source GAIA package: Sx_MilitaryTimes_M6201110109060325_5675.zip Origin key: Sx_MilitaryTimes_M6201110109060325 imported at Fri Jan 8 18:18:05 2016
NORFOLK, Va. — One day in early July, around 1:30 a.m., a Navy wife living in a townhome one mile south of Naval Station Norfolk heard a noise downstairs. She figured it was her 17-pound cat causing mischief.
She went downstairs, yelled at the cat, peeked out the front window and, seeing nothing unusual, went back upstairs.
The next day, the woman, whose husband is a chief petty officer deployed to Iraq, was leaving for an appointment.
"So I'm rushing out of the house," said the woman, who asked not to be identified. "I looked down and there's like this shank, you know, like they make in the prisons. It was red, and it had a point on it, and it had duct tape around the middle." She looked up and saw a tiny scrape where it appeared someone had tried to pry open her front door.
Alarmed, the woman called Signal 88, the private security firm responsible for keeping an eye on the Ben Moreell Housing Area, a public-private venture of 388 townhomes for military families. She handed over the weapon and Signal 88 called the Norfolk Police Department, she said.
She was told by the officers that no report would be filed because it was only an attempted burglary, and that they wouldn't confiscate the weapon because it had too many fingerprints on it.
"Now I'm just a paranoid mess," said the mother of three.
Ben Moreell Housing, while close to Naval Station Norfolk, also abuts the fleet compound that is home to many Norfolk-based commands. A heavily guarded gate marks that entrance, but the housing area is not secured. Over the past three months, it has seen one rape, one aggravated assault, two residential burglaries, four acts of vandalism and one bike theft, according to an online Norfolk police crime blotter.
Residents say many more incidents take place, and that the problems are not new. The chief's wife said their car was broken into one year ago, right after they moved in. Others told Navy Times of persistent issues with attempted burglaries, vandalism and roving groups of teens. A 2009 poster on a City-Data.com chat room warned others asking about military housing options in the region, "Do not go to Ben Moreell!!! Break-ins all the time, gangs, not safe. I live there and I'm desperate to move!"
'Every summer, it gets worse'
Those problems have gone largely unpublicized. But security concerns at all housing areas around the sprawling base jumped significantly following a July 31 shooting at a bachelor housing area less than one mile east of Ben Moreell that left three people wounded, including a police officer and the sailor accused of the shooting. That complex, Iowa Estates, is managed by a separate company, HomePort Hampton Roads.
"Every summer, it gets worse," said a second Navy spouse at Ben Moreell. "It gets to the point where I don't want my kids outside."
Concerned residents long for more protection, yet say they feel trapped in a security no-man's land in which the private security is inadequate — Signal 88 guards are unarmed and have no arrest authority — the local police don't seem to patrol enough and military police only have secondary jurisdiction.
The military began shifting management of military housing to private firms and developers following congressional approval in 1996 of a cost-cutting measure aimed at improving management and upkeep while speeding construction of new housing areas.
The change also spelled the virtual end of a regular military security presence, as the properties are typically outside bases. Local police departments are responsible for law enforcement in PPV housing areas, which often lie on leased federal property; the PPV management is responsible for day-to-day security, according to Navy Region Mid-Atlantic.
Jim Cox, director of military affairs for Lincoln Military Housing, which manages Ben Moreell and 31,000 other military homes in the U.S., said military base security has "concurrent" jurisdiction with Norfolk police. But Region Mid-Atlantic said Navy security gets involved only at the request of local police.
Ben Moreell residents think a large part of their problem lies in a single-family-home neighborhood across the road and wooden fence line to the north. On the first three streets that run parallel to the fence, police recorded four assaults, five larcenies, one residential burglary and a narcotics arrest in the past three months.
Officials defend the housing area security efforts and say there are problems in every urban environment.
"Do we live in a perfect world? Nope," said Jim Brady, vice president of Lincoln Military Housing. "Is Norfolk a tough city? Yep."
Brady praised Norfolk police, calling them "proactive" — he said they conduct random patrols in Ben Moreell, a claim several residents confirmed — and "very good partners."
Police spokesman Chris Amos said officers do patrol Ben Moreell and added that the department tries to be "as responsive as possible to the concerns of those who live in this community. While certainly we strive to prevent crimes from occurring, the reality is that crime happens. ... Once done, investigators will work to solve those crimes, regardless of where they may occur."
Ben Moreell is certainly safer, numbers-wise, than the neighborhood to the north, according to Norfolk police statistics. Another rough comparison lies directly south of the fleet compound and the large complex of housing that includes Iowa Estates. Here, Norfolk police recorded six residential burglaries, 18 larcenies, four incidents of vandalism, one stolen vehicle and one assault over the previous 90 days.
'Unsat' security
A resident and Navy spouse who meticulously tracks local incidents and once had a neighborhood watch group organized and walking the area said Signal 88 personnel mean well but need more freedom to enforce the law.
"I can't say enough good things about them," said the man, a two-year resident who said Signal 88 is a significant improvement over the company it replaced in 2010. "But they're held on a very short leash. … I think they should be able to walk around armed."
Others see room for improvement.
"There are always random people in the neighborhood," said a chief petty officer who's lived at Ben Moreell for the past year. "The security that they have is unsat."
While walking his dog near the area's community center recently, the chief said he saw a group of teenagers who appeared to be beating up a neighborhood kid, who was crying. He said he jumped in and stopped it, then called Signal 88.
The chief told the man that "somebody should go over there and check it out." He said the man answered, "Well, we're kind of busy right now. I don't know if there's anybody available."
"And I'm like, 'Are you serious? Get somebody over to the community center now.'" The chief said the man replied, "Well, if I have someone available, I'll send them over." The chief then hung up out of frustration, he said, and walked back over; the fighting had broken up.
"But still, security didn't show up," he said. "It's ghetto, man."
The neighborhood watch effort was put together two years ago, said the organizer, a civilian and the father of three young girls. As many as eight to 10 residents would walk the streets at night, sometimes chasing down troublemakers and detaining them for security or police. "We'd ask for IDs," the man said.
But when Lincoln replaced the former security team with Signal 88 last year, the man said Lincoln pressured him to end it. He said he was told he was "inciting panic."
Signal 88 declined comment and referred questions to Lincoln. Lincoln's Cox defended Signal 88's performance, calling its employees "an additional set of eyes and ears [who] call the police to respond when necessary."
