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Updated: 5:42 PM Feb 8, 2012
RHA Crackdown
Crime is down in Rockford Housing Authority properties. Rockford Police and the RHA are working together to make life better for their residents.
Posted: 4:27 PM Feb 8, 2012Reporter: Meghan Dwyer |
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6 Comments 
ROCKFORD (WIFR) -- Crime is down in Rockford Housing Authority properties. Rockford Police and the RHA are working together to make life better for their residents.
Rockford police and the RHA say they have been working together to combat crime for a long time, but the fruits of their labor are just beginning to show.
Together they arrested 16 people last month for everything from drugs to outstanding warrants.
Thirteen of those people don't live at RHA properties. Most arrests were drug related and most came from Orton Keyes. Police banned 11 people from the properties. RHA says it has drastically reduced crime in its properties over the course of the last five years.
Kevin Martin from RHA said, "We want to enhance the environment for the people that are good residents. The people that they deserve a safe environment. They deserve a crime free environment and we can do that by getting the bad seeds out and limiting access to people who have no business being on the housing properties."
Being banned from an RHA property is much like having a warrant against you. Police can look up names in a computer and see if they are allowed to be on the property, but there is an appeal process for people who want to be able to visit their kids.
Five years ago police recorded about two thousand criminal incidents at RHA properties--that number was down to two hundred just last year.
Latest Comments
My thoughts exactly. You can't steal from someone who has nothing to steal.
RHA is not making a dent in the crime that plagues these properties. Decent people who can't live anywhere else are living in fear all the time. Landlords are guilty too. They figure the guaranteed money from RHA is better than regular rent payers. It comes every month no matter what, and they don't have to live on these properties-so no big deal
This would be a great story if the Rockford Police were totally responsible for the reduction in crime on RHA properties. RHA contracts with Metro Enforcement (A Private Security Company) for most properties. Those are the officers out there catching most of the bad guys on these properties. Rockford Police transports for Metro when they catch them. Rockford Police do a great job, however, they only get a portion of the credit for RHA safety and security.
