hiring of a company to remove and filter tainted groundwater at the site could add $2.3 million to $5 million to the overall cost of the project on Prairieton Road, in addition to the crane fees.

A new lift station is needed as part of the city's larger, 20-year, $120-million combined sewer overflow control plan to meet federal standards.

This is not the first time the city has dealt with cleaning up costly contamination left from the past. Groundwater tests in 2014 revealed high levels of benzene and lead, which had broken down and passed through coal ash deposits on city property formerly occupied by a scrap company. Also in 2014, the city completed a $7-million cleanup of 20 acres of contaminated soil at the old Terre Haute Coke and Carbon plant at 13th and Hulman streets. Residents near that site recalled decades of coke dust floating onto their homes and yards every day.

Indiana does not have a track record of strongly guarding the Hoosier environment. State policies favor minimal regulation, an approach often described as "business friendly" and as a benefit to the broader population. This $2.3-million to $5-million cleanup, in addition to others in recent years, puts the benefits of stringent environmental monitoring in perspective.

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