Dear Supt. Johnson:

The Scottsdale community located in Chicago’s 18th Ward and more specifically Beat 834 in Chicago’s 8th District are seeking help that only you and higher elected officials can handle. We are asking for beat integrity and also a beat realignment as our beat is one if not the biggest beat in the 8th District. Our community is home to a culturally diverse population with a lot of working families. Often our Beat Officer (834) is pulled to handle other assignments in other parts of the district. While our area does not have “serious” crimes like other parts of the district, we the people of Beat 834 are asking that the beat officer remains solely in Beat 834 and an additional 2nd car be added to the beat besides a rapid response car. Our beat covers a radius of 2 miles long by almost 2 miles wide with multiple RR tracks prohibiting our beat officer from effectively covering the beat at times. We continue to have problems with theft, graffiti, shootings, burglaries, etc. These problems are becoming more and more frequent and causing people/families to leave our community because of fear. Residents are sometimes waiting for long periods of time for a response from police depending on the severity of the call and what else maybe happening in the district. This is unacceptable, and we demand more police presence in our area.

We would like to see the beat become smaller and cover from Central Pk. to Cicero instead of current Kedzie Av. to Cicero Av. We feel having a beat that covers west of RR tracks solely will make response time quicker and prevent officers from being held up by trains. We are also asking for a 2nd car at all times to help curtail the gang activity, prevent smaller crimes, and help keep the community feeling safe. Having multiple cars driving a smaller beat and citizens seeing police on a more regular basis would go a long way of helping ease people fears and help possibly deter some of the crimes currently going on in the area. We are a hard-working community looking for help from our police. We have great officers in our district and our community supports their efforts. Scottsdale Neighborhood Watch invites you to come out and hear our residents’ concerns and thoughts. We look forward to a response from you and attached is signatures of residents who support our request for more police and a smaller beat. Please contact me at SNWChicago@gmail.com or call 773-886-9788 to setup a date for you to come out and talk to our organization.

Thank you,

Jason Huff - President – Scottsdale Neighborhood Watch