Bloomington Chamber of Commerce
  • Business Directory
  • Membership
    • Join Today!
    • Benefits of Membership >
      • Business Resources
      • Cost Saving Programs
      • Co-Work Space & Conference Room
      • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Training
      • Marketing
      • Networking >
        • Business After Hours
      • Ribbon Cuttings and Milestones
    • Levels of Membership
    • Member Login
    • Member Materials
    • Ambassadors >
      • Welcome Committee
      • Ambassador Toolkit
  • News & Events
    • Chamber News >
      • Sign Up For News
    • Member News
    • Chamber Events Calendar
    • Signature Events
    • Sponsorship
    • Photo Gallery
  • Advocacy
    • Advocacy Matters Updates >
      • Sign Up for Advocacy News
    • Local Government Advisory Boards
    • Elected Officials Directory
    • Transparency in Government
    • State Legislative Process
    • 2023 Municipal Election >
      • Mayoral Candidates 2023
      • City Council Candidates 2023
    • 2023 Local Public Policy
    • 2023 State-Federal Advocacy
    • Resources >
      • Civic Engagement
      • Gender Wage Gap
      • Housing
      • Taxes
      • Transportation
  • Community
    • #BTownChamberEats
    • Black-Owned Business Affinity Group
    • Bloomington Women in Leadership >
      • BWIL Steering Committee
    • Job Board
    • The Success School >
      • How To Get Involved
      • Programs >
        • Request Programming
      • About Us
      • Success School FAQs
      • Contact The Success School
    • Young Professionals >
      • YPB Steering Committee
      • Ten Under 40
      • YPB Events
      • YPB Pics
    • Community Calendar
  • About Us
    • Our Team
    • Board of Directors
    • History
    • Chamber App
    • Contact

 Advocacy Matters
Local News & Updates

Chamber Pushes for Safer Streets

1/19/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
Last night, during public comment, The Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce President/CEO Eric Spoonmore passionately advocated for improved public safety before the Bloomington Common Council.  He provided a sobering assessment of the situation highlighted by the shortage of police and the uptick in crime.             
 HERE is the video of his speech with the transcript below.
​------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eric Spoonmore Statement to the Bloomington City Council 

Good evening, Council. I’m Eric Spoonmore, President of the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce. 

​Over 80% of our members are small, locally owned enterprises. We also partner with our public-school corporations, numerous non-profit organizations, institutions of higher education, local government, and many large corporate employers. We believe that membership in the Chamber is a statement that you care about our community, and you want Bloomington to thrive for generations to come. In other words, we recognize that our businesses and employers are instrumental in achieving the high quality of life that our residents deserve.

And so, the quality of life we all want is dependent upon our residents and visitors feeling safe in our community.  And when I say safe, I don’t mean relatively safe. We need people to feel very safe. I know you’re aware of this….we’ve experienced a disturbing number of violent crimes over the past several months and weeks.  Rapes, stabbings, shootings, arson, murders, attempted murders in broad daylight….these things simply cannot be tolerated under any circumstance. And ensuring the safety of the public is local government’s most important and fundamental role.  

I also want to let you know that too many businesses in our community are having to commit substantial resources to protect their safety and to protect their property from damage related to vandalism and other illicit behaviors that are contributing to a general degradation of our quality of place. The Chamber of Commerce even keeps our front door locked during business hours because we have experienced too many situations that have put our staff and property at risk of harm.  It’s sad to me that a Chamber of Commerce – of all places – has to keep the doors locked so that our staff feels safe.  And we’re not the only enterprise taking these measures.

Numerous businesses are having to hire private security services, they’re installing security doors and expensive intercom systems and surveillance cameras to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars. And the businesses aren’t just eating these costs – at the end of the day, they have to pass the cost on to the customers – they don’t want to do that, but that’s the only way they can stay in business. So, this is not a good situation – especially considering the 51% increase in local income tax that workers are all now paying largely to address public safety.

And so, I don’t know all the answers to addressing the very significant concerns we hear about perceived and actual safety in the community. But, I think we clearly need to look into some new crime prevention strategies.  But, in the meantime, my first suggestion would be to employ the number of professional police officers that we need to provide effective public safety services.  We used to have them, and I don’t know where they all went.  Not too long ago, we had over a hundred sworn officers. And now we have somewhere around 80 and we need to make progress on getting back to where we were.

And then another suggestion – I appreciate the weekly reports on the number of city employees who have COVID, I know there’s a lot of diligent record keeping with that data and the staff works to distribute that information to the public very reliably each week. And so, I would also be interested in using that same model to generate a detailed weekly report that shows the progress we’re making on hiring police officers to address the current shortage. And so, I cannot emphasize enough that the business community is not just concerned – we are gravely concerned – that we do not have enough employed police officers protecting the safety of our community.
And then, finally, I would also suggest just more overall police visibility – day and night – especially in the high-traffic pedestrian areas. I’m sure there are community policing strategies that numerous other communities have used and do this effectively. There are a lot of theories about crime deterrence, but I think even the most progressive criminology experts generally agree that there is no better deterrent to violent, criminal behavior than knowing you will get caught in the act of doing it. 

So, let’s do everything we can to prevent the kinds of reprehensible, violent crimes that occurred just last week in this city.  If we want people to use public transportation, if we want people to visit our city to spend their dollars here to support our businesses, and if we want our residents to enjoy our downtown and parks facilities with their families – they need to feel safe when engaging in those activities.
Please always keep public safety as your number one priority.  Thank you.     
Picture
Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Sign Up for our Newsletter

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019

    Categories

    All
    Advisory Boards/Commissions
    Affordability
    Annexation
    Arts & Culture
    Awards
    Bloomington Government
    Bloomington IU Relations
    Bloomington-IU Relations
    Bloomington Police
    Broadband
    Budget
    Census
    Chamber Events
    Chamber News
    Civic Engagement
    Climate Change
    Convention Center
    COVID 19 Pandemic
    COVID-19 Pandemic
    Criminal Justice
    Development
    Diversity
    Downtown Bloomington
    Economic Development
    Economic Impact
    Education
    Elections
    Ellettsville
    Emergency Management
    Entrepreneurs
    Environment
    Farmers Market
    Federal Government
    Finance
    Grants
    Historic Preservation
    Homelessness
    Housing
    Indiana University
    Infrastructure
    IN State Government
    IN State Legislature
    Ivy Tech
    Jail
    Judicial
    Law Enforcement
    Low Income Issues
    Major Employers
    Manufacturing
    Minority Business
    Monroe County Circuit Court
    Monroe County Community School Corporation
    Monroe County Government
    Monroe County Public Library
    Networking
    Nonprofits
    Opinion
    Parking
    Parks
    Planning
    Public Art
    Public Health
    Public Policy
    Public Safety
    Quality Of Place
    Quotable Quotes
    Redistricting
    Restaurants
    Richland Bean Blossom Community School Corp.
    Richland-Bean Blossom Community School Corp.
    Rural Communities
    Small Business
    Small Business Development Center
    Startups
    Surveys
    Sustainability
    Taxes
    Technology
    TIF (Tax Increment Financing)
    Tourism
    Transportation
    UDO (Unified Development Ordinance)
    Utilities
    Workforce Attraction/Retention
    Workforce Development
    Youth
    Zoning

    RSS Feed

The Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce.  All Rights Reserved.
421 W 6th Street, Suite A  |  Bloomington, IN 47404
Phone: (812)336-6381 | info@chamberbloomington.org | sitemap
Office Hours:
Monday-Thursday: 9:00am - 5:00pm
Friday: 9:00am-3:00pm

There is a no refund policy for events.  If you need to reassign your ticket to another person we will be happy to update our attendance list. Thank you.
Picture
  • Business Directory
  • Membership
    • Join Today!
    • Benefits of Membership >
      • Business Resources
      • Cost Saving Programs
      • Co-Work Space & Conference Room
      • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Training
      • Marketing
      • Networking >
        • Business After Hours
      • Ribbon Cuttings and Milestones
    • Levels of Membership
    • Member Login
    • Member Materials
    • Ambassadors >
      • Welcome Committee
      • Ambassador Toolkit
  • News & Events
    • Chamber News >
      • Sign Up For News
    • Member News
    • Chamber Events Calendar
    • Signature Events
    • Sponsorship
    • Photo Gallery
  • Advocacy
    • Advocacy Matters Updates >
      • Sign Up for Advocacy News
    • Local Government Advisory Boards
    • Elected Officials Directory
    • Transparency in Government
    • State Legislative Process
    • 2023 Municipal Election >
      • Mayoral Candidates 2023
      • City Council Candidates 2023
    • 2023 Local Public Policy
    • 2023 State-Federal Advocacy
    • Resources >
      • Civic Engagement
      • Gender Wage Gap
      • Housing
      • Taxes
      • Transportation
  • Community
    • #BTownChamberEats
    • Black-Owned Business Affinity Group
    • Bloomington Women in Leadership >
      • BWIL Steering Committee
    • Job Board
    • The Success School >
      • How To Get Involved
      • Programs >
        • Request Programming
      • About Us
      • Success School FAQs
      • Contact The Success School
    • Young Professionals >
      • YPB Steering Committee
      • Ten Under 40
      • YPB Events
      • YPB Pics
    • Community Calendar
  • About Us
    • Our Team
    • Board of Directors
    • History
    • Chamber App
    • Contact