Christopher Peak photo
The APT Foundation on Congress Avenue.
Thomas Breen photo
Lt. Jason Minardi tells neighbors at Tuesday night’s meeting about increased police presence outside a Congress Avenue methadone clinic.
A controversial methadone clinic in the Hill is paying the city for extra police presence in an attempt to deter potential illegal activity from happening outside of its doors.
According to the neighborhood’s top cop, that strategy is working out well.
At Tuesday night’s regular monthly meeting of the Hill North Community Management Team at Career High School on Legion Avenue, Lt. Jason Minardi told neighbors that the APT Foundation has been paying for an off-duty New Haven police officer to be stationed outside of its primary methadone dispensary at 435 Congress Ave. from 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Monday through Friday.
Minardi said that the APT Foundation has been funding this increased police presence since Dec. 13, 2017. He said that the clinic pays $257.55 for each day’s additional shift.
He said that the off-duty police officer parks a police car in the clinic’s driveway, and spends much of his shift walking around the building.
“I hope you guys have noticed that the APT Foundation seems a lot cleaner during the daytime now,” Minardi said. “I’ve been working hard on it. They’ve hired a police officer on a regular basis. We’re going to keep the pressure on them, because I know you guys can see the difference when we have a cop there and when we don’t.”
For years the APT Foundation has drawn criticism from neighbors for attracting drug dealers, prostitutes and people recovering from addictions to an area right across the street from a K – 8 magnet school.
Last October, a man was fatally stabbed outside the clinic’s walls during a dispute with the new boyfriend of an ex-girlfriend who was receiving treatment at the methadone facility.
Minardi said that the improved conditions outside the APT Foundation are not just a result of the new off-duty police presence, as paid for by the clinic. He said that Yale University has been assisting by stationing a Yale Police patrol car on the block.
He also said that he has been working with the police department’s narcotics division to visit the area multiple times a week. He said that narcotics officers have made seven arrests in the area in the past week.
“There are a lot of different things going on to try to quell things down over there,” Minardi said.
Hill resident Dora Lee Brown praises the police work.
Dora Lee Brown, a retired entomologist and long-time Hill North management team participant who lives on Asylum Street, applauded Minardi for putting pressure on the APT Foundation to work more closely with the police.
“The street feels so much safer,” she said.
Minardi said that he was not sure how long the APT Foundation would continue to pay for an off-duty officer’s presence on weekday mornings. He said that the clinic had committed to funding the extra police presence for a trial period, but that the NHPD would try to encourage the foundation to keep funding the extra police shift for as long as they can.
This is great news! But, what took so long for this to happen?
As long as APT is open at this location, they should be on the hook for the police officer's pay, not the new haven tax payer. They're are plenty of businesses that hire extra police, out of pocket.
Previous commentators have noted that Methadone clinics are making money on the service they provide. APT can afford this additional community safety service that New Haven is asking them to provide.