New Haven Independent

It was the first of several lines that elicited applause from nearly 30 neighbors as Lewis, the department’s new and temporary chief, debuted before the Fair Haven Management Team Thursday night. Among other initiatives, he spoke of bringing the department into the modern technological age — include internet access at substations and email for officers.

Despite two recent homicides, a spike in riverfront robberies and ongoing concern about prostitution, drag racing, and possible gangs, the top cop received excellent reviews, ranging from warm to “Please don’t leave us after 18 months.”

Lewis amplified on themes he introduced at the recent Board of Aldermen’s Public Safety Committee. He said that despite a strapped municipal and therefore police budget, an officer shortage, and only half the overtime that was available last year, he is determined to modernize the department; reestablish the community’s trust in it; and, most importantly, introduce policies that will change bad behaviors.

Another line eliciting palpable assent: “Two weeks before I came here, 18 people had been shot in ten days. We must aggressively stop, not tolerate this kind of behavior.”

Saying he wants to be sure the community truly understands what he’s doing, he amplified on a number of initiatives and new styles he is introducing. “By being ‘aggressive,’” he said, “that might mean not only publishing the names of johns but also getting out there and playing more basketball games with troubled kids. It also means to always respect the Constitution and never to abuse, but by the same token I think that the officers have felt a little handcuffed,” he said, unaware of any pun.

Regarding his announced traffic enforcement initiative, he said, the dedicated unit will have about 12 officers, led by a lieutenant and two sergeants. Lt. Joe Witkowski was also on hand to distribute information about the new traffic safety hotline. “I asked for an accident map,” said Lewis, “at our regular meeting the other day and no one could produce one. I don’t blame anyone. I’m a cheerleader for my officers; a map simply had never been done before. But now it will be.”

“Think on this,” he added, “You lose a child to a terrible traffic accident, it’s the same pain for the family as a loss from violence.”

Finally, he had quite a bit to add about the technology needs of the department. “I can’t communicate with Lt. Casanova [pictured here with another management team member, one-year old Brennan Matteson, assisting with shoelaces],” he said, “nor with 90 percent of my officers because they don’t have email here. We’re going to fix that; we’re going to see to it that the internet is at all the substations. I’m also a great believer in Blackberries. Also, just what if we suddenly have a shooter on a rooftop over the Green. My officers will have to respond with what? With handguns, because there are no rifles in the patrol cars; we need to fix that too.”

How was Lewis going to do all this given the constricted municipal budget?

“We have some grants and we have seized drug money, of which we’re expecting more in the coming months. We’ll do it with what we have.”

He said he could fix policies and procedures; that was easy, including careful new Drug Enforcement Administration checks-and-balances procedures for the new narcotics unit, which he will be introducing. “What I can’t fix would be a department with bad people. However, you have great, dedicated cops. One officer recently cut himself up dashing through a glass door to nab a perpetrator with cocaine. We need to get that image of New Haven out there as well.”

As part of the effort to do more careful interviews of kids on the street to ascertain the dimensions of a gang problem in the city, Lewis also announced a truancy assessment center. “When we pick up truant kids, the cops will take them to an established place where there’s a counselor. The cops will be done with the kids in 30 seconds, but a counselor at the center will figure out what’s up. We did this in Green Bay, and it worked; we often found, for example, that kids were truant because maybe they had some work due in school and had no computer at home to write it; we need to make more resources and jobs available for them too. That’s part of changing behaviors.”

How was all this received by business people such as Norma Francheschi of the Grand Avenue Village Association (GAVA)? Lewis’s leadership was praised. One 37-year veteran of Fair Haven and a professional driver of legal drag racers deplored the limited effort to handle drag racing on River Street. “Still,” he said to Lewis, “you obviously have leadership abilities. I hope that when 18 months are up, you won’t leave us.”

“The perfect scenario,” said Lewis, “is that I introduce policies that will remain, and that we train people like Luiz Casanova to move up in the ranks.”