It was a well attended Ventnor town hall meeting focused on crime and public safety. It all happened Tuesday, March 19 at VECC, Ventnor Community Center.
The featured speaker was VCPD Chief, Doug Biagi, a 33-year veteran of the force. Born and raised in Ventnor. Here are some key take-aways from the meeting.
Biagi: We all need to be more patient with each other.
Ventnor City NJ covers 1.7-square miles. Every race and creed is represented in this Downbeach community. Very few hate crimes in Ventnor.
Ventnor has 36 police officers and a fully-staffed dispatch center. This provides a very quick response time: less than 2 minutes.
The Ventnor Police Department is as diverse as the people they serve.
The department now has body cameras for every officer. Dashboard cams and license plate readers are also more common today.
Video cameras are the best thing to happen to law enforcement.
Remain vigilant. Lock your doors, close your garage, and lock your bike and car. Call 911 if you notice anything suspicious.
What keeps VCPD extra busy? Domestic violence calls involving drugs or alcohol. Guys are not always the problem. Lot’s of angry women out there too, says Chief Biagi.
When Ventnor population jumps from 10k to 30k during the summer, there’s NO increase in summer crime.
Shoobies are not the problem, the problem is us.
Bike riding on the Ventnor boardwalk. Some think it should be banned during the busy summer season. We respectfully disagree….for now. Might we suggest clear, enforced rules might be a better first step before considering a ban? Maybe a public awareness campaign?
Motorized bikes are becoming a much greater threat to pedestrian safety on the Boardwalk.
Ventnor will soon paint fresh bike lanes on Atlantic Ave. Combined with slower speeds, will provide a safer way to bike the island.
And as readers of DownbeachBUZZ know, we’ve been pushing Ventnor Commissioner Tim Kriebel for the past few years, to lower the speed limit on Atlantic Ave. Commissioner Kriebel oversees public safety issues.
So, we’re happy to announce that Ventnor City will join Margate, Longport and Atlantic City in lowering the speed limit on Atlantic Avenue to 25-mph, from the current 35 mph…which too often means 40 mph+.
Too dangerous to cross four lanes of traffic to get to the beach and boardwalk.
An opioid crisis in Ventnor, and all communities. Regardless of race or financial status.
Opioids are a class of drugs that include the illegal drug heroin, synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, and pain relievers available legally by prescription, such as oxycodone (OxyContin®), hydrocodone (Vicodin®), codeine, morphine, and many others.
Saving those who over-dose. Ventnor police and firefighters carry Narcan. Some police and firefighters have used Narcan multiple times on the same person.
Naloxone, sold under the brandname Narcan among others, is a medication used to block the effects of opioids, especially in overdose.
Call police when you experience a problem. See something. Say Something.
The beach smoking ban will be enforced. It’s the law.
What’s is going on with all the speeding on the back streets of Ventnor like Burk Ave Balfour Ave Marshall Ave Winchester Ave while Ventnor Ave Atlantic Ave have cars pulled over all the time I guess their lives and property are worth more than the tax paying residents of Ventnor Heights
Same problem on Mommouths Ave
How long will Wawa’s closed property at Dorset and Calvert in Ventnor Heights stay unused? One rumor is that Wawa is sitting on it to prevent competition against its remaining Ventnor site on Ventnor Avenue.