MONROE, La. – Over the last few weeks, the Monroe Police Department has been working with Standard Enterprises, which is the owner of Parkview Apartments, to try to reduce the amount of violent crime that this apartment complex sees. According to the Monroe Police department, they say so far, results are looking good, with the first sign of increased safety being a decline in calls.
“We had like 28 or 29 calls before this started per a monthly basis a month, per a monthly basis and I think we’re down to about half of that, 14” says Victor Zordan, Police Chief of the Monroe Police Department.
The calls that are coming through aren’t of the violent variety.
“It’s simple stuff, I don’t think we’ve had a single shooting or murder. Now there was a reported rape that didn’t happen at Parkview, I think because of the detail down there we actually apprehended the suspect trying to get into the facility” Zordan said.
The increased safety is leading to more positive moral among residents of the complex.
“They’ve come up to me, the parents and a lot of kids, which the kids is really impressive because we want to build that repour with them starting at a younger age. my officers keep reporting to me daily that people are coming up to them saying thank you, they’ll meet them at the gate coming in from work or leaving to go to work, and the kids, like I’ve told you, there’s kids everywhere around there playing, they’re just there enjoying themselves and it literally looks like a playground” Zordan said.
Their efforts are not stopping there. Uniformed officers will continue to remain at the complex, with patrols continuing as well. The Monroe Police Department will use specialized units to continue to monitor trends in crime rate.
