Chief meets with Latino pastors

Minter seeks community involvement with policing

Denton Police Chief Roy Minter last week reiterated his desire for more community involvement, starting what he hoped would be a dialogue with residents about concerns such as immigration and graffiti.

Roy Minter

“No matter what community we are in, in what city, there are three things that everyone is concerned with, and that is crime, quality of life and traffic,” Minter told a group of 20 Latino religious leaders and other residents.

In his second community involvement meeting with the United Com­mu­nity Action Network, Minter expressed his department’s commitment to addressing the concerns of the Latino community and ensuring they can work together.

“Building a partnership with members of our communities is important because it keeps you safe,” Minter said.

Rafael Natividad, pastor of Primera Iglesia Bautista, where the meeting was held, translated as Minter told the crowd they should not be afraid to contact police for any reason.

He asked the group to report racial profiling and family violence, to be aware of thieves and how they prey on the elderly, and to practice safety — especially when traveling with large amounts of money, as people who don’t rely on banks sometimes do.

Minter asked the religious leaders to invite him and members of the department to their churches.

Lake Dallas weighs cell ban

Police call for end to drivers’ use of phones while in school zones

LAKE DALLAS — Police Chief Nick Ristagno asked the City Council to consider a new ordinance restricting the use of cellphones in school zones.

The council discussed concerns about joining the increasing number of cities restricting drivers’ phone usage during the council’s regular meeting Thursday night.

Council member Carol Ann Connors said she knew the re­quest would come eventually, and she had mixed feelings about it.

“I’m one of those for personal responsibility. I don’t like at all that we even have to look at this,” Connors said. “But it’s so irresponsible in the first place, and texting while driving is even worse. I don’t understand why people do it.”

Other North Texas cities that have banned using hand-held cell­phones in school zones in­clude Dallas, Duncanville, Flower Mound, Highland Park, Uni­ver­sity Park and Rowlett.

An off-duty Denton firefighter rescued a Plano woman earlier this month after she drove off a Lake Dallas road into Lewisville Lake while she was text-messaging on her cellphone.

Ristagno told the council that he discussed the idea with the department’s officers, particularly those who work the day shift. Officers reported that of all the speeding tickets they’d written to drivers in school zones, nearly half those drivers were on the phone when they were pulled over, he said.

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