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Goodbye “Community Policing”

by Melissa Bailey | Feb 5, 2009 4:11 pm

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

The police department is changing the slogan on its patrol cars — and its approach to tackling crime.

The new slogan will only be added to new vehicles. It was one change Police Chief James Lewis (pictured) and Mayor John DeStefano rolled out as they unveiled a new policing strategy a Thursday press conference at police headquarters.

The new “targeted activity policing” approach will employ tactical units, including a new “metro street crime unit” that will move around, targeting specific behaviors such as prostitution and street robberies.

In 2008, the city reported having the second lowest violent crime rate in the past 15 years. The violent crime rate remains about 2 1/2 times the national average per capita, however.

Lewis told the crowd of reporters and police brass Thursday that he was there not just to roll out a new tactic or task force, but a new approach to solving crimes. He introduced a new departmental mission statement that gets rid of the words “community-based policing.” Instead, it talks about “targeting quality of life issues … through aggressive enforcement of the law.”

After the press conference, Lewis explained that when he took the helm of the police department in June, he discovered that the city’s cops didn’t have a clear picture of what “community policing” meant.

“The term ‘community policing’ has evolved to mean a million different things,” he said. To some, it’s walking beats. To others, it’s “soft-policing,” not making arrests. Cops felt they were being asked to be everything to everyone, he said.

“It wasn’t clear what the community wanted,” Lewis explained. “We’re trying to give them a clearer focus.”

The new focus is to improve neighborhoods by targeting behavior, Lewis said.

That includes a new traffic enforcement squad, which has contributed to a 48 percent increase in motor-vehicle violations from 2007 to 2008. It includes targeted prostitution stings. A new narcotics squad.

And a new “metro street crime unit.” The new unit will be comprised of two teams of seven, each with one sergeant, two detectives and four officers. The teams will be deployed seven days a week. They won’t respond directly to 911 calls. Instead, they’ll be tasked with targeting specific behavior, such as a streak of street robberies on Dixwell Avenue, or an emergence of prostitution in Fair Haven.

DeStefano (pictured) said the new squad won’t be like the defunct ID-Net, a roving, data-driven police squad that saturated neighborhoods for short periods of time, racking up arrests for everything from not wearing a seat-belt to having a gun.

“ID-Net flooded neighborhoods,” DeStefano said. The approach was criticized for the way it changed the relationship between residents and police, and took officers away from the regular walking and bike patrols that were the mainstay of community policing. It was disbanded in 2006.

Unlike ID-Net, the new street crime unit will be in plain clothes and unmarked cars. Officers will work based not only by looking at crime data, but by working with other types of intelligence, officials said.

The intent is to zero in on specific behaviors, Lewis said.

“It’s not a focus on making a lot of arrests,” he said. “It’s a focus on making the right arrests.”

A New Philosophy

To brand the new approach, the police department will be changing the slogans on police cruisers.

Right now, the cruisers say “Committed To Community Policing.” Some also say “Pride and Progress,” or “Policing Through Partnerships.”

The old slogans won’t be wiped off of the old cars, Lewis said, because that would be too costly. But any new department vehicle will now be decorated with these words: “Dedicated to Protecting Our Community.”

DeStefano vowed that the basics of community policing — building relationships and partnering with the community — won’t disappear with the elimination of those words.

“We’re not walking away from management teams,” he said. “We’re not walking away from having the same cops in the same neighborhoods.”

He said to tackle crime, he had the choice between using a lot of overtime hours, or adding more bodies to the force. He chose the latter in the belief it would keep the same faces in the same parts of town.

Relationship-building and enforcement can coexist, the mayor argued. He said Lewis has been able to accomplish both by having each beat cop dedicate 1.5 hours per shift to targeting a problem traffic corner. The result is a steady face in the neighborhood, as well as targeting “unacceptable behavior.”

The new approach, however, will mean a shift away from walking beats.

“A walking beat has a value,” said DeStefano, but “it’s a passive” form of policing. Walking beats are only helpful to a neighbor for the few seconds that the officer passes by his or her door, he said.

When drug gangs dominated the city in 1989, he argued, it was enforcement, not walking beats, that solved the problem.

“What drove crime down in the 1990s was the robust investigative effort” into the gangs, he argued. “We arrested thousands of people.”

At that time, then-Police Chief Nick Pastore declared arrests a last resort and “a sign of failure.” The argument was that locking up, say, low-level drug offenders or prostitutes at best delays dealing with the roots of crime, at worst causes new problems by flooding jails and courts with people who belong elsewhere. The department focused on different strategy: Steering people to social services. Deemphasizing guns and police dogs. Gathering intelligence on drug-gang leaders. Having walking-beat cops get to know neighborhoods. And working alongside non-police agencies to pioneer nationally replicated programs like a needle exchange and a cop-shrink team-up with the Yale Child Study Center to help young kids who witness violence.

Comments

posted by: 2nd Amendment on February 5, 2009 4:58pm

Move over thar, pardner…there’s a new sheriff in town. Goodbye to the touchy-feely garbage that’s rewarded criminal behavior and marginalized law-abiding citizens. Chief Lewis for mayor.

posted by: Tim Holahan on February 5, 2009 5:03pm

This is an interesting article on an important topic, but it ends in an unsatisfying way.

In the last paragraph, the reporter seems to be contradicting the Mayor about the role of community policing in bringing drug crime under control in the ‘90s, but that message isn’t delivered explicitly, and no data or testimony is provided to back up the assertions. I would prefer that it was.

While I’m willing to believe that community policing can be an effective way to fight crime and create trust between citizens and police, it’s hard not to agree with Chief Lewis that the lack of clarity and sense of purpose with which the PD has delivered the community policing message in recent years is probably less effective than plain old law enforcement pursued in a disciplined and responsible fashion. Chief Lewis seems to me to bring those characteristics to his work, and that is welcome.

I’d like to hear from CMT leaders (many of whom were present at this announcement, I believe) about how they see this shift.

posted by: anon on February 5, 2009 6:06pm

Stop more cars for minor traffic violations. In addition to helping to prevent people (largely kids and elderly residents) from being killed and maimed by errant drivers, which happens all too often in New Haven, you’ll catch a lot of the people causing other crimes. Many if not most of the bad drivers out there have suspended licenses, are not licensed, or are carrying drugs/alcohol in their vehicles.

Traffic enforcement may be up 50% from 2007 to 2008 but it should be up by 200% or 300% if we want to really improve the community. Look at enforcement stats from other areas and you’ll see we’re still far behind. For the most part, you can run a stop sign, blow a red light, or drive at 35 miles per hour in the neighborhoods of New Haven with no fear of a ticket.

posted by: Chris on February 5, 2009 8:21pm

The citizens of the Quinnipiac village asked for exactly this approach eight years ago and were dismissed as naive by then Lieutenant(?)Ortiz. When he became Chief we all groaned. I for one am quite impressed. I have been pulled over three times in the last six months for warnings on my poor driving. I say thank-you. We all need to be reminded of how civil cities can function after suffering so long under a managed chaos mentality. Keep up the good work. Can we reform the fire department next?

posted by: Beat Down Posse on February 5, 2009 8:35pm

Ha Ha. We’re back. Beware Criminals. Beware taxpayers when you get hit with civil rights suits. Your paying. Waterboarding next????

posted by: Ellis Copleland on February 5, 2009 9:22pm

None of this matters. Before next February the Stooge in Chief will be gone, a new Mob man will be in place and everyhting will be back to business as usual—UNLESS we wise up and throw out Johhny and elect Dyson!

posted by: norton street on February 5, 2009 9:32pm

This is from William Finnegan’s book “Cold New World”

“The New Haven Police shut down the Mudhole (a drug spot at the corner of Shelton and Starr streets in Newhallville) for a while with an operation they called Citizens and Police Against Criminal Trangression. CAPACT which was introduced in 1988 to combat drug dealing, involved parking a manned police van twenty-four hours a day in a high-crime neighborhood and using it as a base for sweeps. In Newhallville, the van was parked directly across Shelton Avenue from the Mudhole, making it impossible for [the small gang that normally sold drugs at this location] to work there.
The Young officer [Finnegan]found at the Mudhole(in the van) said…he thought that the neighborhood was far safer than it had been. ‘We still get shootings-we had one last night,’ he said. ‘But not every forty-five minutes, like it was before.’ Drug dealing was still going on two blocks away, he said, and would undoubtedly return to the Mudhole after CAPACT left, but nobody believed that CAPACT was the answer to the drug problem anyway. (CAPACT was, in fact, discontinues soon thereafter.
Over several months, however, during which I passed CAPACT vans in Newhallville and Dixwell dozens of time, I never once saw policemen talking to a resident.(67-68)”

From this article:
“The new ‘targeted activity policing’ approach will employ tactical units, including a new ‘metro street crime unit’ that will move around, targeting specific behaviors such as prostitution and street robberies.” Or drug dealing?

As 2nd amendment so eloquently put it, we need to stop the “touchy-feely garbage” and go around to problem areas and make crime stop, and when it does, move on the next problem area and repeat until you realize that this doesn’t work and go back to real community policing (the touchy-feely stuff? more like the stuff that works).

posted by: Alex on February 5, 2009 9:47pm

“Dedicated to Protecting Our Community.” Protecting us from what and whom? This is just like the Republican’s war on terror. Ruling by fear - protecting us from that scary invisible enemy. Likely with dark skin - just like those guys on the wall at the Whalley station.

So our cowboy cops will be rounding up the bad guys and sending them off to that big growing American business. the prison industry. We don’t have to worry about them till they return and present a re-entry problem. Oh that’s happening now isn’t it?

Meanwhile the police will be giving out more bicycle and traffic tickets to keep the city hall coffers up along with more towing. This has been an increasingly oppressive community and is getting much more so. Used to be I knew the cops on the beat in town and we worked together. Now that has changed and is getting worse. The police are no longer our friends but more like the gestapo. Read the last paragraph in this article again. That worked and still works! Maybe Dyson can save us.

posted by: FHR513 on February 5, 2009 11:33pm

The beat down posse is back. Hey when Lewis finally leaves Dodge, DeStefano can bring Gallo out of East Haven to make the circle complete.

No surprise that Community Policing is dead in New Haven, eventhough communities like Branford have embraced community policing.

This is so disappointing. Tactical Units….sounds like the Bush administration. Just watch for the militarization of the NHPD. It is on its way.

posted by: Bill on February 6, 2009 8:50am

I agree with Tim, the article seems to end with and editorial comment which should not be part of a news story. Shoddy journalism.

posted by: Kevin Ewing on February 6, 2009 8:55am

You don’t abandon a strategy because it is not clear. You abandon a strategy because you do not have the will to clarify it.

Community policing is not clearly defined because there was no will to come up with a definition. It is clear that the administration, the police and even us in the community didn’t or couldn’t sit down and figure this out. Why? It really doesn’t matter. Who’s fault? Matters even less. Let’s move on.

So now we enter this era of targeted aggressive enforcement. Hmmm… I don’t know about you but that scares the crap out of me! Why? I remember riding with my training officer one day. I was driving. He picked out a car in the next lane and said, “Pull that car over.” “For what?” I asked. “Just follow it around for awhile… they’ll do something illegal.” At any given moment any one of us is capable of breaking a law that gives probable cause for further investigation. A failure to signal can get justify getting your car searched. As a black man that type of enforcement makes me nervous. (And not because I have anything to hide.) There is just too high a risk of becoming TOO aggressive or too targeted. Or at least of being perceived that way and recent history does justify our concern. Power tends to corrupt… absolute power corrupts absolutely. We are giving the police a lot of power.

We have to admit, though, that in spite of our fears we’ve asked for this. How many posts on this site have been crying for police protection? How many times have we asked where they are? We have demanded that the police rid us of crime and criminals. Well… here we go. Get ready because they are about to do exactly what we asked them to do. And it will work. They will catch a lot of criminals and a measure of safety will be reached. We will finally have our protectors and I cautiously support this strategy.

We can still have Community Policing. We’re getting policing so now we have to force the Community part. Join your neighborhood management team. Join your block watch. If a cop is parked on your street, go up and introduce yourself. Engage your neighbor in a conversation. Get to know the names of the kids on your block. Try to do at least three things a week for someone in your community. GET ENGAGED!!!

It looks like the administration and the police are giving up on it. They say they haven’t but if you notice every sentence that starts with “Community Policing” has a ‘but’ and then talks about policing. That’s okay for now. Like I said, we asked you to protect us and this is what you’re doing. BUT, I’m not giving up on Community. Together, we also have power.

Good luck Chief Lewis and team. Just don’t forget who you’re out there with.

posted by: Brian V on February 6, 2009 9:19am

I’ve lived and worked in New Haven for 17 years. The crime level is the worst I’ve seen it.
Don’t tell me (JD) that beat cops “are only helpful to a neighbor for the few seconds that the officer passes by his or her door.”
I used to see my beat cop 3 times a day in the State St coridor. I would talk with him tell him any concerns I had or had heard about and they would do the same. I was on a first name basis and so were most of the people in the neighborhood. I may have only seen the beat cop for “a few seconds” every day, but the criminals new there was a beat cop somewhere in area and -CRIME WAS DOWN.

The beat cop left and crime came in, not just petty crime and crimes of theft- VIOLENT crime.

Why did we loose the beat cops Mr Destefano?
Oh, I know, I know, it’s not your fault. The feds took your money away, Rodi Rell took your money away. It’s not your fault! You have only been Mayor for what? SIXTEEN YEARS? You shouldn’t be expected to actually take responsibility for the man power reduction, or inefectiveness of the city’s Policing- IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT. Blame it on the scapegoat du jour.
Why do you even comment on Policing, you don’t seem to get it, and to be grasping at straws.
First Pastore with one philosophy, then Wearing and Ortiz, the status quo, do what JD says twins.
And now a 180, with the new cheif. (I am not going to waste my time trying to remember his name he’ll be gone so fast). You have failed the city once again JD.

Bill Dyson is for the kind of Policing that reduced crime in the city. JD is not.
Time for him to go!

BILL DYSON PLEASE!

posted by: EJ on February 6, 2009 9:50am

When is New Haven at large going to step up and take their neighborhoods back?! I live in a section of Westville full of blue collar citizens who bought before the housing bubble when it was still affordable, many of whom were raised in the hill and newhallville and fair haven in the 1980’s. We don’t stand for crime or criminal behavior in our neighborhoods here. Our children are taught values and goals and are able to succeed in public schools all over the city.

It’s the PD’s job to protect us from violent crime but we need to step up and prevent minor problems from creating the environment for more substantial crime. Littering, reckless driving, suspicious activity need to be not just reported but confronted consistently and directly.
Also, what’s with kids challenging cars and pedestrians with displays of intimidation?? Wow, you made me stop in the middle of the road instead of using the crosswalk less than 50 ft away where i would have gladly stopped for you any way. Then, when you try to tell them how dangerous this game is they cuss you out and pull up there shirt to intimate that they have a gun to intimidate you further.

Newsflash: Tolerating this behavior as a community only opens the door to more aggressive and offensive behavior and it needs to stop, now! Call out casual offenders respectfully by reminding them what a great city this is without so many gestures of disregard. Perhaps it will be contagious enough to make a real impact. Sure there will always be crime. But making it the exception instead of the rule gives the police less of an excuse to harass the entire city, instead being able to police real lifelong criminals while we prevent our neighbors and children from becoming them.

Lets not forget how many people are filling our jails to beyond full for non-violent crimes or marijuana and other recreational drug use/sale. Maybe if we had more sensible penalties for such minor offenses we could generate some income for the city to reduce taxes while saving incalculable tax dollars in legal costs and incarceration fees.

posted by: anon on February 6, 2009 10:34am

Who cares what you call the new initiative. Stop people for minor crimes, like littering and noise violations. In particular, start stopping more people for reckless driving, including running reds, driving over the speed limit, and not coming to a full stop at stop signs (which are not “minor” crimes - these things kill and injure large numbers of people).

By cracking down on this type of behavior, you prevent the bigger stuff from happening. Law Enforcement 101.

Don’t call it racial profiling. A lot of the reckless drivers are suburban guys cruising through town to try to get home 2 minutes earlier, in the meantime, killing our children - either directly by hitting them, or indirectly, by making them feel unsafe to go outside.

Go to any other industrialized country. Six year old kids play out on the middle of the streets. Neighbors socialize. Why? Because the streets aren’t filled with reckless, speeding vehicles. They are safe for people. Drivers aren’t allowed to go more than 15 mph in the neighborhoods.

If you want to prevent crime, you need to improve society as a whole and that starts with the way people interact at the most basic levels.

posted by: JZ on February 6, 2009 10:36am

aggressive enforcement of the law.

-I hope that’s what will happen. I’ve only lived in New Haven for less than a decade, but I’ve never seen this “community policing” so many people talk fondly of. I have seen a policy of containment practiced and it doesn’t work. It’s cruel for the law abiding people who live in the lawless sections of the city and violence does spill out.

posted by: jackie on February 6, 2009 10:51am

E,
your entire post is music to my ears: measured and sensible, and above all honest about the palpable lack of civility on our streets that is symptomatic of what seems to be a very troubled inner city culture.

posted by: Beansie's Mom on February 6, 2009 12:34pm

I had no problem with ID-Net. With plain clothes, how will you know you are actually being stopped by LAW enforcement?

As for stopping the practices by Nick Pastore, Thank you very much. This is a belated but very welcome Christmas present.

What a wonderful Idea to let Law Enforcement, enforce the laws.

This has been a very long time coming. And yes, it is time for last resort methods. Otherwise you have reckless cowboys and vigilantes taking the law into their own hands. Which is what happened this past summer when people assumed the driver was guilty. Parents have to know where their children are 24 hours a day in today’s society and constantly enforce good behavior.

Thank you Chief.

posted by: bfair on February 6, 2009 1:03pm

“Protecting OUR Community”. Great slogan but I need clarification on who “OUR” represents since the majority of NHPD lives outside the community they work in.If building relationships and partnering between the police and community exists and the mayor wants it to be continued why change the language on the cars? If I could offer some advice: make sure to alert your officers when you’re having a prostituion sting so they don’t get caught up in the sting soliciting services for themselves.

posted by: Bill Saunders on February 6, 2009 1:14pm

Just remember, aggressive enforcement also means aggressive hassling of joe citizen.

This actually happened to me one weekend night, after enjoying a film at the Criterion. On the way back to the car, my friend popped into her place of business to use the bathroom.

When asked by the police about my ‘lurking’, I told them I was waiting for my friend. When she emerged, and corroborated my story, they continued to attempt to justify my detainment.

A half hour later, we were finally allowed to leave, while the drunken assholery of Crown St. raged on.

Hope it doesn’t happen to you.

posted by: Alphonse Credenza on February 6, 2009 4:34pm

Thank goodness for the end of community policing and a return to policing.

posted by: unprotected on February 7, 2009 4:38am

BFAIR, are you saying that the police should protect their own if they are doing wrong by warning them?? why not let them get taken down if they are doing wrong? should the police depasrtment also warn drug dealers that they are doing stings on street level sales? or should they go into bars and tell them there is a checkpoint just down the street. the NHPD has been diluted over the years with laizze faire supervision, it is time to take drastic measures and regain control over the streets.

posted by: KAMB on February 7, 2009 9:53am

Let me get this straight . . So, ID NET focused on making arrests for all kinds of violations? NOW THE PD wants this other Metro Unit to focus on making the rights arrests?! WHAT THEY ARE SAYING is dont give tickets to regular peole for going through stops signs and red lights . . . . give the kid or guy a ticket in the projects who goes through the stop sign instead so NO ONE WILL COMPLAIN TO KING John DeStefano.

ITS ALL POLITICAL BS! When ID NET was around they flooded the streets and got rid of thousands of unregistered cars, drug dealers, gun toting hoodlums. ID NET was great. BUT when they gave people like BOSE KIMBER (sp?) a ticket and people affiliated with the local churches thats when KING John said DISBAND THEM!

Policing should be done equally across the board. Police the behavior not the person. But KING John does not want this.

posted by: Sally Joughin on February 7, 2009 1:57pm

I agree with former chief Pastore’s description of community policing in the last paragraph. If New Haven had unlimited personnel and funding, we could address many problems, but since we don’t, police focus ought to be on those individuals who are illegally selling guns to our youth and those big operators who are bringing large amounts of harmful drugs into our community. Police focus should not be on prostitution or possession of drugs, especially marijuana. If more attention and funding went to education, jobs and community services in our urban areas, especially for youth, we would have a lot less criminal activity. And ending the failed “Drug War” would also stop a lot of today’s violence and drug selling on the corner, so police would be able to pay more attention to other crimes and public safety issues.

posted by: Alan Felder on February 7, 2009 11:51pm

“Targeted Activity Policing” = “Black Code”.

posted by: angelo reyes on February 8, 2009 10:03am

sorry sally in this case your wrong.there are no big time dealers out there,just little guys with no brains,no disipline, big cohones,and possibly a weapon to defend their ways. i sometimes wish there were one individual to blame,speaking from experiance for the record i am not proud of my past but i can say there was a line that noone would cross back then.im up till midnight doing my part to ensure a better quality of life in my neighborhood.i shouldnt be but i still feel that i owe.let the police do there thing.you can help by staying in touch with your local leutenant.that is the best crime prevention for you.also keep pushing your neighbors to leave one outside light on.

posted by: jackie on February 8, 2009 9:06pm

c’mon, mr. felder. drop the “us vs. them” BS. what’s your alternative? more streets that look like dixwell?

anecdotally, i’ve seen more white women pulled over for traffic infractions than black. and it’s not just cause they’re worse drivers. less risk they’re packing, perhaps?

really: for every time you suggest that black men are being unduly targeted here in the city, i think you should add your concern about the unduly nature of their possession of illegal firearms, shooting each other, etc.

put those two together and ‘yes we can’ work together. other than that, all i hear is the same sour grapes and excuse-making that make race relations here so toxic.

posted by: Divine Shabazz on February 10, 2009 10:21am

Calling all college students and all other great young minds in New Haven! The current system we have in New Haven is not working for us! If you are tired of the plantation politics and master-slave relationship that John DeStefano has forged across the Elm City, then we need to do something about it! Let’s come together and change the face of New Haven politics! Let’s draft Bill Dyson to run for Mayor and finally put in one of our own to govern our beloved city! Holla Black!!

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