Jill Greenbaum started improving the safety of our families and neighborhood fourteen years ago, when she founded the Police Liaison Group “PLG”, a nonprofit corporation on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It was shortly after the birth of her eldest daughter, that she left a lucrative law firm to help improve the conditions of a community, where drug dealing, prostitution and an inadequately addressed homeless problem were common place.

Jill began by holding meetings, with members of the community and police, structured like that of any corporation. The stakes were different though, instead of discussing how to increase revenues, Jill’s focal point is to find ways of improving our neighborhood and criminal justice system to positively affect the quality of life and safety of her family, friends and neighbors.

Her organization has held conferences with speakers on crime ranging from Assistant District Attorneys to judges. Jill is always interested in taking a good idea and developing it into a tangible program. She first became interested in forming the PLG in 1992, after reading an article by James Q. Wilson and George Kelling, Broken Windows, which discussed how easily crime escalates if small problems, such as graffiti, are allowed to proliferate. The PLG is predicated on that philosophy.

Now Jill is moving into new territory, the Schools Unite Network “SUN”. SUN is a massive outreach program developed by Jill in cooperation with members of the New York City Police Department. SUN uses an Internet Communications System, to keep principals of schools and parents informed of potential problems, crimes and emergency procedures to protect our children. Jill knew that after 9-11, safety could no longer be left solely to the professionals. Excellent communication with key members of the police force, and other city agencies, will allow SUN to address everything from the bully on the street to the bomb in the backpack. Principals, parents and other community sources e-mail SUN information, and receive a response from SUN prepared by the Police Liaison Group in cooperation with the police department and other agencies.

Now a mother of two, and her children more independent, Jill has agreed to work full time on the PLG as its Executive Director. The communications network is just the beginning of Jill’s future plans for the organization.

In addition to being an activist and attorney, Jill has also worked in media, marketing and sales.

“Those of us who are fortunate enough to work with children have a great opportunity to affect the future,” Jill says. She is inspired by two principles, which have become the credos of her home. The first, she tells her daughters is, “to be problem solvers, not problem makers,” and the second, was instilled in her as a student by her elementary school principal in Brooklyn, and was the school motto, “Character Above All.”