Sam Gurwitt Photo
Watching out on Ferry near Grand.
Fair Haven’s top cop had to to scramble to find officers to address some major trouble spots during a tough crime month in Fair Haven — even after the chief approved overtime.
Fair Haven District Manager Sergeant Michael Fumiatti described that challenge during Thursday night at a presentation at the regular monthly meeting of the Fair Haven Community Management Team.
The gathering drew about 30 participants via the Zoom teleconferencing app and was facilitated by the group’s co-chair, Diane Ecton, and its corresponding secretary, David Weinreb.
The “tough” month of September that Fumiatti reported on included two people shot on the sidewalk of Grand Avenue in front of the old Farnam Court development (now re-monikered Mill River Crossing, technically across the river from Fair Haven but within the policing district), and “a lot of homelessness, complaints of sex work going on in the neighborhood, and quality-of-life issues” including public drug-dealing.
Fumiatti described the shootings as having occurred “in front of Ferraro’s.” He later clarified that the first occurred on Sept. 1 across the street on the north side of Grand Avenue near Hamilton Street, and the other later in the month near Franklin Street.
In the first incident the victim was caught in a drive-by crossfire between two feuding groups. In the second incident a responding officer applied a tourniquet to the leg of one of the people hit by gunfire to staunch the flow of blood. In both incidents the wounds were non-life threatening, Fumiatti reported.
“Since then we have been non-stop in that location,” Fumiatti said.
But the department at large is wrestling with a shortage of officers.
The shortage of officers, even to fill the overtime shifts that he was able to get approved, has accelerated Fumiatti’s working with nonprofit partners, especially property managers from the Housing Authority of New Haven/Elm City Communities.
He said the investigation so far indicates the groups who are feuding are outsiders to the neighborhood. A centerpiece of the evolving plan to address the issue includes an NHPD officer taking up residence in the complex.
The two other areas in the district where attention focused were on Ferry Street and on Chapel Street, where complaints about sex work had been received. They take place primarily between 3 and 7 a.m.
The third trouble spot, where neighbors and local business owners have complained about loitering and about drug dealing even during daytime hours.
“We’re trying to fill some of these issues with overtime, but don’t have enough officers, so we need to work with our partners like SWAN” (Sex Workers & Allies Network), Fumiatti said.
“They’ve agreed to clean up syringes,” Fumiatti said. And some of the homeless people in the neighborhood finally agreed to accept help from organizations with which the cops have put them in touch.
After Fumiatti’s report, neighbors responded with expressions of appreciation for the whole range of responses that the cops have orchestrated in spite of their limited resources.
Dennis Silvestri, who lives near Grand and Lloyd, reported far fewer people are congregating there and up to no good.
“I want to commend your officers in handling the streetwalkers,” Diane Ecton told Fumiatti. “They’ve been able to interact with them in a calm way. I want to pat your guys on the back. It was great the way you handled it.”
Other neighbors complimented Fumiatti on an approach that walks the always difficult line between protecting the public and understanding the predicaments of people struggling with addiction, mental illness, and other chronic travails.
Fumiatti said he’d pass the compliments along to his officers, who have been attending crisis intervention seminars on Zoom.
The police department needs more social worker crisis teams like SWAN to handle the sex workers, and an outreach team to help the homeless find shelter and housing, and handle other quality of life social issues, so that the police can focus on the violent crimes.