Aliyya Swaby Photo
Sgt. Roy Davis offered Wooster Square neighbors scared of increased crime a promise for more officers — and advice to keep their fear in check.
Davis, the new manager of the downtown-Wooster Square district, fielded questions from the neighborhood’s block watch Monday night at New Light High School on Wooster Place, advising people to keep calm about the fact that two women and one man have beaten and robbed over the past several weeks.
An eight-year veteran of the New Haven Police Department, Davis comes to the center-city district from the East Shore. He spent three years as a shift supervisor, and worked in narcotics and internal affairs.
“Pepper Spray To A Gun Fight”
His message to Wooster Square: Be careful, but don’t let fear consume you.
When fear of crime is “through the roof,” Davis said, “it deteriorates neighborhoods and breaks them down.”
Two women reported being mugged in the neighborhood in early September, allegedly by two young black men in dark clothing at around 10 p.m., Davis said. One man reported being mugged at Olive and State Streets last Saturday night, allegedly by a young black man with an orange sweatshirt.
A pair of walking beat officers will be assigned to the neighborhood four nights per week starting at the end of the month, Davis said. Two officers will patrol on bikes until then.
One woman raised her hand to ask Davis whether she should carry pepper spray and use it if attacked.
“There’s no reason not to have pepper spray,” since it is legal in the state of Connecticut, Davis responded. But don’t use it if someone implies or simulates a weapon, he said. “Please don’t take pepper spray to a gun fight.”
The neighborhood also saw a spate of burglaries this summer, including two homes on Lyon Street and one on Hughes Place. Davis told people to close their windows, especially on the first floor.
“The crime in this area is really very minimal,” he said. “It’s probably the same group of people doing it. I don’t want to scare anyone.” Likely, the increase in crime is a result of “crime displacement,” as officers crack down on drug use and panhandling downtown on the New Haven Green, he said.
Bath-Salts Interruption
Davis was interrupted when police officers asked him to help them calm down a man screaming in the middle of Wooster Square Park, directly across from the school. Davis left the meeting, approached the man and had a conversation with him, returning once the man was more relaxed.
The other officers called an ambulance, since Davis said the man was “clearly on some kind of substance,” likely “bath salts,” a synthetic mood-altering drug.
“Crazily enough,” Davis told neighbors when he returned to the school, “he knew me by my name.”
Neighbors Monday said the feel of Wooster Square Park is changing. They reported seeing more signs of drug use, including discarded baggies and rolling papers.
Jennifer McTiernan, co-founder of Cityseed, said she has noticed the “spillover crime.” “The feel of Wooster Square Park is starting to change for me, the way the Green has changed for me,” she said.
The fact that the man knew Davis by name was a sign that community policing is working well in the neighborhood, she said.
How Avoid Profiling?
Not all neighbors were satisfied with that explanation.
Hannah Milliken, roommate of one of the women attacked on William Street, asked how Davis would avoid racially profiling people of color in Wooster Square, given the fact that the attackers have been described as black men. She and her roommate, who have both been victims of crime in the area, are young white women.
“I want people of color to be safe in our neighborhood as well,” she said. “What are people talking about within law enforcement” to prevent profiling them?
Davis said he does not have that conversation with his officers because he did not think it necessary. “I expect my officers not to profile. We’re here to protect you. We’re not here to single out any person,” he said.
He has instructed officers new to the district to get to know neighbors and then “seek out suspicious people” using “person intuition.”
Davis urged neighbors to choose one quality-of-life issue they want district officers to target. Some, he noted, will be simpler to address than others.
The police department and city are working on an initiative called Project Green Thumb, to offer people engaged in low-level criminal activity an opportunity for community service instead of jail. They can bring initiatives such as this to Wooster Square, he said.
“Let’s attack the fear of crime,” Davis said. “As the fear of crime lessens, you will be begin to feel safer, even if you’re not. You’ve had incidents in the area that are few and far between.”
In the continuing era of union controlled psuedo-leftist Board of Alders, pet issues which can be used for propaganda dominate and boisterous vagrancy and drug use on our most prized public spaces just doesn't register (because a public space clean up would tarnish the appearance of humanistic left thinking they use to mask their own self-service.)