WEB Embraces New Beat Cops

by Melinda Tuhus | September 20, 2006 12:01 PM | | Comments (3)

The spike in crime has startled Edgewood and Beaver Hills as much as any neighborhoods in town, with some people questioning whether community policing is dying. But the cops received nothing but love at a meeting with the area’s management team, and these two officers were part of the reason why. Meanwhile, Police Chief Cisco Ortiz announced that more cops would soon be on the street.

Ortiz got a hug from one of the women when he came in to Tuesday night’s meetings of ,The Whalley, Edgewood, Beaver Hills (WEB) management team at the Whalley substation. When he, assistant chief Herman Badger (second from right in photo) and head of patrol Captain Steve Verrelli were introduced, they were applauded by several of the meeting-goers.

The love was directed especially at their district manager, Sgt. Steve Shea (pictured), who’d been sidelined all summer after a traffic accident. He was obviously happy to be back on the job. He said he pulled the crime data for the area and reported, “Some of the stats were kinda high: 22 burglaries and 9 robberies in July, and 12 burglaries, seven robberies, and nine reports of shots fired in August. It’s been a trying time, the past six months, kids with guns, kids killing kids. It’s rippin’ our hearts out of our chests, but we have made arrests in almost every case. There are challenges,” he concluded, “but I’m committed to working them out.”

The city as a whole has experienced a jump in the murder rate, with a total of 18 for the year already, three more than all of last year. Two of the victims were just 13 years old, and several of those charged with recent murders are teenagers. Click hereto listen to what Chief Ortiz had to say about crime in the city.

All the police personnel, from the chief to the district manager, reiterated their commitment to community policing. The residents expressed great relief to have two young cops, Gary Hammill and Ron Ferrante (pictured) back on a walking beat in their neighborhood. But one older resident said he lives at Whalley and Winthrop and that area needs more than a daytime beat cop. Click hereto listen.

Chief Ortiz announced that a class of new police recruits would be starting in January, and that he plans to put more resources on the street as soon as he can. In answer to one woman’s question, he said he currently has 35 officers on the street in the daytime, 55 in the evening, and 40 on the overnight shift. Of those numbers, he said two to four cops are on duty at any given time in the WEB neighborhood.

Captain Verrelli (pictured, on the right) said he’d been on the force for 25 years, more than half of it in management and most of that under the community policing model. “The management team is the backbone of community-based policing,” he said, “along with the cop on the beat.” To emphasize the importance of cops keeping lines of communication open, Verrelli said, “We think we know everything until we listen to people at the grassroots.” He met with Rabbi Daniel Greer, a community activist who has been outspoken in his criticism of what he sees as the lack of commitment to community policing. “Rabbi Greer said, ‘When there are police in the neighborhood, there are no problems. When there are no police in the neighborhood, there are problems.’ That’s about as clear-cut a statement as you can get.”







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Comments

Posted by: TSN | September 20, 2006 2:45 PM

I am sure the technology loving Chief Ortiz reads the NHIndependent, as that lousey local paper fails to report anything in depth about the hoods of this city. Roll out as many of his troops as he wants, there is no more community policing in New Haven, except for what is written on a few of the police cruisers.

Our crime statistic quoting Chief Ortiz just does not get it. It is under his neglectful watch that he dismantled the community policing model. He can not fix it. Stop quoting statistics, stop pointing at trends in other cities. We care about New Haven.

The New Haven PD can send CSI for the press to see. Chief Ortiz can appear on scene to look all concerned. And the NHPD can even find the shooters, but would it not be great not to have do conduct this aspect of policing?

Community Policing has been dismantled. Officers who are in the hood, know the folks, and the folks know them. It becomes a partnership for the well being of the community, not a nuance.

Has anyone called 911 lately? Treated with respect, probably not. Spanish speakers often will not find a person who can speak Spanish.(It is a public safety thing, so let's not go, "Oh they should learn English", crap.) Ask the officers in the street, they will tell you, if they know you, that the dispatchers even treat them poorly. Hello, it is not a question of technology or a new call center, it is a question of personnel, it is question of community policing, it is a question of public safety.

Posted by: TSN | September 20, 2006 2:53 PM

I CAN NOT BELIEVE IT. I JUST CHECKED OUT THE NEW HAVEN INDEPENTENT CRIME LOG, TO FIND OUT THAT THE NHPD NO LONGER GIVES THIS INFORMATION, BECAUSE OF NO PERSONNEL.

COME ON?

CHIEF ORTIZ CAN NOT GET THIS INFORMATION TO THE PUBLIC, WHICH HE RECEIVES ON A REGULAR BASIS? HEY EMAIL, SEND FILE.

SECOND, THERE IS AN OFFICIER RUNNING COMPUTER REPORTS? WHY IS THIS OFFICER NOT ON PATROL? COMMUNITY POLICING, NOT ENOUGH OFFICERS?? HARTFORD PD GOT POLICE OFFICERS OUT OF THE STATION AND BACK ON THE STREETS. MAYBE AN EVALUATION NEEDS TO BE DONE ABOUT HOW MANY OFFICERS ARE DOING JOBS THAT SHOULD BE DONE BY CLERICAL/ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF.


Posted by: Nathan Karnes | September 20, 2006 8:10 PM

Could it be that last night I lived a real life expample of community policings shortcomings?

I stopped by the Westville West Hills sub-station for our monthly Management Team meeting last night only to find just a little too much chaos. The meeting room was empty, there were a dozen neighbors loudly conversing in the "sub-squad room". The Sargeant couldn't attend, I was told.

Could it be that he was at this higher profile meeting a dozen blocks away --- clearly exemplifying that when limited police resources are pulled in one direction, they are pulled from another???


As for the Westville West Hills Management Team, it was exemplifying its true character... it is nothing without Elaine from LCI and the NHPD District Manager. A citizen organizer told me that she had asked folks if they would like to meet anyway, but they declined. I wondered, as I left, how helpful a dozen chattering neighbors were to the productivity of the two officers at their paperwork ladden desks in that room.

I understand there is someone in NHPD with a bit of responsibility for helping organize and coordinating Management Teams. WV WH needs Help to exist outside the presence of NHPD and be more than a monthly condiut for citizen crime complaints!

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