As Gary grapples with methods to curb the city’s recent spike in homicides — nearly 60 percent compared to last year — some officials think the answer may not lie entirely with the local police force.
It’ll take a combined effort.
“This is an issue where the people in the community need to work with police and with many other agencies to help reduce the amount of violence that exists here,” Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson said.
So far this year, Gary has experienced 34 homicides, including five shooting deaths in the past week. That’s a 57 percent increase compared to last year at this time.
The mayor said she thinks there are efforts that need to be improved to get Gary residents more involved in the community and to take an interest in what is happening in their neighborhoods.
On Tuesday night, a few miles south of City Hall, Gary’s National Night Out event took place at Pittman Square Park, at 51st Avenue and Pennsylvania Street. The nationwide observance highlights the work of the city Police Department and is designed to involve citizens.
Neighborhood kids and adults wandered around the department’s K-9 unit and other displays as a disc jockey interspersed “Stop the violence!” throughout his set.
Inez Berry, an anti-violence activist in the city, was at the event to promote peace as well.
“I try to push peaceful activity through music,” Berry said.
Earlier Tuesday, city officials accepted a $70,000 donation from the Northern Indiana Public Service Co. to support the city Parks Department’s Summer Enrichment Program.
Some $10,000 of that money went toward a program that found summer jobs for 17 young people.
The rest supported the Gary for Life initiative that provides for a citywide strategy that is designed to reduce violent crime in Gary. NIPSCO’s manager of governmental and community relations, Eddie Melton, said, “This is money well-spent if it helps get people involved in making their community safe.”
Reducing homicides involves getting people to take more interest in their neighbors and communities, officials said.
“All of us need to work together if we’re to make things any better in the community,” Freeman-Wilson said. “It’s not just a matter for the police.”
Police Chief Larry McKinley said the Police Department has increased its efforts during the past year to identify the whereabouts of the people who are potentially considered the most violent offenders in the city.
Common Council Vice President Ronald Brewer said he is pleased to have increased police presence — even though he has previously expressed opposition to police “sweeps” that target certain people.
“If it takes that to get guns and drugs off the streets, then we should do what needs to be done to make our streets safe,” Brewer said.
Councilwoman Mary Brown, D-3rd, said she believes most of Gary’s roughly 80,000 residents are not criminal. “The majority of us are law-abiding citizens,” she said.
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“They want their neighborhoods to be safe,” Brown said. “People want to cooperate to do what needs to be done to make their communities safe.”
Lifelong Gary resident Juanna Delay, at the National Night Out event at Pittman Square Park, said she has seen the violence far worse in the city. When she graduated from high school in 1993, Gary was the country’s “murder capital.” That year, when the city’s population was 119,125, it recorded 110 homicides, records show.
Delay said she’s always observant when going anywhere in the city.
“People are discouraged. When you look around at the city, it’s depressing,” Delay said. “They need to change their mindset and worry about getting an education, and the city needs to clean up and make things look presentable.
“I think the main issue is lack of jobs and lack of activities for kids, like Big Brother or Big Sister. There’s nothing to do.”
Freeman-Wilson has ideas in the works to give residents something to do.
She said bolstering resident participation is the goal of an Aug. 25 summit to be held at Indiana University Northwest organized by local clergy to bring the community into contact with law enforcement to discuss stopping city violence.
Also, she is organizing an Oct. 3 volunteer day in which 1,000 people will be put to work to pull weeds, mow lawns and clear sidewalks to improve the appearance of neighborhoods so that people will take more pride in their communities
Freeman-Wilson said she got the idea from a Detroit initiative in which 30,000 volunteers were organized to do similar work.
“We’re not as big (as Detroit in population) so we can’t get that many people, but I think we can make a lot of headway with 1,000 volunteers,” she said.
Gregory Tejeda and Michelle L. Quinn are freelance reporters for the Post-Tribune.