New Top WEB Cop Comes Full Circle

A neighbor called Sgt. John Wolcheski to let her new top neighborhood cop know that cars had been regularly blowing through the stop signs at the intersection. So Wolcheski parked his squad car just off the intersection of Percival and Carmel streets.

The neighbor was worried that with students from nearby Hillhouse High School often on foot through the neighborhood, somebody was going to get hurt. She told him that he could park his car in her driveway if he wished.

Whether it was because drivers caught a glimpse of his car, or because they had to stop to see around the enormous dump truck working bulk trash pick-up that day, there were no stop-sign runners in sight.

Wolcheski didn’t mind. Checking it out, and being visible — that was the point.

Wolcheski said it’s the kind quality of life complaint that is typical of the diverse Whalley/Edgewood/Beaver Hills policing district that he took command of this past month. The neighborhood includes large single-family homes on Colony Road and the densely populated multi-family units on Goffe Terrace, with an Orthodox Jewish community smack in the center of it all.

In his first month as the district’s manager, Wolcheski has been looking hard at the small crimes that disrupt people’s lives, and beginning to craft possible solutions, like a decoy GPS bike-tracking project.

CHiPs Spark

The stop sign call was a tamer reason to be on the street than the one that brought Wolcheski to his first major crime as a young police officer in the neighborhood 16 years ago.

“The first time I had to deal with a homicide right back here at Percival and Winthrop,” he recalled during a recent interview.

Wolcheski said he was on an administrative assignment when he heard gunshots coming from Whalley Avenue. ​“It was a double homicide,” he said. ​“It was tough.”

That rough introduction to policing in New Haven didn’t turn the Wallingford native, who credits his grandfather and the television show CHiPs with sparking his interest in law enforcement, off of the job. He has committed almost 18 years of his life to the New Haven department, moving from patrolling the Hill section of the city, to being a school resource officer in Fair Haven, to making sergeant and becoming a street supervisor to now assuming the top cop spot in the WEB neighborhood.

“Here I am now,” he said. ​“It’s like almost full circle.”

Wolcheski takes the reins for District 10 from Lt. Makiem Miller, who retired from the department after 20 years to take a police chief job at a university in North Carolina. He credits Miller and the district’s officers with handing off to him a neighborhood that has seen trouble spots like the housing complex on Diamond Street being cleaned up, and a new substation on the way.

So far, Wolcheski said the biggest problems he has dealt with include a rash of stolen bikes and car break-ins. Police intelligence officers have also identified two or three homes where, if trouble develops, he should look first.

He’s looking to put inexpensive GPS devices on decoy bikes in the neighborhood that can tracked by phone. The idea would be to help figure out what happens to stolen bikes and if there might be a single culprit at the center of the thefts. He’s also looking to invite the older guys who play chess near the corner of Whalley Avenue and Winthrop to help him host a chess tournament at the new substation, and to gift a neighbor with a used bike after hers was stolen.

Wolcheski has been blown away by how much people in the neighborhood seem to know their officers and are genuinely happy to work with them. He said he has watched his rookies engage storeowners and people on the street in conversation, and the people of the neighborhood take the time to stop and talk.

“Community-based policing out here is such that we have residents inviting me in their house to help enforce laws and help make the neighborhood safe,” he said. ​“The community has been unbelievable.”

He said the toughest part of the job is sifting through the sheer volume of information he now has access to from citizens and leaving it at work when the shift is done.

The 42-year-old husband and father of two said he decompresses by spending time outdoors and with family.

“People are glad that we are out here doing our job,” he said. ​“You don’t hear them in the news, or see them in the TV, but they stop and wave to you. It’s really nice. Yesterday at my management team meeting, one of the guys, I’ve talked with him, maybe three or four times over the month. He sees me, comes up, I extend my hand to shake his hand, and he hugs me.”

The hug caught the veteran officer off guard, but maybe he’ll get used to it.