Paul Bass Photo
Redding announces new patrols, with district managers Rebecca Sweeney, Anthony Zona & Max Joyner.
People in 10 neighborhoods across town will see cops walking the beat again each day — under what police brass called a “smarter” new plan based on overtime and shifting routes.
That picture emerged Thursday as officials described a return of sorts to the popular foot-and-pedal community policing tactics that reigned in the 1990s.
At a press conference outside the Fair Haven substation, they detailed a plan, first reported here last week, to have district managers assign walking patrols at some point every day; and to train a fleet of 10 to 12 bicycle cops to commence daily two-wheel patrols within the next two months.
Toward the latter end, Assistant Chief Patrick Redding announced that a Dwight/Kensington neighborhood landlord, Pike International, has agreed to give the department $5,000 to buy nine new bikes.
The plan follows a Democratic primary election season in which numerous candidates and voters called for a return to 1990s-style foot-patrol beat policing to respond to out-of-control violence in the city.
It also marks a reversal of sorts in the city’s strategy. For years it has gradually removed most walking (except from downtown) and bike beats from the city, despite annual calls from the community for their return. In February 2009, city officials declared the old-style community policing and walking-beat approach dead. Mayor John DeStefano at the time called walking beats a “passive” form of policing, helpful to a neighbor for only the few seconds that the officer passes by his or her door. (Read about that here.)
Mayor DeStefano was asked at Thursday’s press conference what changed in officials’ thinking from those previous remarks.
“I don’t remember that response per se,” the mayor said of those previous remarks. “What changed is citizens were telling us very directly they wanted to see cops on the beat. A lot of the cops are telling us they wanted to be on the beat. We expressed that over the summer through the motorcycle event.”
The last reference was to “Operation Safe Summer,” in which the department moved motorcycle cops to neighborhood hot spots. That led to some 5,000 motor vehicle citations — as well as served warrants, gun and drug seizures, and felony arrests in the process.
The new walking beats and bike beats for the fall are designed to work in a similar fashion, according to Redding. District managers will determine where crime has been concentrated lately, or where neighbors have been particularly concerned about evolving problems. Then the managers will station the walking beats there for a while to get matters under control.
The cops will largely be working overtime. Different cops will be working on different days; many will come from outside the district, because of strict department rules for how overtime is doled out.
That’s a different strategy from the one New Haven employed in the 1990s, when it assigned permanent officers to certain beats at a fixed regular time to get to know neighbors and develop personal relationships over time. The idea was to prevent problems before they occur rather than chasing after them later.
The new strategy does build on a second defining aspect of community policing as it developed over the past two decades: using day-to-day crime statistics to adjust deployment of officers in order to focus on brewing hot spots.
“I think it’s a smarter model,” Redding said of the newer approach: It responds to real-time data on new emerging problems, and it focuses a department’s limited resources on hot spots. And criminals will be kept guessing about where cops will show up.
Case in point: What Sgt. Tony Zona is doing in Fair Haven. Zona, Fair Haven’s district manager, recently pulled reports on the 15 most recent robberies. He noticed that the majority occurred on Ferry Street and Grand Avenue. (He’s pictured with a map on his office wall showing those 15 incidents.) So Zona has assigned two walking beats to cover that area at night this week. Zona’s joining them at times.
“The community is getting to know us,” Zona said. “I’m in it to win it.”
Another case in point: Whalley Avenue. That district’s manager, Sgt. Max Joyner, has been assigning walking beats during the day, not at night. He responded to neighborhood merchants concerned about young men hanging around the corners of Winthrop and Sherman avenues during the afternoon.
The results have been dramatic, according to merchant Pat Minore and Whalley Special Services District President John Vuoso and Executive Director Sheila Masterson (pictured with Sgt. Joyner, who’s at far left in photo). Problems have diminished dramatically in recent weeks, they said. And the new sidewalks and planters are in great shape. “Even people who hang out there have taken ownership” of the mums, Vuoso said.
Violent Crime Down
The press conference also included new crime statistics showing overall violent crime down 6 percent over the first six months of 2011, compared to the first six months of 2010.
Rapes were down 14 percent, aggravated assault 20 percent, burglary 8 percent, and larceny 14 percent.
Murders rose 29 percent and robbery, 4 percent.
Assistant Chief John Velleca said the department has cleared 17 of this year’s 26 homicides and made arrests in five “cold cases” from the past 10 years so far in 2011.
Bike patrols and foot patrols won’t immediately impact the murder rate, DeStefano predicted: He said those murders are committed largely by a small group of mostly ex-offenders bent on mayhem. Intensive investigative efforts by the detective squad and intelligence unit are more relevant in the short term. But the new patrols are designed to “build a culture of trust in the community” between cops and neighbors, DeStefano said. Which is how crime prevention is believed to work best over the long term.
I read here just a fleeting mention of the success of motor vehicle citations. I really believe that more traffic stops will get a lot of drugs and guns and criminals off the streets. It happens all the time. So, please, NHPD, make this city better by enforcing the traffic laws regarding speeding, running red lights and aggressive driving. It will make the city a more decent place to walk, bike and drive, as well as discover worse things lurking in their glove compartments and under the seats. I feel like walking beats is just an election-year ploy to make us feel safer when we see a cop walking down the street. Honestly, more than half of your men who you have stationed at construction sites are texting or talking on their cellphones. Did you know that, Chief Limon? Do you really think they are going to walk their beats w/o their texts?