LAFAYETTE, Ind.— Five minutes made the difference for Gail Thayer-Copeland, who was getting ready for a trip to the gym when her driver-side car window was shattered May 9 by a stray bullet.
The shooting outside her home on North 10th Street also sent a man to the hospital after his leg was grazed with a bullet.
"If I had been fiveminutes (earlier), it probably would have hit me in the head," she said.
The incident was traumatizing. But it hasn't shaken herconfidence in Historic Jefferson neighborhood— an area north of downtown known for its dilapidated homes, drug dealing and crime.
Instead, Thayer-Copeland and the neighborhood association have worked with the city to crack down onproblem properties and curb suspicious activity.
In a series of victories last year, the band of neighbors established a permanent community garden, added street lights and worked with landlords who have pumped thousands of dollars into renovating neglected residences.
"I can't live my life in fear," she said.
It's too early to tell if such partnerships, along with several more crime-fighting initiatives put into action last year, are working. But in a reassuring trend,crime in Lafayette fell in nearly every majorcategoryfollowing one of the most violent years on record.
City leaders are cautiously optimistic about the multi-departmental effort, which they say takes a proactive approach and narrowly focuses on neighborhoods to improve them from the inside out.
But certain violent crimes involving drugs and firearms remain an issue, leaving some residents feeling wary and prompting officials to admit there still is muchwork to be done.
Eyes and ears
Crimes reported last year are down in nearly every major category when compared to 2015 and to the past10-year average, according to incident reports from Jan. 1-Dec. 31, 2016 provided by Lafayette Police Department.
Property crimes — defined by the FBI as arson, burglary, motor vehicle theft and theft — declined by 9percent year-over-yearand by 5 percent on average.
Violent crimes — defined as aggravated assault, homicide, rape and robbery— aredown 20 percent compared to 2015. An influx of robberies, however, pushed violent crime past the 10-year average by 7 percent.
"All of those things that we've done to engage the citizens and ask them to help be our eyes and ears, to call in tips, to call in suspicious activity —I think that’s one ofthe biggest reasons for thedrop in crime," Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski said.
In the midst of one of Lafayette's most violent years on record, Roswarski announced in September 2015 thatLafayette Police Department would add five new patrol positions and equip officers who live inside city limits with take-home cars, increasing police visibility within pockets of the community.
"When I got (the take-home car),I had a couple neighborsthat had come up to me andsaid, 'Hey, we appreciate you being inthe neighborhood; it makes us feel a littlesafer at night,'" said Officer Ryan Black, who has worked in LPD's patrol division for more than two years.
Meanwhile, Roswarski put a premium on communication andpledgedpolice presence at neighborhood meetings.
All in all, LPD's crime prevention and community outreach unit attended 77 neighborhood meetings or other public forums last year, according to Lt. Brian Gossard, one of two officers assigned to the unit.
Two more positions will be added this year, furthering LPD'sreach across the city.
"We definitelymake good relationshipsthere, beingable to talk with us candidly and have us share what we're seeing, getting information from the people," Gossard said.
Additionally, the flow of information from the community to police has increased as the number of users on Nextdoor, Lafayette's social network for neighborhoods, has tripled since the service was rolled outin 2014, nearing the city's goal of one-in-four households usingthe technology by the end of the year.
Further, crimes reported through the city's online action center have doubled, from fewer than200 in 2015 to nearly 400 last year.
"Anything you see, anythingyou hear, anything you think gives us a reason to knock on the door," Thayer-Copeland's husband, John Copeland, said as he recalled a conversation with police about problem residents. "The more we knock on the door, the less friendly it is for them to be there."
Cracking down
Outside of law enforcement, city leaders havecracked down on illegal parking, city code violations and abandoned vehicles and properties — small problems that, they said, could fester and spread if left unaddressed.
The city's parking division, for example, last year expanded parking enforcement outside Lafayette's downtown core.
Additionally, staff with the engineering department set out to more strictly enforce city codes and housing standards, working with homeowners to clean up non-compliant properties.
Over the summer, street department workers also identified homes with unkempt lawns or tall grass.
Each piece worked into a larger effort to prevent unattractive or abandoned neighborhoods, which officials say is an open invitation to criminals.
"The more you fix up,the less incentive (criminals)have," said Scott Dierterle, a Lafayette building inspector. "People are going to go elsewhere."
Last year, Lafayette also took advantage of a new state law that allows properties deemed abandoned to go to a special tax sale, in which investors can acquire the title to the home on the day of the purchase.
Typically, homes purchasedthrough a traditional tax sale take a year or more before they are relinquished to the new owner.
"If somebody is living in a house, you're not going to have, say, a homeless person going in, squatters to go in, or kids," Lafayette Building Commissioner Mark Gick said."It’s a safety thing, as well as crime."
In October, five properties declared abandoned were sold to investors through the special tax sale, according to Jacqueline Chosnek, Lafayette's cityattorney.
During a hearing authority meeting in January, three more properties were declared abandoned.
The new state law is crucial, Chosnek said, because it allows those properties to be renovated sooner rather than later.
"In fact, I did a drive by of those properties (sold in October)a couple weeks ago, and I saw evidence of work being done on them," she said.
The initiative comes after a multi-million dollar investment in Glen Acres neighborhood beginning in 2009 and a more recent partnership with faith-based groups to renovatehomes and build community centers in areas immediately north and south of downtown.
The city now has set its sights on the Five Points area with an upcoming urban redevelopment plan.
"It does take neighborhood revitalization, law enforcement, access to addiction services," Roswarski said. "It takes all of thoseto play a role."
Wrong end of a gun
On Dec. 11 as the sun was rising, Judy Lintner,owner of O'Rear's Pastry Shop near Ninth and Ferry streets, was looking down at the register and ringing up two cream horns and a Florentine.
But when she looked back up, her customer — a well-dressed, mild-mannered white male in his 20s — was behind the counter with a handgun pointed ather face.
Knowing there was little money in the register, Lintner pleaded with the bandit as she stared down the barrel.
"It's not worth it," she said.
"It's worth it to me," said the suspect, who has yet to be arrested or charged.
Despite Lafayette's drop in violent crime, robberies remain an issue. An unprecedented 108 holdups reported last year are12 percent more than2015 and 60 percent more when compared to the preceding decade average.
The armed robbery at O'Rear's was one of three near downtown Lafayette in the span of 16 hours, in which aVillage Pantry clerk and a St. Boniface Church parishioner also were held upat gunpoint.
And Lintner was one of several people last year who were targeted at random and found themselves on the wrong end of a gun,according to a report by the Journal & Courier.
Lafayette Police Chief Patrick Flannelly saidthose cases "are the exception" and that residents who distance themselves from criminalactivity are much less likely to become victims.
"We don’t have unsafe neighborhoodsin Lafayette; we have pockets of areas where you're goingto have higher levels of (criminal) activity," Flannelly said. "But the incidents of robbery from a stranger to a stranger — those are our rarest crimes."
Crime statistics suggest the community issafer than ever, Flannellyadded. But internet and social media, he said, allow the widespread distribution of crime stories, inflating the sense that Lafayette is a dangerous place.
"Wehave to understand what the data is telling us, but at the same timewe're also fighting a perception problem," he said. "If people don’t feel safe going to the grocery store or walking their dog around the block at night, then that’s somethingwe have to tryto understand why, and find ways to make them feel safe."
As for Lintner, the early morning incidentsitsin the back of her mind, leavingher with nightmares and a feeling of anxiety.
"I'll be in the car by myself, and the kids ask me why I do this, but I will just all the sudden scream a the top of my lungs," she said."And they said, 'What are you doing?' I said, 'MaybeI can scare him out of my head, because he's so far into my head.' "
'The most dangerous combination'
Lintner's case isn't unique in Lafayette. Last year, Tippecanoe County saw a record number of individuals charged with felonies involving firearms.
At least 67 people were charged with high-level crimesinvolving guns, such as armed robbery or battery with a firearm, according to statistics provided by Tippecanoe County Prosecutor Pat Harrington.
Nineteen of them — not including two people forwarded to federal law enforcement — were already considered "serious violent felons" based on their criminal histories, prohibiting them owning or carrying firearms.
In 2014 and 2015 combined,61 people were charged with such felonies, and 13 of them were serious violent felons.
In Lafayette, weapon violations increased by nearly 14 percent, accompaniedby a nearly 10 percent jump in drug violations— a recipe for disaster in any community, Harrington said.
"It's absolutely the most dangerous combination you could have," he said,"and we've already seen it."
Authorities in Lafayette have saidthe city's cases of gun violence are intricately intertwined with an influx of drugs into the community.
For example, the Tippecanoe CountyDrug Task Force — comprised of all four area law enforcement agencies — last year seized nearly 1,000 grams of heroin, more than any other year since at least 2009, according to statistics provided by Lt. Tim Payne, who heads the drug task force.
Overall, the unit seized more drugs— including crack, cocaine, heroin, meth and marijuana— than any other year except 2011.
"I do think there's more heroin," Payne said. "The supply is more readily available."
As the crisis worsened, Indianadeclared a public health emergency in Tippecanoe County due to an influx of hepatitis-C cases related to needle-sharing, prompting discussions around establishing a needle exchange in Lafayette.
That revelation, along with public forums on the issue hosted by Lafayette, United Way and other agencies, has helped to increase public awareness onthe issue, Roswarski said.
"I think it helped jump-start a community conversation on access to mental health, access to addiction services," he said."There's a law enforcementpiece, but there's also an addiction and mental health piece thatwe've all got to work on."
Still, LPD is ramping up its fight against the illicit drug trade by adding two positions to the drug task force and the agency's street crimes unit.
"If we do not reduce the flow of drugs into our communities, we are putting an enormous burden on the mental health providers to solve that issue," Harrington said.
Off to rough start
Tim Jones' said his autistic son can't sleep since three of his home windows were busted out early Jan. 27 by a group of vandals.
The incident is part of a string of vandalism beginning in late Decemberthat has left car tires slashed and home windows smashedacross the city.
"It's just a shame they have to do this to people who work hard," Jones said. "How would they feel if I came up to their house and started busting their windows? They're going to be terrified, too."
If 2016 was a sign of good things to come, the beginning of the new year was not.
In the first month of 2017, policeinvestigateda murder, anattempted murder and a shooting that left a man with a gunshot wound to his face.
Additionally, the wave of property damage, although less frequent, has extended into January and February this year and has affected at least 100 residents.
Although Lafayette is off to arough start, Flannelly said LPD's community-focused approach will remainunchanged moving into 2017, and he noted that "we've still got a lot of work to do."
"We're going toredouble those efforts, and we'll see what happens again this year," Flannelly said. "There are certainlythings that happen outside the sphere of our control, but we're trying to do our part, control the things we can influence, the things we can prioritize in a way that’s going to generate the most value."
In an effort to become more efficient, LPD also will expand a pilot program started last year that uses data to predict when and where crimes are more likely to happen.
"We've found that reallocating the manpower levels ... into certain defined areas of the communityand during certain times — those initial pilot programs appear to be effective," Roswarski said."We're going to lookat rolling that outon a much larger scale this coming year."
While the city and residents alike lean on technology more and more to stay connected, John Copeland, the Historic Jefferson resident, said it takes neighbors working together to curb crime and build relationships.
"We all have a stake inmakingthe city better," he said,"and we can make it better one neighborhood at a time."
Call J&C reporter Joseph Paul at 765-420-5339, email him at jpaul@jconline.com or follow himon Twitter:@JosephPaulJC.
