Huber Ridge Area

Once again our township police are too busy giving tickets to the construction speeders to patrol the neighborhood. 4 teens in a dark sedan just ran the stop sign and threw a beer bottle out the window, peeling out and sliding on gravel left from unfinished construction. When I notified the dispatcher she said ''well we won't be able to find them so what do you want us to do? I did have the license plate. She said it would not be worth wile to take a report.
Maybe if the money generated from all the speeding tickets were not so much more important than a safe neighborhood, they would care.

poor service

Hi Cassia,

That is a very poor response on the part of the dispatcher. So, did you make a report? I would like to know more.

I plan to email Chief Belford and Lt. Lephart today so that they will read what you wrote. I would like them to respond, and knowing them, they will want to respond.

Keep in mind that the dispatcher is a Franklin County dispatcher and not in our Blendon Township building, as I understand it. Nevertheless, no excuse for that kind of response.

Will you please email me with the details? I would like to know them and will put it on our website police reports.

Thanks,
Pam Clegg
Block Watch Coordinator

Our ''trusted'' police reply

Cassia, Thank you for letting me know about this problem. Like most small police departments, we do not have our own exclusive radio dispatch center. Most smaller agencies contract with the Franklin County Sheriff's Office (FCSO)for dispatch service. When you call (614)889-9494, an FCSO dispatcher answers the line and then contacts our officers by radio. Dispatchers try to screen calls for efficient operations but should never refuse to send officers or try to talk anyone out of filing a report. I will speak to Sheriff Karnes about this particualr incident but it would be most helpful if I knew the date and time of the call. Anytime residents have feedback about our police department, either positive or negative, I would like to hear from them. My office number is (614) 882-8500. We are very concerned about juvenile crime, littering, traffic safety and disruptive behavior. We will always respond on these type of calls. We want to work with the community on quality of life issues and help in keeping Blendon Township a safe, nice place to live and work. As part of this effort, our officers also vigorously enforce Ohio's traffic safety laws. In one of the early months of the SR161 construction project (called NeXT), we had 25 crashes in 24 days. ODOT then funded a grant to pay for extra Blendon Twp officers to patrol the construction zone and enforce the 45 mph speed limit. This has greatly reduced the number of crashes. Please never hesitate to give me a call, email or stop by the station. Again, if I knew the date and time of that call, I could make sure a supervisor talks to that particular dispatcher so that we don't have this problem in the future. But either with or without that info, I will still contact the Sheriff. I would also like to know that license plate number so I can talk to a parent about their teenager's driving. Thank you.

Police Perception

Cassia,

I am concerned that you think all we do is write citations. This is not true. The dispatcher issue will be addressed. It is difficult for us to be everywhere at once. We do our best to respond to every call. Unfortunately, teenagers will always be acting up. We will do our best to prevent incidents like this one.

Officer Bryan Rhoads