August 17, 2016
It has been brought to the attention of the MAP board members that a few residents who attended our first community meeting felt that we did not provide concrete answers to problems.
The members of MAP realize neighbors are living in fear after recent events and want solutions NOW. We would have preferred to withhold announcing the formation of our group until a later date – AFTER we had an alert system in place as well as many other plans that are not currently finalized. Due to the recent events in our neighborhood we made the decision to have the first meeting before we would have liked. We made this decision so you know there are individuals living amongst you who are actively being on the street during incidents and looking for solutions.
We are a group of your neighbors who pulled together because we care about our neighborhood and we are determined to not allow crime to overwhelm where we live and raise our families. Although the majority of our board consists of people with extensive backgrounds in military, fire, emergency medical, criminal justice and legal issues (several in multiple areas), we are just like you in wanting solutions.
MAP members are not only doing what you see – we currently are, and have been, putting in many hours behind the scenes; designing an efficient and reliable alert system, building a volunteer training program and guide, establishing valuable contacts and purchasing equipment with our own money. We will not be disclosing specifics, but know that we DO have the equipment and means to take undetected surveillance video and photos in our possession at this time. MAP is fortunate to have the support, assistance and backing of people such as Timothy Johnson, Chief of Police, among others. We are committed to developing a program that will not only get results, but will continue to grow.
MAP is always willing to take suggestions from the community and are in the process of setting up a system to easily allow you to do so. Please note that suggestions with merit will have to be researched, analyzed and approved by our board before we get approval from (when necessary) Chief Johnson or others in authority.
We WILL be operating within the law and will not tolerate illegal actions on the part of our board members as well as our volunteers. We will be conducting background checks on everyone involved with MAP. Background checks on board members will be done by an independent entity.
Every member of the board is working hard to get things in place as quickly as possible while fact checking and testing to assure it is done correctly – but this takes time. It is not a secret that things have been attempted in the past that have failed and/or faded away which is why we are checking and double checking everything before release.
We ask that you give MAP the chance to prove itself to be a strong, enduring asset to this community.
Thank you for your support
Alex Vaiopoulos – President
Jeff Berry – Vice President
Julie Simmons – Treasurer
Karyn Libbrecht – Secretary