OCALA, Fla. – They’re an unlikely team: a recently-hired police officer from Tanzania and an Army veteran born and raised in Ocala tackling crime together in one of the city’s roughest spots - Berkeley Pointe apartments.
For years, shootings and stabbings, in some cases involving children, have plagued Berkeley Pointe.
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And News 6 has reported on repeated efforts to address the crime and violence unsuccessfully.
Community volunteer Myles McConico and Ocala police officer Patrick Uronu promise this time will be different.
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McConico, after serving his country, told his mayor he wanted to serve his city.
Mayor Ben Marciano connected McConico with Ocala Police Chief Mike Balken. Balken agreed to send McConico to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Community Policing training program alongside Officer Uronu.
After graduating from the weeklong program, McConico and Uronu agreed to tackle Berkeley Pointe first.
“All we had is nobody saying anything,” Uronu said. “And we just wanted to change that. This place is not negative, this place is positive. We just need a little help to change the perception of what people think about this place.”
What’s going to be different this time?
“We really want to infuse hope in this area, and that’s consistency, stick to the plan,” McConico said. “And that’s show up and be visible and continue to help and whether that is directly or indirectly or from afar. With support, whatever it may be. That support will be there.”
They both come to Berkeley Pointe every day. They get out of their cars and they walk and talk to find how what neighbors need and what would get results – because so far, nothing and no one really has.
They have the backing of the mayor and the police department so when residents ask for additional patrols, or lighting, or cameras, or anything else, the community policing partners try and deliver. Already they’ve gotten all of the surveillance cameras in the complex up and running.
“Officer Uronu is out and walks around and he’s visible,” McConico said. “He engages and interacts with residents here at Berkeley Pointe, playing football with the youth once they come off the school buses. Just making that relationship, it’s all about making relationships and showing that you care.”
Uronu said people used to go inside when he’d pull up.
“How do I change that?” Uronu said. “It’s making physical contact with every individual. Before we started this program I would come here and everybody would run into their homes. But since we started this, as soon as they see me everybody runs to me.”
Uronu said the new Community Policing program is too new to tell if it’s reducing crime but he’s noticed neighbors are more forthcoming with information.
“We want to solve a crime because people are actually willing to come to us,” Uronu said.
What have they done so far?
“We had a back-to-school drive, we had a stop the violence rally, we’ve had a community engagement area beautification day, hosted a resident meeting,” McConico said.
The day they did a backpack giveaway in the center of the complex, McConico said the community manager was surprised that something happened that hadn’t happened in years: people showed up.
What’s McConico’s and Uronu’s long-term plan for Berkley Pointe?
“The long-term plan is Berkeley becoming an apartment complex where individuals who need to a fresh start in life can get back on their feet and have security to do that here,” McConico said. “They won’t have to be in fear of anyone robbing or stealing their hard-earned items. Or a bullet going through the floor or wall.”
Uronu said the long-term plan for the community policing program is to replicate any success in Berkeley Pointe and apply it to other hot spots across Ocala.