East Rock’s top cop warned people not to hire neighbor- hood teens to do odd jobs.
Lt. Rebecca Sweeney (pictured) issued the warning during a report on neighborhood crime at Monday evening’s East Rock Management Team meeting at the East Rock School library at Nash and Willow.
Sweeney said she’d gotten some complaints from residents who had hired kids to do chores like snow shoveling, but weren’t happy when they reappeared at their doors. “I know it’s cheap labor; I completely understand, but it’s like feeding stray animals — once you feed them, they continue to come back. Call us if you think they’re up to no good.” Click here to hear more of her thoughts.
A man at the meeting cautioned, “It’s important not to be judging the kids who are doing this. There are certainly plenty of kids who are trying to earn some money legitimately.”
Sweeney acknowledged that, but still urged residents to hire only licensed contractors.
That had some of those at the meeting, like Judy Nugent, shaking their heads. “My son used to do that kind of thing to make extra money,” she said, finding no harm in it.
Management team chair Kevin McCarthy (pictured) mentioned that some youngsters would ring front door bells and then, when no one answered, go around to the back door, which raised the level of concern.
Book Reading, Aggressive Drivers
Sweeney also reported on a new project that’s recruiting volunteers to take new books and read to kids at the Newhallville substation, hopefully on an ongoing basis. The first reading day will be Saturday, March 22, after which the kids will be given the books to take home. Neighbor Debra Hauser, who’s working on the project, said the volunteers were motivated to take action after learning that the criminal justice system forecasts the number of beds it will need for prisoners based on third graders’ reading scores. That was the same point raised by Sen. Toni Harp in this story.
Mark Abraham asked Sweeney if there is any effort at the police department to take action against aggressive drivers who run red lights and ignore the rights of pedestrians and cyclists, and specifically to educate drivers that the law requires them to stop for a pedestrian in a crosswalk.
“No,” she said, because the force is understaffed. She did suggest that anyone who sees those things happening should call the police. If a pattern is detected, she might be able to send an officer to nab offenders in the act.
Then McCarthy led a discussion about whether those present want to create subcommittees, either standing or ad hoc, to address concerns around public safety, transportation, housing and mentoring in neighborhood schools. Several people mentioned that the ad hoc effort to reduce noise pollution was effective. The sense was that it’s best for people who care passionately about a problem to organize around it for maximum results, rather than create committees that may not do anything. Meeting-goers agreed to do some brainstorming at the next meeting, March 24, 7 p.m. in the library of East Rock School.
Before the meeting ended, Betty Thompson (pictured), who lives in the Cedar Hill section of East Rock and was attending her second Management Team meeting, said she needed to get in touch with members of the Friends of East Rock Park for help with some neighborhood concerns, like beautification and getting a canoe launch in her part of town for access to the Mill River. “People come to these meetings with their own agendas,” she said. That was hers. “If you don’t bring up what you want, nobody is going to bring it up for you.” Several people suggested she contact Alderman Roland Lemar.
As Obama says, the silly season has arrived.
So kids (the overwhelming majority of whom are completely legit) come to your door to shovel snow. You should turn them away because of their industriousness?
Kids snow shoveling and doing other odd jobs has been going on in New Haven for hundreds of years.
It would seem that in the long haul, slamming the door in kids faces, door after door, block after block, is more likely to create angry disenfranchised youth than letting them make a few bucks shoveling snow.
Is there more to this story? If not, then the NHPD should really hire more officers who live in the city and thus likely engaged in exactly this kind of entrepreneurial behavior themselves one day.