Volunteers Brave Chill in Hopes of Stopping Crime Cold

The weather was again bitter, but for the second straight year, UC students found the motivation to turn out on an early Saturday morning to do their part in making the areas around campus safer this winter.

And this year’s event on Dec. 3 had its own warming aspects – a welcome and eager group of volunteers from Clifton Heights community groups, who appreciated a door-hanger campaign last year that helped produce a 74 percent drop in thefts in their neighborhood during the holiday season and into early 2005.

"I was surprised at how strong the results turned out to be," said Doug Barclay, president of the Clifton Heights Business Association, about a study by researchers that documented the significant drop in thefts in the neighborhood for nine weeks immediately after crime-prevention tips were passed out door-to-door last year. "That’s something we’d like to let people know about."

About 30 UC students joined with community members to pass out door hangers at 4,500 residences this year. Organizing the efforts were volunteers from the UC Police Department and Cincinnati Police who planned the campaign.

Among those in the UC contingent were a number of UC athletes, including members of the football team who are also majoring in criminal justice.

Southern Californian Kevin Lovell, the Bearcats placekicker, didn’t mind venturing into the cold.

"I thought it was actually a great thing to do," said Lovell. "Many of the people in the apartments where we were will be away (over the university’s winter break). It’s a great idea to be able to let people know, ‘This is what you need to do to keep your stuff safe, so it will still be in the same shape when you get back.’ "

The Clifton Heights Business Association bought T-shirts for all of this year’s participants, and Macs Pizza and Baba Budan’s provided food and drink.

Volunteers also turned out from the Clifton Heights Improvement Association.

CHIA president Jim Wilson pointed out other positive crime trends for the neighborhood, with serious crime falling dramatically in both Clifton Heights and Fairview/University Heights in both 2004 and again in 2005. Serious crime in Clifton Heights is on pace this year to finish at a six-year low, covering a time frame all the way back to 2000.