Allan Appel Photo
Williams addresses commissioners.
At noon on Christmas Day Rodney Williams reported to the police that a chain saw and other power equipment had been stolen from the Munson Street construction site where he’d been working.
A police officer arrived an hour later, and Williams appreciates the careful work the officer is doing in the still-open case to find the perpetrator and potentially get back the equipment.
However, he also wishes the cops could have come sooner. He’s not alone.
Williams told that story made a pitch for a more customer-friendly, 21st-century response to the non-emergency police number (203 – 946-6316) during the new public comment segment of the regular monthly meeting of the Board of Police Commissioners at police headquarters.
(He also recorded his wait on Facebook, in this video.)
The new feature of the meeting, instituted late last year, allows any member of the public to make a comment or air a grievance, in brief remarks, at the end of the regular agenda of the meeting.
Before he rose to speak Tuesday night, Williams had heard Chief Anthony Campbell give a brief preview of “a banner year” for the New Haven police in terms of lower statistics for most categories of crime.
Officials will reveal the full report of the 2018’s statistics on Jan. 17, Campbell said. He the stats will reveal the lowest numbers in years for violent crimes and an overall decline. (For, reported nonfatal shootings dropped from 61 to 50.)
That was news to Williams, a longtime resident of Newhallville and former vice chair of the Dixwell Community Management Team.
“The truth is people are getting robbed [in Newhallville], only we don’t file reports,” he said.
Williams included himself in that category too. He ascribed the reason to two related factors: a culture of non-filing and non-communication with the police, and unnecessary wait times before officers arrive to respond to burglaries and other serious “small stuff.”
“I didn’t call the cops [in the past] because this is a community where this happens,” he told the commissioners.
“How many people,” he hypothesized, “can wait for a cop for three hours?”
“There should be some response, some communication” from the department to the caller to let him or her know when an officer is going to show up, he added.
“Our police department is designed for the past. Who’s working on the future?” Williams asked rhetorically. “It’s 2019, and they need to fix a broken system. A lot of people get robbed, but they think nothing’s going to happen because the cops take too much time to respond to the small stuff. They say crime is down, but it’s not in our community.”
Police Commission Vice Chair Greg Smith, seated, confers with Alder Gerald Antunes.
Campbell, who had been called away at the start of the commissioners’ meeting to check on a police involved shooting in the Kimberly Square section of the Hill, was not present to hear Williams remarks.
Police Commission Vice Chair Greg Smith, who was chairing the proceedings, did. “We’re not ignoring what you’re saying,” Smith said. “We’re taking it in.”
Williams proceeded to praise the officer who is handling his case: “It’s a perfect example of community policing. The communication is good, and he’s a white officer,” he added.
The department has been wrestling with a shortage of cops because of retirements, losses of officers to other departments, and injuries.
After the meeting, Commissioner Smith said that what he heard Williams asking for was “quicker response time.” He called that a good idea and one that the commissioners can look into.
Campbell: 21st Century Beckons
Reached on Thursday, Chief Campbell completely embraced Williams’ call for a better “customer experience” when people call the non-emergency number.
“These small quality-of-life crimes, a lot of times people do not call because it takes too long. Given that we’re 19 years into the 21st Century, our model we’re operating on is still mid-20th Century. In our day and age you order a pizza or Uber, and they can tell you how it’s tracing, where it is. There’s no reason you can’t have that with the police department. All our cars have GPS. No reason you couldn’t give a ‘customer’ a general ETA: ‘You’ll have an officer at your door within an hour and a half.’ Or: ‘We’re experiencing high volume. Expect an officer within three to five hours.’
“When people know how long it’ll be, or at the very least you’ve acknowledged them, it makes them feel better and it creates another layer of accountability.”
Campbell said a shortage of cops available in the field — down to about 360 because of retirements and injuries — has contributed to the problem.
Campbell said he could not provide the average response time for non-emergency calls. The reason for that, he explained, is that the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) — those folks who answer all the calls, both emergency and non-emergency — are not within the police department’s supervision.
Although housed at police headquarters on the fourth floor, the all-civilian PSAP service does not report to Campbell. He said he’d like to change that. The 911 center used to have both a police department and a fire department supervisor; the city won the right to name a single civilian director — and thus save money — in contract negotiations. There has been tension since then between the center and the cops.
“They do a great job but it could better — including non-emergency response time — if police sergeants and lieutenants helped to supervise,” Campbell said of PSAP.
To that end, Campbell reported that he last month had already proposed PSAP becoming a division of the police department. That was the way it was 20 years ago, when he joined the force.
I am trying to find out what the police here need and want. I dont fault them and I am very sorry for this crime victim.
Try to get any city agency on the phone. No one picks up the phones and if you actually get a human, they dont know and the person who does is not available( and may never be available.) It seems things dont get cracking until well after 9AM.. AND forget about calling 211---absolutely useless in my opinion. No wonder so many homeless have give up.
When I'm mayor, a human will answer the phone....period.