SoHu Newsletter recapping block watch meeting
Lisa Siedlarz
SoHu Neighborhood Association
May 16, 2012
Last night’s block watch meeting was our first chance to
welcome our new District Manager, Lt Kenny Howell, to our neighborhood. I am very disappointed to say that only 12
people came to welcome him. We worked so
hard to have a great relationship with now Assistant Chief Reddish. Last night was the opportunity to make a good
impression on our new DM and hardly anyone came. Was it the rain?
Nevertheless, Lt Howell stayed for a good hour, and gave some great information.
His background: Lt Howell has been with the police force for twenty and a half years. He is both a police officer and an attorney. He started in District 7, our district, as a walking beat cop. He is very pro walking beat, which is great news for us. We have 4 walking officers assigned to East Rock. Office Perry covers upper East Rock, Officer Kenny covers State St, and Officers Rich Folch and Ryan Przybylski cover Lower East Rock.
Police Redistricting
Lt Howell told us that the chief wants to make East Rock its own district with its own District Manager. We would be district 11. And he would like to remain our DM. He will keep up posted on police redistricting, but I also know our alderpeople have sent out some emails about upcoming meetings, so I will follow up.
Personnel issues
Right now the police force is working without a contract. If the city and the union do not reach an agreement by the end of June, we could lose up to SEVENTY officers to retirement. That is a big number.
On the other hand, the academy is about to start at the end of this month. There are 40 trainees here in New Haven’s academy, and we also have 5 in Meriden’s academy and 5 in Milford’s academy. These 50 officers will hit the streets in November, but will not be on their own until February.
The chief’s plan is to start another recruitment for September. His goal is to hire a total of 100 to 150 officers. We currently have 393.
Crime News
Burglaries are down. Yay. Lt Howell said that they have caught two burglars. In all likelihood it was these two thugs who were having a field day throughout East Rock. Congratulations to the PD for catching them!
Lt Howell said that there has been a significant number of
car break ins in East Rock. He said they
have been stealing things such as GPS, lap tops, and women’s purses. Folks – Lt Howell asked me to remind you to
not leave anything in your car.
Nothing. Unless you want your car
broken into and your things stolen. I
had stopped sending out reminders to people about this because I was getting frustrated
that people were still leaving things in their cars. But now I realize that while we have 450
people on our email list, there are way more people than that who live in East
Rock. So good folks – it’s really up to
US as a group to remind our neighbors and tenants to beware of the good ole
smash and grab. These are crimes of
opportunity. If you give them the
opportunity to steal something, they will steal it. It takes 2 seconds to smash a window and grab
whatever is sitting on the seat (or dashboard).
Please – talk to your friends,
your neighbors. If you see someone leaving something in their car, remind them of how easy it is to steal something from a car.
Ok. Enough preaching.
Other crime prevention tips
Bright lighting. Keep your front and back porch lights on all night. If possible, but them on a timer. Both my front and back porch lights are on a dusk to dawn timer.
Close your blinds/shades/curtains at night. Don’t advertise what you have. When it is dark out, and your lights are on, it’s like looking in Macy’s window.
If something looks suspicious, trust your gut. Call the non-emergency police number to report it. Here is the number, please program it in your cell phone. 203-946-6316. Be prepared to be specific when you are reporting something. Give details. What was the person (or persons) doing that drew your attention? What are they wearing? What do they look like? What direction are they travelling? Don’t be afraid to report it. And remember to report it to me as well so that I can send out an email broadcast. If someone is looking into car windows, sometimes all it takes is for us to step outside and let it be known you are watching. And they’ll move on to somewhere else.
Traffic
Lt Howell has assigned two traffic officers to East Rock, Officers Marco Francia and Robert Dupont. They are on motorcycles and will be stopping dirt bikes, speeders, failures to let pedestrians to cross at marked crosswalks, etc. They started on Monday. Also, in the next week or so, New Haven will be enforcing Click it or Ticket it. So heads up folks, wear your seat belts!
Ride Along with an Officer
If anyone would like to do a ride along with an officer, please let me know. You can choose the time and length that you would like to do this. It can be 1 hour, it can be 4 hours. Day, night, weekend. If you want to do this, I have some paper work for you to complete. So let me know asap if you are interested. I’m doing it.
Wildlife issues
There have been some daytime raccoon sightings in peoples yards (and on their roofs!) If you have a problem with wildlife in your garage, on your roof, etc, you can call: Statewide Wildlife Rescue. Their number is 877-5RA-COON. The cell phone number of the woman who specializes in raccoons is 203-927-3922. Keep in mind that a mother raccoon will go out in the daytime in search of food for her young. But if you notice the raccoon acting aggressive or erratic, get away from the animal and call this number.
Ward Redistricting
Alderpersons Jessica Holmes (Ward 9) and Doug Hausladen (Ward 7) were at our meeting last night. Jessica, Justin and Doug along with a few other alders have been working diligently at modifying the ward redistricting map so that neighborhoods don’t have little cut outs or notches that interrupt continuity. The current proposal that this group is going to present to the Board of Aldermen on Monday will have all of SoHu added to Ward 7. That means the south side of Humphrey St, Clark St, Pleasant St, Pearl St, Eld St, Bradley St, and Lincoln St will all be added to Ward 7. In this proposal, that would give us 1,000 votes. In other words, this proposal does not dilute our voting power.
The north side of Humphrey St, and Bishop St will be added to Ward 9.
Here is what we need to do. We need to come to the meeting on Monday, May 21st in force. We need to let the Board of Aldermen know that we want a fair and equitable ward demarcation that guarantees us a voting voice. The meeting is in the Board of Alderman’s chambers in City Hall. It’s at 7:00. If you need a ride or want to car pool, send me an email. But folks, I hope you understand that whatever passes on Monday night, we will have to live with for TEN YEARS. Don’t be passive. Jessica and Doug both asked that we show up in numbers.
New Haven’s budget
Jessica Holmes said that this year there is a committee being formed to do a health care review. Their task is to find the most cost effective means for providing health insurance to city workers.
There is also an amendment to the budget on the table that will stop building new schools. The city’s financial situation right now is such that we just can’t afford to bond and build any schools for at least a couple years.
Tree Planting
A big thank you to Jim Austin for writing our grant for tree planting! This is our 5th summer of planting trees, 77 to date! Now that Pearl St has received its new sidewalks, we can plant trees in all the open spaces. We have 20 trees slated for Pearl St, and 10 for Clark, Orange, and Humphrey streets. But we can’t plant them without you. If you are interested in planting this year, please email me. We will start at some point in June, and our planting night will be Tuesday nights. It’s a lot of fun, and a great way to get to know your neighbors.
That’s all I have for now. Our next block watch meeting is on July 17th. I hope more of you will come to meet our District manager, Lt Howell. And don’t forget to say hello to our beat officers when you see them!
Addendum - from an upper East Rock block watch:
One of my tenants at the corner of Foster and
Canner Street was mugged in front of the house on Monday at about 11pm
by 2 black men driving a black SUV. He was struck down and his
briefcase was taken. They raced the SUV south on Foster Street toward
Edwards and disappeared.
The police responded very quickly with 6
squad cars. Among other things in the stolen briefcase was an active
cell phone with GPS. The police immediately tracked the location of the
cell phone and apprehended the 2 muggers on State Street. My tenant
identified them and the belongings they had stolen so they were
arrested, booked and put in jail. It turned out that even the black SVU
they were driving had been stolen.
Great job NHPD!
Lisa
53 Pearl
(203)623-0857
WWW.SoHuNewHaven.org