All They Want for Christmas is a Bike Cop

East Rockers sought protection from a streak of armed muggings. Citing open drug-dealing, neighbors in Cedar Hill, a self-contained northeastern stretch of East Rock by State Street and the Hamden border, asked for a bike cop for Christmas. At a public meeting with top police brass Thursday night, both said a loss of community policing, and a decline in police presence, are eroding their quality of life.

Sitting on folding chairs in the foyer of Wilbur Cross High School, two groups — a block watch from Cedar Hill, and a slew of neighbors from greater East Rock — got the chance to ask Assistant Police Chief Herman Badger and other top cops about the problems facing their streets. The meeting came as top cops traverse the city, restrategizing and responding to a citywide outcry that community policing is dead.

Cedar Hill: ​“We feel neglected”

Block watch members from Cedar Hill said their neighborhood — an isolated, eight-street enclave tucked between East Rock Park and Interstate 91 — is being overrun by drug dealers.

“My cousins cannot come out the house because there are all these guys out there on the street,” said one 17 year-old girl, one of about 30 Cedar Hill block watch members to turn up to the meeting. Others told of drug dealers on May working out of lawn chairs; transactions in suspicious vans near the Hess gas station; and customers zipping in and out of a notorious State Street barber shop at all hours of the night — ​“and not to get their hair cut.”

Marexes Reed (pictured) said she’s tired of seeing drug dealers and prostitutes on the corner near where she lives. ​“I’m fed up. These kids are sitting home, they’re running drugs while we’re all out working.” Many said they didn’t call headquarters because they don’t respond in time.

Neighbors see the persistent problems as a result of decreased patrol. Anthony Zullo rattled off the names of all the beat cops he knew in the ​’90s, when federal funds supported 45 extra cops and many walking beats. ​“I’d see them walk by, I’d feed ​‘em, give ​‘em ice cream,” he said. ​“They worked their butts off to clean up the neighborhood.” Nowadays, he said, he doesn’t see regular patrols come by. Nor did any other Cedar Hill people at the meeting.

Cops insisted they’re at work in the area, and that neighbors could help. Sgt. Romano Ratti, who supervises the diverse swath of the city encompassing Cedar Hill, East Rock and Newhallville, said he doesn’t get many calls from Cedar Hill.

One woman said she’d given up.

Lt. Billy White, who heads the police narcotics unit, gave out his cell phone number to those who might witness drug interactions: ​“Call me when you see it happen.” He said his officers made seven arrests on May Street within the last month.

East Rock Alderman Ed Mattison, who hosted the meeting between Ward 10 members and five policemen, insisted the neighbors and cops need to build a strategy, because ​“blowing into the neighborhoods, making a bunch of arrests, then leaving” just isn’t a long-term solution.

“We need a Brian Donnelly in Cedar Hill — that would make a hell of a lot of difference,” said Mattison, referring to East Rock’s newly restored, much-applauded bike cop.

“That would be a Christmas gift!” remarked one Cedar Hill man. Not wanting to wait for Christmas, Block watchers agreed to pick a target — barber shop or Hess Station — and create a plan to pressure the drug activity out.

The plan will be discussed at the next Cedar Hill Block Watch meeting, on Thursday, Nov. 2 at 6 p.m. at the East Rock Magnet School.

East Rock: We Need More Info

Residents of greater East Rock, who live closer to downtown around the Orange Street area, said they are afraid to walk at night after a rash of armed muggings. They begged for information: Have you made arrests? Is this really a rash? What has been done to stop the trend?

“I’m really angry because someone pointed a gun at my chest in June,” said David Silberkleit, who was held up at gunpoint while taking a walk near Orange and Lawrence Streets this summer with his girlfriend, Leslie Prodis.

After the assault, the pair led a block watch revival in the area of Orange, Cottage, Avon, and Lawrence Streets. Since then, Silberkleit has gotten several emails from people who have also been mugged. E‑mailers share descriptions of their assailants, but Silberkleit said no progress has been made. ​“The message that I’m getting from the community is there’s a lot of outrage. … People are afraid. They don’t know who to call, what to do.”

Sgt. Kevin Costin, head of the burglary/robbery unit, counted nine street robberies in East Rock since July. Perhaps most jarring were two muggings just one block away from each other on Lawrence Street. They happened less than 24 hours apart, on Sept. 10, both reportedly with sawed-off shotguns.

Those muggings, and a lack of police presence, are eating away at East Rock’s social fabric, residents said. ​“There’s a real difference in our neighborhood now. People are afraid to go out after dark. There’s not the same sense of neighborhood anymore,” said Robin Schafer.

Officer Joseph Avery, who’s in charge of neighborhood services, said the area’s also seen a recent spike in auto break-ins: 17 cars have been broken into within the last week.

“We all recognize that we need a stronger [police] presence there,” said Assistant Chief Badger, referring to East Rock. The bike cop has returned, working 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Other than that, Badger could only say that he hoped for a large recruitment class to take to the streets in January.

Costin (pictured) tried to assure neighbors that the bout of street robberies was over. He said he thinks two teens who were arrested in Newhallville, one of whom had a shotgun, are responsible for up to four East Rock robberies.

Yet he said the teens have not confessed as such nor been arrested on robbery charges. And descriptions from the two consecutive Lawrence Street muggings did not necessarily coincide: One group was described as Hispanic, the other group as black.

Asked if the seeming spike in robberies was really a ​“spike” — it sure felt like one to many 20-year-plus residents in the room — Costin didn’t have an answer. He said the incidents aren’t the same as last year’s, when groups of teens on bicycles robbed a lot of people in the Prospect Street area. But he couldn’t give stats specific to East Rock, comparing this year’s robberies with last year’s.

The simple unanswered question — has crime gone up in our neighborhood this summer? — left residents clamoring for hard facts. Frustrated Yale students, one of whom had seen a friend shot on Mansfield Street, said they didn’t know where or when robberies were happening, other than when the university alerts them through email.

Long-time resident and former Alderman Dick Lyons (pictured) said having no access to comprehensive crime info ​“leaves us powerless.” ​“When you see the information, you can act on it,” he said — by avoiding perilous streets, for example, and traveling safer ones. District-specific incident reports used to be sent out to the public, but aren’t any more.

“We’re doing that through the Independent now,” said Badger.

But the Independent​‘s crime log hasn’t been updated since June, because the only cop who apparently knew how to work the computer files was put on extended leave.

Avery said he hopes a new computer software program will restore those updates in October on the city’s web site.