Down an alley deep in the heart of “Danistan,” Dan Hensley knows the paint color on every garage door and fence.
The Tacoma Police Department community liaison officer, or CLO, has painted most of them, obliterating tags applied by a young gangster.
Hensley listened to nearby residents, checked intelligence, tracked down the kid and had a chat with his parents. The spray painting ended when a judge sent the young man to Remann Hall for a shot at reformation.
The people who worked with Hensley to make that happen waved at him from front lawns and passing cars as he drove the neighborhood this week.
The Safe Streets organization saluted the five-year CLO on Thursday with its Outstanding Strategic Partner Superstar award. The Tacoma organization annually celebrates the power of officers, volunteers and businesses to build a better community.
The 48-year-old Hensley said he was humbled and that other people deserve it more.
Some of those others, including the three other Sector Four CLOs, begged to differ.
The sector includes the East Side and parts of the South End. Each officer has an eponymous chunk of it. There’s Don Williams’ “Donville,” Lee Ramirez’s “Lee-Land” and Bert Hayes’ “Bertopia.” (This last zone will have to be renamed because Hayes earned promotion to detective and bade it a bittersweet farewell this week.)
“The sector holds together because of teamwork, and Dan embodies teamwork,” Hayes said. “The only reason we’re successful is because we care about each other.”
True to the community policing model, the team extends to residents, businesspeople, volunteers.
Lately, the focus has been on a gangster home-visit initiative. As officers hear that a young person might be involved in a gang, they knock on the family’s door and sit down for a talk.
“We tell them we have this evidence that you are involved in gangs,” Hensley said. “The neighbors will not tolerate it, and we are their representatives. I think it sends a message and not just to the kid. We bring the message from the community that it had better stop.”
Ditto for prostitution. The city uses posters (featuring the international ‘No’ sign over a woman leaning into a car) and other means to remind prostitutes that businesspeople will report them, and police will respond.
That’s what apartment manager Leah Traylor tells them if they stroll into her complex.
Traylor’s daughter, Lacee Ault, 2, ran to Hensley for a hug. The girl has gotten to know him as he’s worked on crime-free apartment tactics with her mom.
Lacee is a big fan of the officer and the fancy writing on his car. When he comes around, her life gets safer and happier.
“He’s helped us persuade people to move out, and with drug busts and patrols,” Traylor said.
“Police cars are on the street all the time,” resident Cody Johnson said. “For those of us who aren’t troublemakers, it’s a good sight to see.”
The paint, the gang home visits, the collaboration with property managers – all are part of what CLOs call ownership.
It’s the opposite of calling 911 and expecting a police officer to show up and fix everything. All the partners get together, identify their big problems, try to pinpoint causes and solutions, and agree on tactics they think will work.
“That’s not something that’s always been,” Hensley said. “We’ve been allowed to take ownership.”
It has paid off in falling crime rates in Sector Four.
“We have the fastest decline in crime in the city,” Ramirez said.
The CLOs use tacks on a map to track crimes, which appear in clumps in their dynasties. There’s lots of empty space these days.
“Maybe the people in those negative areas are organized, and their homes are hardened,” Hensley said.
Maybe the CLOs responsible for their safety have the patience to listen to their problems, the persistence to help them organize, the guts to try new solutions and the faith to back them when they do.
And maybe there is one other thing at work in the streets and alleys of Danistan.
“Dan is the nicest person I think I have ever met,” Ramirez said. “He has a pure heart.”
Kathleen Merryman: 253-597-8677
kathleen.merryman@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/street
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