New Haven Independent

Posted by: S | February 20, 2009 12:00 PM

Mr Bass,
Do you believe that the city prohibits the viewing of videos on their computers because of you or because employees were spending more time watching Youtube than working? As for crime, it cyclical, what information to you have that shows that it was community policing that lowered crime rates. If you look at other cities in the country like New York, their crime rate dropped too during the same time period. I lived in NYC during that time and believe me the NYPD was not a community based police department. I would honestly like to know what you based your argument on? Was it based on actual facts or only opinion?

Posted by: Beansie's Mom | February 20, 2009 12:29 PM

Mr. Paul

Most companies in corporate America, don't want their employees doing personal things on the Company computer. I can read but I certainly can't hear what you are saying.

That Said, it really is too bad that you have to do reporting the old fashioned way and actually write down your thoughts.

Community policing hasn't been dismantled here in the City of New Haven. It's just gone back to the basics of the community having to work WITH the police. As a member of an active Blockwatch, nothing's changed for us under Chief Lewis. We still report the crimes, respect the officers and look out for our neighbors.

I have great respect for Chief Francisco Ortiz. He wanted to remove bad apple Billy boy. Too bad he wasn't backed up in this.

We remember Chief Wearing back in the days when he was Asst Chief and was respected by the rank and file. We like to look back on the positives.

NOW Nick Pastore, he's not allowed anywhere near my children. And should he happen to cross paths with them, well my role for the past 10 years, 3 months and 20 days is the WARRIOR.

My brother sent back to take care of things, and that's what I do.

My reward, I get to be called an F'n W B. But my neighbors know I stand up for them and continue the daily grind.

Semper Fi.

Posted by: Jay | February 20, 2009 12:43 PM

I don't want to pay city employees to watch this video. They are free to watch at home, although I think they can skip this one.

Posted by: Divine Shabazz | February 20, 2009 2:14 PM

Mayor John DeStefano and Police Chief James Lewis represent the George Wallace and Eugene "Bull" Connor of New Haven! They both need to go! It's time for a change New Haven. Let's Get Free! Let's break the reign and chokehold the current administration has over our communities. Come November 3, 2009 let's take our dissent to the polls. Calling all college students and other young, fresh and creative minds who are not afraid of change in leadership in New Haven. Why can't we have some of that national "Change" locally? This year let's make it an upset!

Get Free or Die Trying- "WILLIAM R. DYSON" for Mayor-The Movement

Join us?

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=62370407736&ref=ts

Posted by: LevelHeadedAndObjective | February 20, 2009 2:40 PM

Another amazing story from the left of the left. Taxpayers do not need to pay for employees watching anything on city time other than city business. Cudos to the mayor and his team for doing the right thing. Left to their own devices people will watch almost anything on a computer during their work hours including Mr. Bass and his peculiar rantings. The quality of time invested by employees in the new liberal economy of Mr. Bass' world is one where ''thou shalt work not browse''

Posted by: Streever | February 20, 2009 2:50 PM

Paul,

do you think that anyone was actually against Pastore's policing style--or was it the public scandal that ended his tenure? i've always felt like it was more of a problem with his personal life & not a reflection of how anyone felt about the approach. I think in many respects, Chief Lewis is embracing a lot of the work that Pastore did? I find the local police are far more responsive now than 4 years ago when Ortiz told me to "manage my expectations" concerning police issuing tickets/etc when they had caught someone at fault in a car vs bike accident.

I agree with you entirely on a lot of the rest of this--just curious what your view is on Pastore/Community Policing! What do you think?

thanks!

Posted by: Heightz | February 20, 2009 3:19 PM

Divine Shabazz:

As I too will love nothing more then to have "options" this election year..I realize it will NOT OCCUR this election cycle. I'm all for "hope" and "change" but seriously.. you need to take your head down from the clouds. Bill Dyson is NOT going to run for mayor this time around. Your passion is truely admired but once again Dyson is NOT going to run.

Posted by: Layemoff! | February 20, 2009 3:29 PM

Shut up you idiot and quit crying. Lay off every city worker whose online instead of WORKING!!! Read the papers. Times are bad and workers should be working and not playing online on dumb sites like this! If the unions aren't going to agree to some concessions, then shame on them! I didn't get a raise this year and the unions act like they're entitled to a raise, a bonus and a job where they can surf the INTERNET! Go DeStefano! Clean up this city!

Posted by: Brilliant | February 20, 2009 3:45 PM

Well said Mr. Bass.

About time someone called out what's really going on with the NHPD. This thing could explode. It seems like it is right on the edge.

We all remember the last time cowboys ran our police department. Not only were they abusive but crime went up -- big time.

Don't they get it -- the same kinds of people are being put back in place. We'll get the worst of both worlds -- civil rights violations and skyrocketing crime.

Great.

Posted by: Paul Bass | February 20, 2009 4:01 PM

David -- An entrenched part of the police department 100 percent opposed all of Pastore's innovations. They saw them as "social work" rather than "police work." One weekend all the white officers staged a "blue flu" (including jamming police radios), while murders were taking place, to try to drive him out and end the experiment. The scandal came much later. Some of the ascendant cops are disciples of a top cop Pastore drove out and who now runs East Haven's police department with the military-style, us-vs-them philosophy.

Posted by: NH1955 | February 20, 2009 5:46 PM

I have lived in New Haven for over 40 years. Many good things happen here every day and that is something that should be reported on, all this negative nonsense in getting tired.

Posted by: jackie | February 20, 2009 6:45 PM

Dear Divine,

As i have pointed out before, it's disingenuous for you simultaneously to evoke barack obama here, who (we hope) is interested in change via true unity, while offering thinly veiled racism elsewhere, e.g., on your facebook "Draft Dyson" page.

Nothing against Dyson, but "the change we need" should be motivated by ideas, not vapid racist ideology.

Not fooled.

Posted by: Bob | February 20, 2009 6:50 PM

White officers, huh? Wont describe the race of criminals on the loose in a story, but quick to make a spectacle of the race of police officers. Why describe race now?

Posted by: City Hall Worker | February 20, 2009 8:35 PM

Paul.

Videos

Its not you or this site. At city hall its a joke. Even the department heads spend hours surfing the web. DeStefano had to do something.

Cops

NHPD has always been disfunctional. There statistics are a joke. The city is more unsafe now than ever. I hope the city goes bust so the state or the feds take over.

Posted by: Fedupwithliberals | February 21, 2009 7:02 AM

ROBN

"do you think that anyone was actually against Pastore's policing style--or was it the public scandal that ended his tenure?"

I think that people drew the line when he brought pizzas to murderers in the hospital.

Posted by: Out of Order | February 21, 2009 10:25 AM

Paul:

You really crossed the line here - you sound like a deranged lunatic ranting and raving much like the many bloggers that you like to whip up in to a frenzy when you think it's time to lynch city hall and its staff. Your newspaper is rapidly plunging into the abyss - how sad.

Posted by: Streever | February 21, 2009 11:38 AM

Paul, that's terrifying! I'm glad I wasn't around for that. Thank you for the information!

Posted by: robn | February 21, 2009 12:49 PM

FUWL...

huh??? I think you're confusing me with Streever.

Posted by: nfjanette | February 21, 2009 7:22 PM

It's not clear to me that dredging up the stories from the Pastore era is a valid approach to support opinions and predictions of the current department. I'm under the impression that advocates have stated previously that "community policing" - a term that seems to mean as many different things as there are people that advocate it - does not mean not arresting criminals. The new chief hasn't ignored the idea of encouraging officers to work with neighborhoods just because there are new efforts at active enforcement. It would be foolish for the chief to ignore the many wise lessons learned from placing officers "on the beat", either on foot or perhaps even better, bicycle patrols. If he pulls back such policing, the local management teams will surely give him hell - and correctly so.

The new chief is now placing a long overdue emphasis on - how's this for shocking - police officers enforcing the law. I fully support this concept: by showing public enforcement of the law, we as a society make a clear statement that we require our citizens to follow those laws. Rather than ignoring a multitude of dangerous traffic violations, the police - to the shock and amazement of many - have been issuing tickets. You mean it's not OK to speed and blast through red lights, endangering the public? No, it's not. People obeying laws make for a better, safer society - something we really need in New Haven, because it's been pretty damn dangerous at times over the past few years.

We should be standing and cheering this effort, rather than predicting that enforcement of the law necessarily leads to abuses of power. The slippery slope argument is a fallacy - enforcement doesn't have to lead to "beat downs". We should always keep an eye on our police department and require that our officers protect both safety of citizens and civil rights of the accused, but I think we should also give the chief a chance to try some new and/or different approaches to improving public safety.

Posted by: John DeStefano Jr. | February 21, 2009 7:35 PM

Let me start by explaining why City employees can no longer access video streaming such as the v-log from their office computers. Its about the bandwidth. No policies have changed. The firewall improvement was necessary because the use of the internet for non-work tasks and for watching videos, listening to music or playing games, takes up significant amounts of bandwidth. The City operates on a limited bandwidth. Without the increased firewall security, the City would need to invest in additional bandwidth at a cost to taxpayers. Bandwidth must be freed so that employees, using their computers for business purposes, do not experience slow-downs of the internet or email systems. Its not a control thing as the v-log suggests - its a cost thing.

The balance of the v-log contained a stream of consciouness charges that ended in one big bang. Let me briefly correct each of these comments.

Most seriously, the v-log statement that the City ignored the needs of youth who witnessed an awful shooting incident is not true. So to is the statement that the NHPD no longer partners with the Yale Child Study Center (YCSC). As is recorded on the 7/02/08 agenda of the YCSC, they were called to, and arrived at, the scene of the 6/26/08 shooting. Whether or not parents agree to allow their children to be evaluated by YCSC has been and is out of the control of the NHPD.

Next, the v-log raised the issue of the new WEB District Manager posting the photographs of people, all male African mericans, on a visible wall under the caption of 'most wanted'.

First off, the v-log failed to mention that the Chief had the photographs removed the next day.

He agreed that the public posting was inapprorpaite. However lets be clear that it is regular practice for police departments and offices (including substations) to maintain the names and photographs of individuals who, according to community complaints, present a danger to the quality of life of residents in a neighborhood. This is a component of police intelligence that helps keep neighborhoods safe. In other words it is good to know who is disrupting the neighborhood so as to help prevent crime.

Third, with regard to the v-log claim about a disconnected working relationships between the NHPD and the Street Outreach Worker Program (SOWP) - that was the whole point in the SOWP design! When we visited the City of Providence to explore their program we were counseled that the street credibility of the SOWP, and the law, required strict separation.

The SOWP is meant to reach out to at-risk youth to keep them out of trouble, prevent violent crimes and help match young men and women throughout the City with positive choices and the resources they need to make these choices. They are meant to be a choice with a different toolbox and approach than the police.

And in a final attempt to connect the dots to the 'big bang', i.e. community policing is dead, the v-log regurgitates a comment made by Lt. John Velleca from several years ago just after the loss in the line of duty of Off. Dan Picagli.

And
here you can agree or disagree with me. But the fact is that the comment was made in the immediate aftermath of the death of Danny Picagli, a great cop who left behind a wife, kids and a better Fair Haven neighborhood. You want to go after John Valecca is your right, but having buried four New Haven cops in the line of duty I'll give John Valleca a pass on his expression of feelings in what I have experienced as the worse moments in my years as Mayor - burying four good cops.

Finally, all this leads to the v-log 'big bang' charge that community policing is dead. So let's check the facts once more.

First we have a vibrant partnership with the YCSC that is nationally recognized. Second, a new District Manager set out to do his job, makes a mistake - and is immediately corrected. Third, the SOWP an absolutely unique neighborhood intervention that works independently of the NHPD as was designed. And finally a cop showed emotion at the loss of a fellow officer killed in the line of duty. Think again v-log.

In the end it doesn't matter what you think of the v-log or this commentary. What matters is whether our families are safe. As I write this we are just hours from the City's fourth homicide of the year. Too, too many shootings.

What matters is giving kids more choices. What matters is a better prison re-entry system. And what matters is doing great policing - whatever you call it.
I look forward to tackling each of these challenges.

Posted by: Uh-Oh | February 22, 2009 3:18 AM

Uh-Oh.

The Mayor has violated one of the primary rules of blogs -- if they happen to be talking about you, don't engage.

Acknowledging that, the first question for the Mayor is "how much is the City saving on bandwidth by restricting employee access to multimedia on the internet?"

An honest answer would be appreciated, particularly since "bandwidth" is cheap these days. Of course Mayor swears it is a cost thing, and not a control thing. I'd just think we deserve the facts to back that assertion up.

Lastly, does it worry any of you that the Mayor is using the comment thread of a blog to try to answer Paul Bass's charges? Why not a press conference, or better yet a request for equal time on the front page? DeStefano's response is unseemly and off-kilter. I hope it's not an indication that the Mayor is losing his balance. Probably he just needs better counsel.

Posted by: robn | February 22, 2009 9:58 AM

UH-OH,

Maybe he's doing it becuase the Reg is in Chapter 11 (i.e. nobody reads it).

Posted by: George and Dick | February 22, 2009 10:12 AM

Comrade Destefano. You are brilliant. The best suppression of first ammendment rights ever. You are wasted in New Haven. Look out for vacancies in Illinois.

Posted by: Fedupwithliberals | February 22, 2009 10:22 AM

ROBN

Sorry! My bad.

Posted by: Mister Jones | February 22, 2009 12:05 PM

No, Uh-Oh, I don't "worry any of you that the Mayor is using the comment thread of a blog to try to answer Paul Bass's charges? Why not a press conference, or better yet a request for equal time on the front page?" OMG the mayor responds directly in a thoughtful manner, like a modern-day letter to the editor, and you think it's off-kilter? You want a press conference to respond to an opinion piece? You've got to be kidding.

Posted by: DingDong | February 22, 2009 12:07 PM

I commend for the mayor engaging in a thoughtful debate on this website!

Posted by: IT Guy | February 22, 2009 1:55 PM

I'm an IT guy at a big organization in New Haven. (about 2,000 desktop computers) We block streaming media, too. The Mayor is correct.Bandwidth gets killed. Additionally, steaming media presents a significant virus/malware risk.

Posted by: Brian V | February 22, 2009 5:14 PM

Mr. Destefano,
If community policing is not dead, why change the slogan to "Targeted Policing"?
The Chief says community policing means different things to different people.
Let me tell you what it means to me. It means making the police part of the community by walking beats, talking to the community, working with people in the community. It means being proactive not reactive. Keeping officers in their cars so they can respond quicker and cover more ground is fine to a point but real police intelligence comes from cops developing relationships with community. Driving through neighborhoods at 30 mph with their windows rolled up, responding (reacting) to calls coming in over their radios is not community policing.
You have recently said that times are different today than they were before, that gangs are re-emerging in the city. Well, we had gangs in the 80's & 90's and the community policing I am talking about is exactly what got rid of them. So if there are gangs re-emerging today WHY are you changing the policies that have worked in the past? Beat cops and community policing started to disappear several years ago and the crime level started to rise again with that.
I respect many of the new chief's ideas; our police should have the tools they need to do their jobs like shotguns and dogs. If they have them in Hamden and Branford, then New Haven Police should certainly have them in their tool box too. But only reacting and not trying to prevent crimes in the future is not the way. Posting pictures of potential trouble makers is not Police intelligence it is police intimidation. I know the pictures were removed the next day, but the atmosphere wasn't. The "beat down posse" mentality failed in the past and will again; in fact it already is failing.
Having the same cops on the street, day in and day out, counseling trouble makers is a good start, building relationships with law abiding majority of neighbors is another. Cops in cars can't be everywhere all the time. But if your neighbors are watching too, you have multiplied the police's effectiveness in keeping an eye out for potential trouble and when a crime is committed you will have friends to help solve the crime, not keeping quiet. Publicly posting pictures of people only serves to anger and distance the neighbors
We need a return to community policing (call it whatever you want) it worked before and it would work again.

Posted by: Another IT Guy | February 22, 2009 6:46 PM

Mr. Mayor
It wasn't very long ago that the BOE was announcing it's intentions to make student's testing records available to parent's. That's a potential 20K+ requests for responses from New Haven Computer systems. Now the City's own computing habits are too much to handle. This strikes as extreme incompetence or just the normal increduality from City Hall. Neither of these things surprize us.

Posted by: english teacher | February 22, 2009 7:41 PM

The grammar in Mayor DeStefano's posting is appalling. He would have been better served if he'd allowed Jessica Mayorga to do a press release. It's easy to tell he was educated in New Haven. Non-passing.

Posted by: Elfer | February 22, 2009 8:57 PM

ENGLISH-TEACHER,

Pathetic, off base and petty. Easy to tell you're an English Teacher holed up in a well heated school building. C'mon out and join the hood, teach the next generation and start thinking big. FAILURE!!

Posted by: john john | February 22, 2009 10:09 PM

And the Award for Best Impersonation of a freely elected mayor by a dictator is.......... Johnny Destefano

Posted by: Hood Rebel | February 22, 2009 10:46 PM

Well at least everyone now knows that the Mayor reads this BLOG!

To: English Teacher: The nerve of you to take a swipe at an entire community in a derogatory and disgraceful way. Check your own grammar and your "appalling" attitude as an educator.

Posted by: A Supporter | February 23, 2009 1:21 AM

Mayor,

I have voted for you for a long time and will likely do so again, but you are wrong about the NHPD. It is going in a very dangerous direction. The last thing this city needs is to become a divided community.

The new boys seem to be bringing back the good old boys and there is no noticeable decline in violent crime (just the opposite). Sure, you want to implement the PERF report and this Lewis seems like a nice guy, but nice and old school does not cut crime. You cut crime before by having beat cops know the neighborhoods (not just district managers). You had walking beats to prevent crime combined with real detective work (often done by or with the feds).

Your defense of Valecca goes too far. He demeaned a whole set of people. It was wrong under any circumstance. There was no connection between immigrants and the tragedy that befell this city. We all mourned the officers, across all neighborhoods, whether we knew them or not. Most of us have tragically lost friends we hold dear, that does not justify us lashing out publicly at decent hard working people because they look different than us or came here more recently than our families did. You should have left this one alone.

What percentage of people in this city are immigrants or children of immigrants? I don't know but I doubt either of us would think that 20% is a high guess. So now you have someone running a division who very publicly wrote that 20% of us are not equal as human beings. Do you really think that might not be a concern, especially given recent history. Wasn't the goal to rebuild trust? Is there a point at which a now senior member of the police department might apologize?

Hey and also please do something about this crazy soccer nonsense over on the other story. Smuts and Levine need some help. Seems like they have forgotten their role.

We want you to succeed. Did Bass go too far (probably so) but you need to take a serious look at whether the NHPD is headed down a path which did not serve this city well previously.

Good luck. Your success is ours.

Posted by: Bob | February 23, 2009 3:47 AM

Why is it that everybody knows how to run a police department? And everybody seems to know exactly how they would be a police officer? Mr Bass, who are you to claim that officers dont offer the services of Yale Child Study anymore? And you claim an officer stated that oh that kid comes from a bad family so don't offer any services? When did that happen? And where? Is what you say factual or is it imagined?

And to Brian V, cops have to be proactive yes, but they still have to be reactive as well, what do you think the call volume of the police department is? 911 calls happen, assaults happen, domestics happen, fights happen, burglaries happen, robberies happen, shootings happen. Shall I go on? Face it, crime is on the rise everywhere. Its not specific to New Haven. And where do you live to claim that officers do not interact with residents of the city?

And WHY IS IT SO HORRIBLE THAT AN EMPLOYER REQUIRE THEIR EMPLOYEES TO WORK AS OPPOSED TO WATCHING STREAMLINED VIDEO DURING WORK HOURS??? Aren't we in bad economic times? If you were an employer that was strapped for cash, wouldn't you be upset to find your employees surfing the web as opposed to doing their jobs?

Posted by: Streever | February 23, 2009 9:58 AM

The notion that blocking streaming video from City Hall computers is censorship or in any way a "control" measure is an obvious case of much ado about nothing. I think it's silly personally--bandwidth is cheap--but I also think that no one in their right minds thinks that it actually will stop City Hall employees.

I think it's equally silly that the NewHavenIndependent is hard to access via my mobile device. How many city hall employees have Blackberries with unlimited data plans? If the NHI had even just a mobile style sheet reducing some of the excess baggage of images it'd be very easy for any city hall employee to watch the VLog & all other content here.

Not everyone has the same level of technological know-how, & it is ridiculous to determine another's motiviation based on their implementation of technology.

Posted by: Mister Jones | February 23, 2009 11:42 AM

Paul you are right when you say that "an entrenched part of the police department 100 percent opposed all of Pastore's innovations." But I recall that not everyone considered him "Saint Nick" as in your NH Advocate cover. Others remembered him for ratting out fellow cops during the wiretap scandal. I don't say that to defend the old ways, just to point out that old grudges die hard.

Posted by: Morriscove | February 23, 2009 12:47 PM

I was surprised to see that the Mayor responded to the article, although it's filled with inacurracies. First off the Yale Child Study clincians do ride alongs almost every night, and the numbers for the center is posted on the daily detail.

I've seen it, and as far as the huge indorsement for Tricky Nicky....please, he was not backed becuase he was strongly against his own men and woman,of the plice force which was well documented in the papers of the time (R.I.P. Register..policital rag ).

To Mr. Jones you have your facts wrong, like most of the bloggers, Nick didn't rat anyone out, he was part of the wire taps and lost his job, the first time, becuase of his involvement. The second time was becuase of his preversions with prostitutes. Ooh and before you put your pom poms down for this man let me remind you who rewarded Billy White and gave him his power.

Mr. Bass try alittle thing like jouralistic integrity, like ....getting the facts before you post your articles, and the white officers comments were another non fact, all races joined in that Blue Flu.

Posted by: anon | February 23, 2009 12:54 PM

Dear "A Supporter":

Honestly, what would get you to not vote for DeStefano again in November? Would it have to be a fall from pedestal or a better contender? Would you be willing to take a chance against the current administration with a newcomer or would you rather just have the same people doing the same job, with a little tincturing?

I am asking in 100% earnest and seriousness. I am using 'anon' to avoid judgment and to block any commenter from directly knowing how bad my grammar is.

Posted by: Brian V | February 24, 2009 1:07 AM

Bob-
I guess you know best how to run a police dept, because you too, are commenting on this article. (?!)
This is a forum to comment on an article that talks about policing, I am participating like everyone else here.
I didn't say cops shouldn't react to 911 calls.
I said reaction "to a point". All there is, these days is reaction.
We used to have regular beat cops, and we don't any more. I believe the new chief does not value them as much as he should. I am trying to advocate for their return, via this forum. There is no doubt in my mind that there is a direct correlation between the disappearance of beat cops and the return of serious crime in the Upper State St/East Rock neighborhood (and I'll bet the same is true in other neighborhoods).
By the way I have LIVED & WORKED in New Haven for the past 18 years. The police do not interact with the population the way they used to.
I used to see, talk to and sometimes have a cup of coffee with our beat cop on a daily basis. They would ask questions, inform us of trending problems and listen to our concerns.
I wish my more recent interactions with the NHPD were as pleasant or productive.
I would love to have a cup of coffee with my local beat cop again, & I'll buy the coffee.

Posted by: Streever | February 24, 2009 3:22 PM

Bob,

I do think your comment to Brian was off base. Community policing by all accounts worked fantastically here--and Brian's 18 years of residency & employment here places him into the category of people who saw the high level of crime & violence & who saw the drop when Pastore instituted community policing.

With that being said, I also don't know the best way for policing to occur: but I am interested in a civil discussion on beat cops/targetted policing/community policing and how policing can be conducted. I'm a stronger believer in Chief Lewis and am very happy with what I've seen of his work, but I think it's important that communities have these discussions & come to solutions that work for them. I don't think trashing people who are trying to have open & polite discussion on these matters is productive.

Posted by: fedupwithliberals | February 25, 2009 8:08 AM

ENGLISH TEACHER

"It's easy to tell he was educated in New Haven. Non-passing."

Hate to say you are wrong, but the Mayor is a product of Catholic grade and high school education. I know, because I sat in those rooms with him.