Chief To Cops: Walk The Beat

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by Paul Bass | Jul 26, 2010 11:00 am

(22) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author

Posted to: Legal Writes

Paul Bass Photo New Haven’s new police chief placed two captains in charge of revitalizing community policing as part of a command shake-up, and, he said, a new direction.

Chief Frank Limon, who took over the department in March, announced the sweeping top-level shuffle at a press conference Monday morning outside the Newhallville police substation on Winchester Avenue. The changes take effect Aug. 1.

Limon said the changes reflect the mission he agreed to take on in the job: Reviving New Haven’s community policing program, targeting gangs, upgrading technology in order to “work smarter,” and improving internal department management.

Receiving top mention Monday morning was Limon’s appointment of Capt. Bryan Kearney to join Joann Peterson as head of the patrol division. Each will oversee five of the city’s 10 policing districts.

“We want to bring back community policing to the neighborhoods,” Limon (pictured) said, and “close the gap between the community and the police.”

When New Haven introduced community policing in 1990, it emphasized neighborhood-assigned walking beats to help build trust between cops and citizens in order to prevent smaller problems from turning into larger crimes, rather than chasing crimes after they happen. In 2009 Mayor John DeStefano called walking beats “passive,” outdated and sometimes not the best use of resources.

At a press event a month into the job, Limon heard a passionate plea for a return to walking beats and street visibility from two community leaders, Newhallville Alderwoman Alfreda Edwards and retired Dixwell educator Jeffie Frazier.

Monday morning Limon embraced that call.

“I’m sending a message,” he said. “We want our officers out walking.” He said he has instructed officers to start parking their cars more often and walking the street.

Limon did some walking himself this weekend, he said. He visited an 11-year-old boy who was hit by a stray bullet outside a Newhallville market last month. Limon said he took the boy and his mother out to Wendy’s in Hamden for an ice cream float. That shooting has been unresolved; at the time Limon, frustrated by the lack of information, urged community members to “to break their code of silence.”

He said he’s hoping a revival of community policing will encourage people to give the cops information in future cases.

Beach Boys To Elm City Crew?

Meanwhile, Limon made a move geared toward helping local cops advance to top positions in the department. He appointed Lt. Petisia Adger to head a new Management Development and Accountability Section.

Besides “ensuring policy compliance, inspections and audition of existing and future programs,” Adger will be charged with boosting managerial training. Twice in the past two years, New Haven has hired not just a new police chief from out of town, but two out-of-town assistant chiefs, rather than promoting from within. Former Chief James Lewis brought along two colleagues from California (dubbed “The Beach Boys” within the department”); then Limon hired two colleagues from Chicago (no word yet on a nickname).

Limon said he hopes Adger, an FBI Academy grad now attending Harvard’s Senior Management Institute, will help develop supervisors’ skills “so one day they might pick [somebody] within the department” for the chief’s position.

Other moves announced Monday:

• All cops can expect to have voicemail soon as Lt. Robert Muller takes over the Information Management Division, working under IT-focused Assistant Chief Tobin Hensgen. Muller has already been working on upgrading mobile computers for motorcycle cops. (Read about that here.) The department’s mainframe computer system is being overhauled to provide more “real time crime data and analysis” to officers, according to Hensgen. And all dispatchers will soon be civilians instead of sworn officers.

• Lt. John Velleca is moving from the narcotics unit to heading the Major Crimes division. He replaces Lt. Lisa Dadio, who will now assist Chief Limon in department planning.

Comments

posted by: streever on July 26, 2010 11:14am

This is some good news—I’ve had some contact with Adgers and appreciated her work. Sounds like the management is working well.

posted by: David Hasselhof on July 26, 2010 12:08pm

When you call the police it already takes the cops hours to show up. Now you’re going to take cops and have them walk around and do nothing instead of responding to calls. That makes no sense to me. The residents want to see the police when they call for them. They don’t want to see them when they’re walking around violating rights. For the chief to make this decision based on an alderperson and some unknown educaters opinion is outrageous.

posted by: The Count on July 26, 2010 12:50pm

Why that’s so crazy it just might work!

posted by: Webblog1 on July 26, 2010 12:57pm

It’s difficult to for-tell where this latest strategy movement will take New Haven.
This is the fourth Chief in nine years, starting with Wearing, who has come to office with departmental changes designed to better the Police department.

When Ortiz became chief he and the Mayor boasted that crime statics were down, but did not report those stats to the FBI.
In retrospect, we now know that was not so, in fact the department was heading into shambles due to lack of internal oversight.

Along comes Lewis who instituted internal changes indicated by Perf, most if not all of those recommendations are in Place. Perf did not recommend a return to community policing, despite community input. Again crime was reported going down, this time factual and reported to the FBI.

Exit Lewis(to Yale)incomes Limon who is hand picked by DeStefano, he immediately instills measures which appear to be going away from the perf recommendations, and installing walking beats which both the Mayor and Lewis previously called inefficient.
A term I agree with in today’s Mobile crime element. In fact the police department does not report to the community how efficiency is even measured. How do they know how many sworn officers are needed on the streets?

The problem is that Limon fails to address what is the problem his change is designed to cure.
And when, where, how,and how long it take to correct this perceived problem and how much more $money will it cost/save?

New Haven has under gone more changes in the past nine years, yet remains in a heavy crime laden city for a population of 121,00 and decreasing.

So what’s the answer Chief DeStefano, oops.. I mean Chief Limon??

posted by: Townie on July 26, 2010 1:47pm

Beat walking is nothing new and was actually the primary method of policing in urban areas before the automobile. I have always promoted a return to this method, it allows the police officer to become an integral member of the community and creates relationships that help ensure effective crime prevention and response. If it is managed correctly I think this method could create a real improvement in New Haven.

posted by: nh on July 26, 2010 2:26pm

I know this is off topic - but webblog1 - 2009 recording said our population is about 127,401 people, and at the current rate - will increase by 0.6 per year. Not to forget that there are over 100 deposits for apartments in 360 State (as of June)

posted by: Threefifths on July 26, 2010 2:50pm

I hope this does happen here.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/12/nyregion/12frisk.html?_r=1

posted by: Our Town on July 26, 2010 3:25pm

The only thing that sticks out is that he took the boy out to eat in Hamden.

I know there’s no Wendy’s in New Haven, but come on!

posted by: Ex-NHPD on July 26, 2010 3:27pm

I am not quite sure where to start. Between the article omitting many things announced at the Press Conference and some of the posters here being wrong, there is a lot to discuss.

Let’s start with Community Policing. The term is tough to define. It is a bit like the Supreme Court Justice trying to define Pornography—he did not know what it was, but he would know it when he saw it. Love him or hate him, Chief Pastore brought it to the NHPD. Many of those concepts remain today. Most important of those was the idea of ten policing districts, with a District Manager assigned to each district. Through the good times and the bad times for the NHPD, the department stuck with this very integral piece of the Community Policing puzzle. Residents and businesses in these districts had a lifeline to the NHPD who they could reach out to and receive assistance from. There was a face to go with the name, and relationships were forged. Patrol Officers were assigned to Districts and for the most part, served there on a regular basis.

With the twelve transfers to Street Interdiction Unit for 180 days, one district has had five officers, from different shifts, taken from the district. Imagine how this impacts a District Manager when he/she loses that many of his/her best officers, all at once, for 180 days. That is certainly part of the big picture of Community Policing; how transfers impact districts.

With several other transfers that will be occurring (not included in this article), several districts appear at this time, will be left without a District Manager. Casanova left FairHaven, Hoffman left EastShore/Cove, Sutton left Whalley/BeaverHills, and Duff from Dixwell is on loan to the ISD. The cornerstone of the NHPD version of Community Policing is harmed if these positions are not filled.

As far as Patrol Division having three Captains, WHY? Historically, there was one Commanding Officer for Patrol. The Shift Commanders and District Managers would report to him/her. There was also in later years a Lieutenant who acted as the Administrative, second in command, to the head of patrol. Now there will be two Captains splitting the head of patrol job, and a third now in the Administrative area (who had been there before, and had a Lieutenant, who is now transferred). Three Captains to do the job that has always been handled by one? Wow! How about putting one in charge of Detective Bureau, to oversee the amalgamation of all the fiefdoms there?

It is pretty amazing that King John thinks that walking beats do not serve a purpose. Then why do supervisors have to receive calls from City Hall when an officer is not assigned to a walking beat that covers Chapel/Norton during a very special person’s business hours? I guess John’s friend did not get the memo that walking beats are passive and outdated.

As far as the PERF Report and the implementation of its recommendations, Lewis and his crew fell way short (see my prior post upon his departure for details). The items are still unfinished.

It sounds like Chief Hensgen is moving in the right direction in the I.T. portion of his Chief duties. However, remember that he was hired to also be the Chief overseeing Internal Affairs and Training Academy. A pretty tall order for any Chief. He would have to rely on all his years of Managerial and Supervisory experiences to help him juggle such a large area of responsibility. Yet, he never has been a Supervisor in police work. A pretty risky move to bring in an untried/untested person to be a Chief of such a large area.

Perhaps Lieutenant Adger can pick Hensgen’s brain to find what made him such a remarkable candidate for Chief over the experienced superior officers of the NHPD. It is what it is—outside Chiefs coming in and bringing in their own people so they won’t feel so lonely and isolated. New Assistant Chief of Patrol Melendez must have been quite surprised to come back from vacation and find that his Division had been turned upside down, without a single piece of input from him or his Command Staff.

This is the best King John could find? With Hensgen and Wheeler here less than two months, Limon has seen/learned enough about both the community and the NHPD to make these changes. With zero imput from the Upper Management of NHPD.

It is deja vu all over again. The Beach Boys came in with the arrogance and egoism to do things their way, without input from the “inside” NHPD Assistant Chief. The head “Blues Brother” made an inside NHPD Assistant Chief, then completely left him out of any discussion of his realm. It looks like the “Windy City Crew” is trying to raise the bar on arrogance and egoism set by the Beach Boys.

And last but not least, when are these Chiefs going to become Certified Police Officers in the State of Connecticut? Wheeler has not been a cop anywhere for at least five to six years and no one can get a straight answer as to when Hensgen retired from Chicago P.D. It would also be nice if Hensgen would shave that beard that is not in compliance with the NHPD General Orders, especially when he puts on the uniform and drives around the city.

posted by: Hmmm on July 26, 2010 3:37pm

Guess Web-blog 1 and David Hasselhof didn’t get promoted.

Cops who don’t live in New Haven (i.e. most of them) really shouldn’t be sniping at the new chief from the NHI comments section.

And to set the record straight, all the chiefs were hand-picked by DeStefano: Wearing. Ortiz. Lewis. And Limon. So if you liked Lewis but don’t like Limon, well then that’s not really about the Mayor hand-picking the chief is it?

I did not like Lewis and I blame DeStefano for hiring him. He seemed to bring some systems and structures but was a hired gun who also seemed to promote good old boys and ignore the long term needs of communities. He pretty much failed in curtailing gangs or lowering the murder rate. Interestingly, this became evident only after Yale hired him. He was willing to fire some bad apples though so that probably makes Limon’s job easier.

I say, let’s see how Limon plays out. These appear to be strong thoughtful promotions. The shift back to community policing will be welcomed pretty much everywhere. And if he can figure out how to break up some of the gangs and decrease youth violence (the reasons he was hired) then it will be a significant victory for the City. And then, I will be obligated to congratulate DeStefano.

See that’s the way it works for most of us. We want the Mayor to succeed because that makes our lives better, our children better educated and our neighborhoods safer. When he does succeed, we say good job and when he does not we holler even louder.

Those that gripe no matter what, probably don’t live here, even if they now happen to have to walk more on their jobs.

posted by: DKR on July 26, 2010 4:14pm

To ex/nhpd,..

wow ,..couldn’t have said it better myself,..especially the last paragraph regarding state certification,..which is, i believe, state law,..to carryout the duties of a police officer in this state. but then again,..who am i?? i’m not part of the political party that runs this city. the rank and file want answers as well to that question. but do you really think we’ll get a “straight” answer?? but god forbid we don’t hand in an antiquated radio car log?? perhaps the media should inquire upon the status of our 2 out of town assistant chiefs

posted by: Webblog1 on July 26, 2010 5:02pm

posted by: nh on July 26, 2010 3:26pm
I know this is off topic - but webblog1 - 2009 recording said our population is about 127,401 people

NH.. For the record, below is the official Census Bureau’s population estimate for New Haven.

New Haven city, Connecticut
ACS Demographic and Housing Estimates: 2006-2008
Data Set: 2006-2008 American Community Survey 3-Year Estimates
Survey: American Community Survey

Total population
122,986
+/-3,679
122,986
(X)
Male
58,882
+/-2,236
47.9%
+/-0.9
Female
64,104
+/-2,059
52.1%
+/-0.9

Ex-NHPD

Your post seems to support the concept of community policing, at the same time you suggest that Limon’s changes militate against effective community policing by moving supervisors to manned positions without replacing the skilled supervisors.

Further you said that when are these Asst Chiefs going to become Certified Police Officers in the State of Connecticut? Wheeler has not been a cop anywhere for at least five to six years and no one can get a straight answer as to when Hensgen retired from Chicago P.D. It would also be nice if Hensgen would shave that beard that is not in compliance with the NHPD General Orders, especially when he puts on the uniform and drives around the city.

Your statements do not provide support that these men are qualified to lead community policing.

I still await a statement from Limon or his top brass on how they measure police efficiency.

posted by: TJ on July 26, 2010 5:28pm

CONGRATULATIONS CAPTAIN BRYAN KEARNEY AGAIN!
WE KNOW YOU WILL DO AN EXCELLANT JOB.

posted by: Charlie O'Keefe on July 26, 2010 6:26pm

Please read the story carefully. Limon instructed his officers “to park their cars more often and start walking the street”. This is not community policing. This is just a political response to Eli Greer having to bring the Guardian Angels in to patrol his neighborhood. The bad guys have just moved on to Newhallville. NHPD is a complete failure despite being 25% too large. This story is just Johnnywash.

posted by: kamb on July 26, 2010 9:01pm

To Ex-NHPD, that post may have been one of the best posts I’ve ever read. Very true. Right on the money.

posted by: kamb on July 26, 2010 9:10pm

Just to build on Ex-NHPD’s post. . .

The NHPD is in such bad shape due to poor past promotions. The payrol and umbers dont lie:

1. NHPD use to have 1 Assistant Chief for 148 years. Now they have 4 Assistant Chiefs to do this job at $125,000 each Assistant Chief.

2. 2 Captains at least to run patrol when they had 1 for 148 years. Payroll hit = $77,000 each.

3. Lieutenants assigned to the Chiefs office to do, ummm . . . ohhh . . uhhhh . . . nothing . . .payrol cost = $73,000. each

The problem is the incompetance level in the upper ranks is pathetic. The department is a reflection of the problem with our government = top heavy and costly.

posted by: citysavior on July 26, 2010 10:26pm

ex nhpd and dkr are right,what no one has mentioned is that all the moves are rearranging the chairs on the titanic. its still going to sink. with the exception of velleca and Muller the others have failed at many different commands. So now limon knows has found value in them?? it must be the Chicago’s way promote supervisors who’s crew solved two out 18 homicides. what a slap in the face of this community. I hope rob smut’s didn’t give his blessings to this mess or he will be held responsiblethe community.

posted by: Will New Haven on July 27, 2010 6:41am

Ohhh, a wise guy ayy?

posted by: dkag on July 28, 2010 9:44am

....again this whole mess we can thank uncle Nick!

posted by: Captain NHPD Retired 2000 on July 28, 2010 8:10pm

Let’s be honest about community based policing. It never worked in New Haven and it never will. Why? Because anyone familiar with the concept will tell you that in order for it to be successful, you must have a great amount of money and personnel to invest in it. New Haven never had either resource and still does not. It has been and will remain a failure.

Now, for the two Captains assigned as being in charge of the patrol division. Enough has been said about 2 Captains in charge when there was always one. But, placing two people of the same rank in charge of the same unit is destined for failure. It never worked before and it won’t work now. Common sense will tell you that. Whoops! I’M sorry. I mentioned common sense.

...
God help the rank and file of the Patrol Division. ...

posted by: William B. Meyer on July 29, 2010 10:47am

Re: Retired Captain 2000:

Your name implies you know what is going on at NHPD. If it is true New Haven does not have the money or personnel to pull off community policing, what’s the reason? You know the ins & outs of it better than average Joe, right? In my mind as a new resident, the city is perceived by outsiders and many residents as somewhat of a dump with the only cache being Yale. Community policing seems like it could be the turnaround point the city needs. It doesn’t make sense those in charge wouldn’t be 100% behind the idea and find the proper funding someplace.

posted by: Captain NHDP Retired 2000 on July 30, 2010 7:26pm

Dear Mr. Myer, Thank you for responding to my comments. Once again, the answer is simple. Not enough resources of money and manpower. The police budget has already been slashed to bare bones. To take a large number of officers out of their cars for walking beats, would leave less units available to respond to 911 and other priority calls for service. When no units are available, the calls for service, short of a shooting, shots fired, and other in progress felonies, automatically back and go unanswered for long periods of time. (I was in charge of communications when the concept was introduced and for several years thereafter).

Why are officials coming together on this. Again, a simple answer. It is the politically correct thing to do for the Mayor.

I agree with you the concept of true community based policing could be a turnaround for New Haven. But, as you stated, you are a new resident of New Haven, Hopefully, you will never need to call the police for any type of situation. But if you do need police service, especially for a non-priority call like a minor car accident or a burglary to your home that you discovered when you returned home, please don’t blame the officer(s) who arrive late for your call. It’s not their fault.

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