Nick Defiesta Photo
Patrol cops will start taking fingerprints at the scene of property crimes. And police investigators from throughout the region will start holding a weekly date-sharing and strategy “Compstat” meeting like the successful ones New Haven already holds on its own.
New Haven announced the two new initiatives Thursday afternoon.
They represent, in the view of Chief Dean Esserman (pictured), the next steps in developing “smart policing” policies based on regional cooperation and on cross-training of officers.
Detectives from departments through Greater New Haven have begun meeting weekly — sometimes in person, sometimes teleconferencing — along with federal and state law enforcement officials “to discuss ongoing regional cases and investigations that may cross municipal lines.”
“I think that more and more the regional approach is a direction that police departments around the country are going in,” Esserman said. “Just as the Hamden police department has expertise in computer crime analysis and investiagtion that New Haven does not have, we have some expertise they do not have. We both want to learn how to share each other’s resources and share each other’s information. This weekly meeting is a step in working in partnership in a regional level, not just inside New Haven.”
Meanwhile, New Haven’s police union has signed off on the plan to cross-train beat cops so they can take fingerprints on property-crime cases. That will enable the department to gather needed evidence more readily in more cases — while allowing seasoned detectives from the Bureau of Identification to focus on more complex forensic work involving shootings and other violent crimes.
“The detectives will always be needed at the serious crime scenes, and will now be freed up to concentrate more on them,” Esserman said.
This is another fluff story.....
I have had a slew of direct NHPD experiences lately, and this is what I see.....
The biggest thing NHPD can do to improve it's effectiveness and responsiveness to the public is
A). Have Officers be Nice to people, rather than confrontational.
.
B). Get some technology in the department as cross-reference aid for the issuing civilians their police reports -- as it stands now, unless you have a complaint number, you are waiting forever, and may come up empty.
C). Have a CIVILIAN intake cooridinator for IA complaints -- as it stands now, you get some carbon copy paperwork, and are shuffled off, though you may have told you story several times, it is not on paper. It is a game about covering their ass, not community responsibility. If you come in to complain, you should leave with a complaint on File. Simple.
D. Have a separate CIVILIAN LIASON in that front office at Union Station to assuage the ongoing drama of victims seeking assistance......The victims/uniforms dynamic is self-fulfiling mayhem.
There a people in distress and trauma seeking help that is non-existent and exaspertory.
These people either do not know how to manage, or they are willfully ignorant. Or they just listen to consultants they pay at our expense, with abysmal results.....
Communty Policing deserves a genuine Human Element if it is going to work beyond the soundbites....
ps. my fingerprints were done digitally,...