To: Neighbors
and Patrons of Raytown City Parks
To: Neighbors
and Patrons of Raytown City Parks
From: Greg Walters, Chairman, Parks
Improvement Committee
Randy
Hudspeth, Raytown Chief of Police (Interim)
Dave
Turner, Raytown Parks and Recreation Director
GREG WALTERS
CHAIRMAN, PARKS IMPROVEMENT COMMITTEE
816-517-6852
I
have partnered with Chief of Police Randy Hudspeth and Park Board Director Dave Turner to create plans to make our City Parks a safe and secure place to visit
this Spring and Summer.
We
believe the key to safe Parks require us to improve the lines of communication
between the Park Department, Police Department and Raytown Citizens.
If
you feel, as I do, that City Parks should be an extension of our homes and
neighborhoods, please take a moment to read what Chief of Police Randy Hudspeth
and Park Board Director Dave Turner are suggesting. It will be time well spent.
RANDY HUDSPETH
RAYTOWN CHIEF OF POLICE
(Interim)
NON-EMERGENCY / 816-737-6020
Greg,
Dave and I have had some good conversations about ways we can improve
communication between the Parks, Police and the Public. I will go straight to
the point.
CALL US: If you see any suspicious activity within any City Park, I
ask that you call us. We take calls of this nature very seriously, and see them
as an opportunity to prevent a crime . . . so please call. We will send
officers immediately to check into your concerns.
UNACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOR: This could the use of
vulgar language or lewd behavior. If a group of people seem to have taken over
a part of a City Park with activity that does not seem right . . . let us know.
We will investigate it. If there is something wrong going on . . . we will stop
it.
WE WILL KEEP YOUR COMPLAINT IN COMPLETE CONFIDENCE: Unless you ask, we will
not send officers to your home. All communication will be held in complete
confidence. Simply tell the dispatcher you do not want to be contacted and the
officers will not come to your door. Most times, the dispatcher will ask you
whether or not you would like to be contacted. Caller contact with police is
not required for us to investigate suspicious activity.
CURFEW VIOLATIONS: If someone drives into
a park and leaves their car after curfew, please call us immediately. Most of
our problems at city parks happen after curfew. We need the word to get out that
Raytown Parks close at 11:00 p.m. and that our parks are not an acceptable
place to visit after curfew. We will
enforce the ordinance.
DAVE TURNER
RAYTOWN PARKS DIRECTOR /
816-358-4100
The
three of us believe the most important factor to keeping our City Parks safe is
a partnership with Park Patrons as the eyes and ears of the Police and Park
Departments. Our city services cannot address problems of which we are unaware.
Most importantly, we need to know as quickly as possible when a law is broken.
To
address the general safety concerns of neighbors and Park patrons, the Park
Board has funded $15,000 for increased private security patrols to enforce
curfew violations. This last year the Park Board spent $12,000 to install
Solar/LED lights for areas of City Parks that are too dark at night.
We
hope these actions show that we take park security seriously.
Which brings me to one
final request . . . If you witness any unseemly activity in the park at anytime
please be sure to let us know by calling 816-358-4100.
I
welcome inquiries and suggestions on how to better run our Parks. Feel free to
call me at Park Headquarters at 816-358-4100, Monday through Friday from 8:00
a.m. to 5:00 p.m. If I am not there please leave a message.
Raytown Audit Report . . .
In
recent weeks there have been a number of speculative comments sent to the Raytown
Report about the City Audit being conducted by the State Auditor’s Office. Most
questioned when he Audit will be completed and how it will be presented to the public.
The following is in answer to a request I made to Mr. Rick Stuck of the
Missouri State Auditor’s office, in an attempt to receive answers.
Mr.
Stuck responded with the following message.
Alderman Walters,
Regarding
the State Audit . . . “Once the report is completed and the final
draft is done, Todd Schuler, Audit Manager, and myself will request a closed
session meeting with the Board of Alderman. At this time we will go over
the entire report to the board and ask for responses.
Again this will be a draft of the report and is
still subject to change so it, as with any item discussed in closed session, is
not to be discussed outside of the meeting.
Once we have your responses to the report and
corrections if needed are made our office has a few review steps before it will
be released to the public which usually depending on how quickly we get the
responses is within a couple of weeks.
Right before the report is issued all members of
the Board and administrative staff will receive an email a couple of hours
before the report is actually released to the public and press.
Now this being said we still are sometime away
from having a competed draft of the report.
Hope this helps. Let me know if you have
any more questions.
Rick Stuck
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