Hill Crime-Strategy Session Ends With A Job Offer

Mother of six Angel Hubbard thought she had no other options to keep her 13 year-old son out of trouble. Then a neighbor offered him a job.

Hubbard received the job offer at a meeting held Thursday night at John C. Daniels School for Hill residents to discuss neighborhood concerns about quality of life issues, violence, and crime.

Hill Alder Ron Hurt organized the meeting in partnership with city staff, the New Haven Police Department (NHPD), and neighboring alders in response to residents’ concerns over crime.

“I want to get to the nuts and bolts of these issues, not just talk about them,” Hurt said.

Thursday’s meeting was the first of a planned series for the neighborhood to collaborate with the city to learn about connecting with youth groups, the NHPD anonymous tip line, and street outreach workers.

Thirty neighbors joined city officials, Hurt, and fellow Alders Carmen Rodriguez, Kampton Singh, Richard Furlow, and Evelyn Rodriguez for the first meeting. The next meeting is being planned for January, Hurt said.

The organizers told the community that problem-solving will require partnerships with the city, community, and law enforcement. 

Hill District Manager Lt. Justin Marshall provided the community with updated crime and violence statistics specific to Ward 3. He reported that a single homicide has happened in the area and 20 confirmed shots fired have occurred in the past three months.

Since Aug. 1, 14 narcotics investigations have taken place and three search warrants were executed in the area, both resulting in multiple arrests and seized firearms and drugs. Marshall said the department’s plainclothes unit has recently been very busy in Hill North, helping to cause a ​“drastic” decrease in violence over the fall.

“Due to lack of personnel, I’ve been forced to think outside the box,” Marshall said.

One response to the violence has been the reintroduction of walking beat officers. Walking beat Officers Jacob Sosik and Maurice Randall were introduced at the meeting. The officers are tasked with fostering relationships with community members on their foot patrols.

Marshall said he assigns Officers Sosik and Randall to walk areas each week based on the highest recent reports of violence or quality-of-life complaints.

Arch Street resident Awilda Candelario asked if the officers could pay more attention to patrolling her street and the Hallock Street playground. She said she calls the department frequently due to loitering and drug activity in the park.

In response, Officer Randall said that he and Sosik currently patrol that street in their cars but do not walk it. Marshall agreed to pay more attention to the area.

Assistant Police Chief Karl Jacobson said the neighborhood hasn’t seen a shooting since Oct. 6. He thanked neighborhood alders for connecting residents with the department resources. ​“The police department cannot do it alone,” he said.

He said the department is working to fill more walking beats to promote community policing, which he defined as convincing residents to ​“trust me so you’ll call me.”

The city has had 98 nonfatal shootings this year and 23 homicides, an 11 percent increase over the previous year at this point. That year-to-year percentage increase has dropped considerably since earlier in the year.

All but one of the eight recruits currently in the police academy are nonwhite, he reported. ​“That’s a change this city needs.”

Of 523 applications submitted during a recently completed recruitment drive, 70 percent were from nonwhite applicants.

Jacobson was asked if the department can amend its contract for new officers to require that they stay with the department for at least five years. ​“We have trained all these people with our tax dollars, and they went other places right after,” one resident said. ​“That’s not fair for us.”

Jacobson said the current contract requires officers to stay for two years or else reimburse the city for their training costs. He agreed to look into the possibility of extending that time frame.

Connecticut Violence Intervention Program chief Leonard Jahad introduced his program’s newly hired Hill street outreach worker, Omar Ryan. Jahad said the program was able to use American Rescue Plan dollars to hire Ryan and plans to assign outreach workers to each neighborhood in the future.

Meanwhile, during the meeting, Hubbard told city officials that her 13 year-old son has been starting to get into trouble lately at school, but not enough to qualify for the programs being offered to address violence. She worries that he’ll fall through the cracks and get into deeper trouble.

“I am that mother that has reached out. But all these programs want are kids who are getting in trouble with the police or on probation,” she said.

At the end of the meeting city staffers provided Hubbard with information about programs that might provide opportunities or help for her son.

Hubbard said her son loves to fix up bikes and has several at home that he constantly works on.

“When we do reach out we’re still at blame,” she said. ​“My son just has his toe in the water right now but I don’t want it to go any further.”

Then John Brehon, owner of the Devil’s Gear Bike Shop, offered her a job for her son to keep him out of trouble.

Meanwhile, Jacobson said he will urge the walking beat officers to pass out service cards to residents that share what resources the city has to help.