Have you ever walked down the street and felt unsafe? 

Officer Wiz, a police officer in Lower Price Hill, believes that keeping people safe is priority number one.  He says, “I think others’ safety is one of the paramount things to this job… [and that] others get into this job to help people out.” This is important to him because he is out here to help people. Officer Jordan is a SRO (school resource officer) and works at many different schools and she feels that Oyler is a more community oriented school, which makes it safer. 

Erica Munoz is a student who attends Oyler in Lower Price Hill; she has been living here for about 12 years now. She says she feels safe living in Lower Price Hill and she even feels that it’s safer than it used to be. Erica is always looking out for herself because “she doesn’t say anything to anyone and they don’t say anything to her.” She likes living in Lower Price Hill because she lives so close to school that she walks everyday. Erica also thinks that if there were more kids down here, she’d feel even more safe. 

Another student, Charlie Daniels, lives right across the street from Oyler. He says he generally feels safe when walking around the neighborhood. He says it’s because, “I know most people around here.” The tight-knit community looks after each other. 

Wiz is a neighborhood liaison officer and he’s responsible for keeping people like Erica and Charlie safe. He supervises the neighborhoods Lower Price Hill, Sedamsville, Riverside and Saylor Park. He deals with any neighborhood issues that come up at any point. He also checks crimes we’ve had in the neighborhood. Officer Wiz says, “I will check, you know, what type of crimes we’ve had in the neighborhood or to alert everybody and for prevention to say, okay, you know, maybe we’ve had some cars broken into, or whatever the case may be, and get working with the community to be able to prevent and, and make sure everybody is aware of what’s going on.” Officer Wiz’ main goal is to prevent problems from happening. In other words he has his finger on the pulse of Lower Price Hill. 

Officer Jordan was an investigator at some point in her career as well. She is in her 20th year of policing and she has spent six and a half years in patrol. At one point in her career, she investigated Violent Crimes Against Children, which was sexual abuse, physical abuse, and also all sexual assaults for adults and children. Now she is in her sixth year as a School Resource Officer and it’s also her sixth year at Oyler. She’s in charge of eight other schools and she never knows where she is going to be from moment to moment. 

Officer Jordan and Wiz offered tips on how to be a good bystander. Officer Jordan says, “I think respect goes a long way. And respect covers a multitude of things. So I would just say, you know, being courteous, you know, and respecting people, because this is how, whenever I come in contact with someone on a daily basis, after being in policeman for 20 years, I realized that, at the end of the day, it’s not my job to judge anyone.” She also said it’s never her job to judge anyone even though whatever they did was serious she still never judges because it’s not her place too, but they still have to deal with their consequences. Officer Jordan makes sure she is courteous and respectful to people no matter what because everyone deserves to be respected. 

Wiz agrees with Officer Jordan because he feels like you shouldn’t judge anyone too quickly because you don’t know anything about them and he feels the same way with police officers too. Wiz says, “I tell people all the time, you know, we watch the news, we see stuff. When there’s an officer that does something, we’re just as upset as everybody else. But what I try to tell people is, please don’t judge an entire profession by something that somebody did.” 

J’Monta Lee, another student who lives in the area, says he thinks Wiz is great. “You would see him playing with the kids and stuff at the center.” Lee’s talking about Santa Maria Family Center. “If you have questions about what you do as a cop and stuff, he explains it.” 

Officer Wiz and Jordan both care about keeping people safe in Lower Price Hill. They have seen a change in the community but they are working hard to make sure safety keeps improving.