1

Capstone Proposal: Crime Rate in Waxahachie

By: Anthony Wooten and Ethan Michael

Benefits/Purpose of Project
We plan to talk to several apartment managers around Waxahachie and analyze their
buildings. We are going to acquire calls for service records to see what the most reoccurring
and dangerous crimes are called in. After analyzing the buildings and their surroundings, we are
going to find different suggestions that we can make to the apartment managers or building
owners to help improve their overall safety. Also we want to interview a few of the residences
to see if their occupations correlate with the crime rate. We are going to spread out the
apartments or areas that we choose all over Waxahachie so we can get a good overall idea for
the crime rate, not just limit to a certain high crime or low crime part of Waxahachie.
Reason for Choosing Project
The whole reason why I want to do something involving criminal justice is because I
want to do be able to help people in a direct way for my career. Doing this project will help us
get a better idea of what is involved in crime activities and to find different ways to prevent or
even stop it. When we finish this project, we hope to give helpful suggestions to help the
people living here be safer. We at least want to bring attention to the more problematic areas
here and provide actions or steps that can be taken to hinder the crimes. Also we want to find a
way to give back to our city in a way that will better everyone in it in some way.

Research Topic
One research topic is going to be over how different settings effect crime rate and how
to decrease it relating to the settings stated in the paper. I would be comparing several
different cities with similar surroundings for more accurate and relevant suggestions. Another
option is to choose a populated city somewhere in the United States and deliver different
things that could be done to make the citizens there safer. This topic would be limited to one
city in the United States, so the results would be intended for that city specifically.
Audience
Our audience will be focused on the actual citizens of Waxahachie and how they can be
safer in the areas they live in. I am going to send the results to the local newspaper to get our
results published. I also plan to talk to the city council to see if they will support our ideas.
Another audience that this project is going to directed towards is our future employers and
colleges because the results of this project will be on my online portfolio, which is another way
to get an audience.
Milestones
1. Find a mentor that can help direct us through this project. 11/5/15
2. Figure out which areas in Waxahachie that we are going to pursue our project in (mostly
apartment buildings). 11/20/15
3. Request calls for service records from the Waxahachie Police Department. 12/1/15
4. Acquire the calls for service records for the areas we are researching.12/20/15
5. Start to analyze calls for service records. 12/29/15

6. Analyze selected apartments for possible improvements. 1/9/16

7. Choose technical paper topic. 2/1/16
8. Write technical paper. 2/10/16
9. Finish analysis of calls for service records. 2/10/16
10. Draw conclusions to make suggestions on different things to improve in apartment
buildings/areas. 2/13/16
11. Present suggestions to apartment managers and building owners. 3/1/16
12. Start making presentation for the capstone presentation. 3/5/16
13. Present results to Mrs. Casey and Mrs. Moon. 3/11/16
14. Get constructive criticism from teachers. 3/11/16
15. Make changes based on feedback from teachers. 3/12/16
16. Find newspapers to send results to. 3/19/16
17. Choose a newspaper. 3/20/16
18. Send results to chosen newspaper. 4/1/16
19. Figure out how to contact city council. 4/7/16
20. Present to city council. 4/15/16
Measure of Success
There are a couple of things that we are going to use to measure our success. The most
obvious one is if our suggestions actually helped. We wont be able to know right away,
obviously, but if the apartment managers and building owners apply our suggestions, that will
do for now. We will also see if our results are actually worth publishing by sending the results to
a newspaper. Another thing we want to do is present our project to the city council to have

them recommend our ideas to other areas not included in our project. It would be amazing to
have the city of Waxahachie pushing our ideas.
Mentor Credentials David Jusiewicz

Mr. Jusiewicz is a member of numerous groups that assist in giving back to the
community, such as Lions Club International. He is a board member of Northbay Council, Boy
Scouts of America, Peabody, Mass, and Circle 10 Council, Boy Scouts of America, Dallas, Texas.
He served in the United States Navy for two years. He works at Navarro College as a professor
for a number of classes relating to criminal justice. He is also a licensed private investigator. He
has a Bachelor of Science in criminology/criminal justice and a Master of Arts in
Criminology/Criminal Justice as well. On top of all this, he has 17 different law enforcement
certifications including, but not limited to: TECOLE #340120, Community Supervision Officer
Certification, Firearms Proficiency, Critical Incident Stress Management: Group Crisis
Intervention, NCTI Cognitive Group Facilitation, ICAOS- Community Supervision Transfer,

Strategies for Case Supervision and several others. Some of his academic achievements include
Gamma Beta Phi, Alpha Phi Sigma, Phi Theta Kappa, and Member of the Academy of Criminal
Justice Science.

Engineering Process in this Project

We defined the problem of crime rates in apartment complexes around Waxahachie,
researched aspects of security in apartments and how to improve it, found requirements in
order to obtain information about the apartments, and brainstormed ideas on how to improve
the security. Now we have to pick our best ideas, do the development work, see how well we
improved the crime rate and make changes as needed.