New Haven Independent

Posted by: robn | March 31, 2008 1:22 PM

We ought to face it ....the city is playing a shell game with officers. If there are about 390 officers and you divide them into three shifts and then divide them by 30 wards, and assume that somebody's back at the station answering phones and doing paperwork and such, that leaves only 3 officers for every ward at any given time. They can't do it alone.

Maybe the next time I see a kid walking down the street with TWO bikes, instead of giving he/she the PC benefit of the doubt that they're not a thief, I'll phone-cam them and send it to Officer Joe Avery.

Posted by: Uncle Nunzio | March 31, 2008 2:58 PM

Who thinks locking a bike down outside a house is going to prevent someone with a pair of bolt cutters from stealing it? Seriously, it is a city, keep your bike inside.

Whether or not there is a resource issue with police, a diminishing economy is not going to help crime. As more things become more expensive people will turn to crime to earn a quick buck. No policing will stop someone intent on stealing from stealing. Especially something as easy to steal as a bike secured up with a crappy bike lock that can be circumvented by the simplest of methods. That's like dangling a piece of chum in shark invested waters.

Anyway, lack of police is not the problem. It's the root of what is causing the city to engage in more crime that is. As our economy tanks, the difference between the haves and have nots will increase, thus causing the have nots to take from the haves.

Posted by: on whalley | March 31, 2008 3:24 PM

Let's just all go buy the drugs they're selling and lose our belongings, jobs and lives to despair and addiction.

This way we'll all get to be the ones robbing and mugging and vandalizing.

We could boil all of life down to a simple drive to get the drug. We'll trade a whole slew of problems for one problem.

It'll be great! We won't have to be concerned with theft because we won't have anything to steal. We won't have to be concerned with our health because people without anything don't pay any bills. We won't have to be concerned with our jobs because we won't have any.

Bliss is just a crackpipe away. Anybody got some steel wool? The ash keeps burning my tongue.

Posted by: The Insider | March 31, 2008 3:27 PM

Robn

First off the city is broken into ( 10 ), policing districts , not 30. And as far as the kids walking a second bike, thats a gray area because you don't want to slide down that slippery slope when it comes to suspecting that the teen stole the bike.

It's more of a common sense approach, if the kid looks nervous or is constantly looking over his shoulder, you may want to call.

Posted by: Ben | March 31, 2008 4:37 PM

The good news is that I'm slowly closing the City's budget gap with my new found affinity for parking tickets.
I miss my bike.

Posted by: Ben | March 31, 2008 5:31 PM

Uncle Nunzio,
I, like many, do not have room for a bike inside my home.
I do not intend on putting bars on my windows or running for the burbs either.
I have lived hear for 29 years and do not and never have felt like I "live in shark infested waters." so I am not going to act accordingly.
I understand that crime rises when the economy dips, but I also understand that walking/biking police presence can curb that rise.
I love New Haven and have a lot of faith in our police department, but we need to start using our resources better.

Posted by: cedarhillresident | March 31, 2008 7:04 PM

Let's try it the Cedar Hill way. Not unlike Upper State St. We to have seen foot and bike cops come and go. We have next to no police presence in our little area. We have been fighting for years! But the one thing we have learned is COMMUNITY Policing. We do it our selves. And it helps and works. We put it out there loud and clear NOT HERE! Armed with cameras and video...a great block watch and not being afraid to let people know we ARE WATCHING! I am not saying it is gone but in the past five years of our group the area has made improvements. As we learn how to get the bad guys out through different channels than the police. In the past few weeks we have seen one of our bigger problems leave (so fair haven ou have inherited them) we have one more left and the smaller ones should follow! This was all done by the people that live here. Unity! that is the key!

Posted by: robn | March 31, 2008 7:57 PM

insider,

I divided by wards to give people a general sense of how the police are spread out. Most people are familiar with their wards, not policing districts.

As for the kid walking the second bike, please...where I came from that spelled thief...

Posted by: king james V | March 31, 2008 10:18 PM

Cedar hill , i love you and have fond memories of your neighborhood as a kid (my beloved aunt elsa) but when i'm forced to buy gas at the Hess station, (forced meaning i procrastinate until i get on the highway, and don't want to run out of gas on the "Q") i'm either being solicited for narcotics or witnessing a transaction. I also drive through to get to orange street, and i gotta tell you, it feels real shady. And, there's a good possibility Ben's bike is in your friendly neighborhood pawn shop. on the positive side, the new pawn shop looks like it can hold twice as much stolen merchandise as the now vacant building across the street.
I've been robbed three times and had the city tow my car five times in four years, and i'm angry, don't trust the City and have been watching AMC's salute to Charles Bronson. I like Ben.

Posted by: david streever | March 31, 2008 11:33 PM

there should be an evening cop on patrol in east rock: just subscribe to the e-mails from Yale about all the muggings.... It's clearly an area where criminals go to target easy pickings. But is it someone's fault that they were walking in an apparently safe neighborhood at 11? Is it ben's fault that he can't sleep beside his bike? You should be able to lock your bike up outside. (Though, I never would!)

Posted by: cedarhillresident | April 1, 2008 8:25 AM

king james V

You are right about the Hess....and I blame NHPD for this! They told us they needed cameras there and we got Corp. Hess to but in a $10,000 system which the cops have access to but have not looked at the video even once since it has been but up last May! I think it was an excuse to not monitor it...my guess is that they did not think we could get Hess to do it.
As Far as State Street Shops.... improvement are under way that strip has two new shops going in. A dollar store and a Chinese restaurant. The Pawn shop will rent out the corner store when the types of business change right now he is leaving it empty because he is working with the community. And we have a vendor parking lot which will be a plus once these shops are in place to draw even better ones.

Posted by: East Rockette | April 1, 2008 9:39 AM

I'm heading up to those pawn shops today to see if they have my kids' bikes: a small black MTB-style bike with gears (brand new) and a trusty old red yellow and green tricycle with a pushbar at the back.

They were stolen off our front porch (and yes, they were chained to the railings) a couple of nights after Ben's bike went missing. Clearly someone is trolling the neighbourhood at night, scooping up bikes. Even little tiny ones.

I'm dispirited. What kind of low-life steals bikes from toddlers and first graders? I know the local cops have bigger fish to fry but this strikes me as a "broken windows" sort of problem. First they came for the tricycles, and nobody did anything...

We don't easily have space to store them inside, but honestly, I never thought they were at risk. Plus, I think kids' bikes on the porch, like well-tended flower pots, are one of those subliminal signals that say "friendly, alert, trustworthy community," y'know?

Posted by: East Rockette | April 1, 2008 10:03 AM

Well, my faith in humanity is half-restored; the tricycle had just been parked in an obscure place by the two year old.

The bigger bike is still at large, though -- definitely stolen :-(

Posted by: Uncle Nunzio | April 1, 2008 10:39 AM

http://www.performancebike.com/shop/Profile.cfm?SKU=2268&item=00-0807

Posted by: Ben | April 1, 2008 10:54 AM

Superior Exchange, the pawn shop in Cedar Hill, was the first pawn shop I went to.
It turns out they do not buy or sell bicycles.
However, if you're missing your laptop, ipod or snowblower...they probably have it.

Posted by: William Doriss | April 1, 2008 12:30 PM

Superior Exchange was good about returning my stolen power tools in N.H., back around '95-96. Several hundred dollars worth. I don't have anything nice to say about the cops, who basically didn't want to get involved in situations like these. That was then,...

And don't forget, "community policing" was quietly dropped under Chief Wearing in the late nineties. That's one reason I left town. And now the proposed 7% sales tax in the cities? Ghesh! What's next?

Posted by: Heights resident | April 1, 2008 6:12 PM

Robn

You would be wrong and insider is right, an there isn't 3 cops per ward/ district, there more like 8 to 10 depending on the shift.

Hey and since when is is right to accuse a youth of being a thief when he's towing a second bike, my children used to fix there friends bikes all the time and tow them to the yard, and when they were done the kids would come over and claim there bikes. I don't know where your from, but where I'm from that a common occurance.

Don't be to quick to judge people, until you know for sure.

Posted by: cedarhillresident | April 1, 2008 7:40 PM

Well Ben my dear on behalf of the people of Cedar Hill we are sorry someone stole you bike.

Posted by: robn | April 1, 2008 11:37 PM

hr,

Not so sure about the ward/district math you're busting on me....I just know that seeing cops is a rare occurance and in keeping with my own personal calculations.

When I was a kid (from around here) when a friends bike was busted, it was chaperoned to a place of repair by the owner (usually to a friends house) and the repair of such vehicle (to all anti-cyclist NHI readers, please note the use of the proper legal designation "vehicle", which entails all sorts of bonafied legal rights such as riding in the street and taking lanes for safety...but i digress) ...and the repair of such vehicle was accomplished by the wrenchiest of the circle of friends and the repair-day was actually a social event. I cannot, in my deepest memory, recall the "one kid-two bike" "towing" phenomenon which you decsribe but niehter can I deny it ever occurred.

Posted by: DEZ | April 2, 2008 9:56 AM

I have been accused of OCD-like behavior when it comes to being vigilant at the windows in terms of watching for criminal and supposed criminal behavior. Last night I was working upstairs and noted that an old pick up was paused at the stop sign on Pine St. in Fair Haven. In the bed of the truck was obvious metal salvage including plumbing, what loked to be a furnace, hot water heater and bikes. Not bike, but bikes. One was an adult, blue, hybrid-type mountain bike with a childs seat attached to the rear. I noted that the paint appeared shiny and it was not altogether unlike Alderman Sturgis-Pascale's bike. Erin...Is yours missing? (OK, maybe I have a touch of OCD) I'm sure this person was scouring bulk trash on their way to Alderman-Dow for a little cash. Try looking at the salvage yards as well. Scrap pays. Just look at the lineup at Alderman-Dow on Chapel St. on any given day!

Posted by: The Insider | April 2, 2008 12:09 PM

Robn

Relax I don't think Heights was trying to offend or " bust " you, he was tring to correct you because your math was way off.

The numbers that you suggested that is deployed would put it at 90 cops per shift, and the actual number is 60 to 70 on the second shift ( The busiest shift ), on midnights it's closer to 40 and day's you might have 50 for the whole city.

And as far as towing I think he's refering to riding the bike and pulling the other bike, side by side, and it's done all the time. Try venturing to the inner city like Fair Haven, or the Ville.

By the way if you stop the kid with two bikes, you better have probalble cause to make the stop, they do have rights and the mere fact that he has a second bike is not cause enough.

Posted by: EastRocker | April 7, 2008 11:43 AM

king james V,

with all due respect, your comments about Cedar Hill are wrong. We know of the problem at the Hess, but most drive by gas stations across the city are nests for this types of activity.

In reality, we know that despite the high cost of living acrosss the river the streets between Willow and Trumbull are seeing much worst crime stats then the less savory "real shady" little area of Cedar Hill. (www.newhavencrimeblog.org)

In fact most of the residents here in Cedar Hill are in touch with each other and we know the Whos, whats, wheres, and hows, of most of what is going on.

Perhaps if I can offer anything to this conversation, it would be lets join forces and help one another keep better tabs on the big picture at large.

Keeping the East Rock Park area SAFE!

Instead of knocking around insulting language and using this blog to point fingers.
BEN- your bike is not in Cedar Hill

So it seems that the Cedar Hill- DIY approach
is the best way to get things done.

We welcome you to come to our meetings and help the communitty at large, instead of just gassing up and hitting the highway...

Posted by: Brian Donnelly | April 11, 2008 3:18 PM

Lt. Sweeney has been doing an outstanding job in attempting to combat the crime problems in the Newhallville/East Rock neighborhood with the resources available to her. The officers assigned to these areas, both veteran and newly appointed, are dedicated to their profession and working hard to address the problems. With the addition of Ofc. Durkin on bike patrol I'm sure you will see changes made. But don't forget, overcoming these problems cannot be handled by the police alone. It takes a cooperative effort from residents, business owners, police and community leaders. Working together could result in a marked immediatde and long term resolution to many of these issues. And don't forget, many of these problems can be addressed within our own homes.