A rash of violent crime in Upper Westville has the Board of Alders considering adding a new satellite police substation.
Upper Westville Alder Darryl Brackeen Jr. submitted an order at the Board of Alders regular meeting Monday night requesting that the city consider creating the satellite police location in the district, possibly at Davis Street School, or some other suitable Westville location. He submitted the request on behalf of more than 100 people who live in the area and signed a petition requesting the satellite location.
Brackeen said the request stemmed from a recent shooting, a home invasion and a mugging of longtime residents in a community that is known for its safety. People are understandably afraid, he said. An 11 a.m. home invasion on Oct. 7—in which a gunman confronted an elderly Russian man and his family in a condo on Fountain Street — particularly rattled the neighborhood. (Police made an arrest in that incident.)
Brackeen called the proposed satellite location just one tool of many that might be considered to address crime in the area. Because the community is mostly residential, he said a school like Davis might be a good fit, but he’s open to all kinds of suggestions.
“It could be a space within a school where an officer can do community hours. This is just a place where officers can meet,” Brackeen said.
“This is a good first step to showing the community there is a presence. Just hearing from the ground, many residents don’t see the presence. I just want to be able to show the community that, yeah, actually they do stop in our Westville schools. They do walk the beat. You can see them stop through quite often.”
Markeshia RIcks Photo
“This is by no means a closed door conversation,” said Brackeen (pictured). “It’s just a first step. Crime in the city overall is down according to the numbers presented by the mayor, but for me there are real lives behind those numbers.”
Perez said he assigned the order to both the public safety and the finance committee committees because there is both a public safety and funding component to anything that might come of it.
Perez said he didn’t know if adding a physical new location for a substation or satellite substation would have a direct impact on the number of crimes committed in a neighborhood.
Police Chief Dean Esserman said the department will take Brackeen’s request under advisement. “Whether it’s more police service or looking at different district boundaries, we’re always going to pay attention and respect and review any requests by an alder,” he said.
Some have argued that the presence of substations has less to do with combating a neighborhood’s crime than does the deployment of neighborhood beat cops. The police are in the process of reexamining how to redraw neighborhood district boundaries for the first time in 20 years. At two department retreats, a proposal emerged to split in half two sprawling districts: District 7, which includes both East Rock and Newhallville; and District 9, which includes Bishop Woods/Quinnipiac Meadows, the Annex, and Morris Cove.
Esserman said any changes in the drawing of boundaries is at least a year away “because of the need to rebuild officer staffing” — the department is about 100 cops short — and the need “to reach out to alders and community leaders for their advice and assistance” in redrawing district boundaries.
Upper Westville is part of District 2 along with the rest of Westville, West Hills, and West Rock. Brackeen said he is “absolutely not” calling for a redrawing of district boundaries in Westville.
Whether this is a good idea or not, I don't know (it seems Alder. Brackeen has no idea either) but it should not be located at Davis St School. That street is already clogged and busy enough. There are many dilapidated and unused buildings along Whalley and near Rt 63 that could be used.