Front Lines
Law, Order
Alan Hitsky
Associate Editor
T
he Oak Park Public Safety
Department seems to have
ended a spate of incidents
against Jews walking in or near the
Bridgewater Village Apartments
complex at 1-696 and Greenfield.
Public Safety officials, neighbors
and Oak Park Mayor Jerry Naftaly
say a continuing "blitz" by police
officers and a change in ownership
policies have reduced incidents.
General Electric Credit has taken
ownership of the building after
foreclosing on the former owner.
Naftaly said GE Credit has evicted
some tenants and started correct-
ing building code violations.
Meanwhile, Oak Park police have
been highly visible in the area and
have made some key arrests over
the last six months, including three
Bridgewater residents for: a corn-
bined 14 counts of home invasion
and nine arrests for gambling in a
vacant basement apartment.
Oak Park annexed from Royal
Oak Township in June 2004 the
Lincoln Towers and Rue Varsailles
apartments and the Crown Pointe
office building. In December
2004, the -rest of the Ten Mile-
Greenfield area of the township and
Bridgewater (the former Northgate
Apartments) came under Oak
Park's jurisdiction.
Oak Park Public Safety Director
Bruce Smith said the city averaged
40 crime, fire and medical calls per
month from the former township -
areas between July and December
2004, and jumped to 140 calls per
month after the second annexation.
Emergency calls dropped to 120
last October, 107 last December and
131 in January. Smith said the calls
now compare to city-wide averages.
Sharon Abraham of Oak Park,
whose teen-age son was mugged
while walking to synagogue on
Shabbat last fall, did not want to
discuss the incident beyond saying
that her son's attacker had been
processed" by the judicial system.
She added that the area "has been
a lot quieter" and "we see a lot of
beefed-up patrols?'
Mayor. Naftaly expects the com-
pany to soon make a decision on
upgrading Bridgewater, rebuilding it
or selling the complex. III
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