POLICE CHIEF VOWS TO CONTINUE TO WORK TO STOP DRUG ACTIVITY

Continuing to have a police presence at Kendall-Perkins Park is critical to
controlling illegal drug activity on Owensboro's northwest side, and
residents must not turn the other way when they observe such activity. The
Northwest Neighborhood Alliance and acting Police Chief John Kazlauskas
appeared to agree on those key assertions at the neighborhood board's
monthly meeting Monday afternoon in the Audubon Area Community Service
board room.

"I'm here to assure you that the ties you had to Chief Allen Dixon will not
break," Kazlauskas said. "We will build on the relationships he started."

Dixon, who initiated community policing in the city, cited personal reasons
for resigning earlier this year. He has accumulated vacation time and
officially remains on the city's payroll until Sept. 1.

Kazlauskas said Owensboro police can pinpoint the drug activity, contain it
and move it out, but it cannot rid the neighborhood of criminal behavior
without help from the residents.

The acting chief gave the neighborhood group credit for helping the street
crimes unit in its recent undercover operation at the Fifth Street park,
which led to at least a half dozen arrests for drug trafficking.

"You need to continue to write down license numbers and videotape these
incidents and share that with us," he said.

Community policing involves getting police officers back on the streets in
neighborhoods, Kazlauskas said. "There's no blueprint for it -- we'll be
developing our own plan, and communication will be the key."

Kazlauskas said in two to three months he hopes to open new lines of
communication with a Citizens Advisory Board comprised of representatives
from each neighborhood advisory board. This group will meet with OPD staff
and identify new ways to approach problems.

"I make no promises, but I'll work hard, and together we can solve some of
our problems," the chief said. OPD will continue to conduct undercover
operations and will not "back off from what's been accomplished," he said.

Board Member John Garvin asked Kazlauskas if OPD is staffed adequately for
the population.

"Do we need to be talking to City Commission candidates about where they
stand on the need for more police officers?" Garvin asked.

Kazlauskas said he would take all the officers he can get, but the key to
controlling crime is in the community's response. "Right now we have people
looking the other way, and we need to change our environment."

Board Member Crystal Adkins said after the meeting that she was worried
about losing community policing and was glad to hear Kazlauskas' pledge to
continue it.

"That was really a Dixon brainchild," Adkins said. "I'm looking forward to
working with the new Citizens Advisory Board he (Kazlauskas) talked about.
The neighborhood boards had discussed that concept ourselves because we
discovered we had similar problems."

Adkins said when four members of the alliance went to see Dixon several
months ago, he told them the residents had to take responsibility for their
neighborhoods.

"It was a little easier to swallow today when we heard it," she said,
"because we also know we need that police presence."

The neighborhood's partnership with OPD can solve the illegal drug problems
the neighborhood faces, said Bill Dixon, the executive director of the
Owensboro Human Relations Commission, another invited guest at the meeting.

In the past, residents have voiced concerns over the lack of police
presence in the neighborhood and then others responded negatively when
police began making arrests, Dixon said.

"You arrest people who violate the law, and it has nothing to do with race
or gender," Dixon said. "I think the partnership with the police can solve
the problems."

Dixon, who lives in Henderson, cited progress that city has made in
addressing similar problems.

Adkins said she hopes the neighborhood can reclaim the park and help
parents overcome the fears they have of taking their children there.