News release from Mayor’s Office:
Mayor Ganim joined Bridgeport Police Department Acting Chief Rebeca Garcia, Park City Communities Executive Director Jillian Baldwin, and other City officials to announce $100,000 allocated towards an increase in community police presence at Park City Communities; particularly Trumbull Gardens, Charles F. Greene Homes and P.T. Barnum apartment complexes and additional areas identified by the Bridgeport Police Department as the location of reoccurring violent crime.
As part of the effort to increase community police presence, officers will be assigned to Park City Community apartment complexes to provide security, support as well as to identify problem areas. The location police officers will report to as part of this detail will be determined by the Bridgeport Police Department officials according to their assessed needs, the occurrence of significant events, and identified patterns or trends. Community policing will also include participation by police officers at scheduled community engagement activities designed to build a positive relationship and partnership between assigned police officers and residents. Police officers will also work closely with property managers, tenant leaders and building representatives to ensure prevention, problem solving, and participation by all stakeholders with the common goal of eliminating violent crime within their communities.
Mayor Ganim stated, “We need your support on what’s being done in our city by our Police department, elected officials and community leaders. We want a safe city for every individual, every family and every child. It’s our job to do that, it’s all our obligation to be a part of the solution. You will see an increase in visibility of identifiable police officers throughout the City–especially in the areas where we’ve had incidents. Behind the scenes, there will be investigations that I believe will lead to us announcing arrests very soon.”
Acting Police Chief Garcia stated, “Please reach out to us so we can make a difference in our City and combat the occurrences which have involved loss of life and injuries. If you have any information to provide to the Bridgeport Police Department to help us address the senseless violence, please report it anonymously by calling 203-576-TIPS (8477).”
Intimidation preys on the minds of folks. They may have valuable info from personal observation of interest to police, but people also have witnessed retaliation from evil folks operating on the darker side to those who live in the community with limited personal resources or physical limitations that cause them to be vulnerable to violence.
One approach to gain more comprehensive participation, untried by Ganim2, former Chief AJ, or acting Chief Garcia is TIPS, Trustworthy Information for Public Safety. It is USPS based and requires no revelation of identification.. And no expense to those in the know. Just another possible line for research and inquiry by police officers. I reference that info in a neighboring column today.
Perhaps Owner/Editor/public friend Grimaldi will entertain an article I have written on the subject? Time will tell.
2 things..,First,does the dept have the manpower for this ” increase in community police presence at Park City Communities”?,been reading about officers leaving for other communities in an alarming rate frankly.
Secondly,what took so long?,crime has been rampant for years in those public housing complexes.Makes me think this is nothing more than a quick response to the shooting the other night in which the FBI were involved.
Joe got rid of Public Housing Police. He said the BPT Police could handle it and then charge them so much to do it.
He is a joke and so is Little Becky.
How can we forget this,when Joe was trying to get reelected in 2015,he called in the media to take pics of him fixing a fence in Trumbull Gardens..lol
http://onlyinbridgeport.com/wordpress/more-ganim-chutzpah-patches-fence-near-trumbull-gardens-after-neighbors-complain-about-crime/
Please note…Joe,please excuse Stevie A’s comments towards you in that thread,it was a few weeks before you won the primary,the day after you won,he was on your team.immediately.
Harvey, Little Stevie A is a homer, he goes with who ever is on top and in office, Finch was in so and so was Stevie.Mario got Stevie off of OIB by giving him a job with conditions and the condition was NO posting on OIB during work hours.
As for public housing, let’s look who’s there, the blacks and Hispanics so white cops can’t do under cover work there and Acting Police Chief Rebeca Garcia wants those who stay there to be snitches with no protection.
During the Fabrizi Administration, and for a period afterward, there was a robust, effective, City-supported, City-encouraged, neighborhood block-watch program, with several neighborhoods working in close cooperation, quite effectively, with BPD/Community Services to ensure safety and livability in all city neighborhoods. Lake Forest, Black Rock, the Upper East Side, and Vincellette Street/Madison Avenue having particularly strong, effective citizen-participation in this regard. The effort began waning, for lack of City support (and even antagonism, per the City Attorney’s office, e.g.. Atty. Mark Anastazi) during the Finch Administration, and has apparently been given the coup de grace by the present Ganim Adminstration…
The effort had been expanding rapidly during the Fabrizi Administration and was even beginning to take root in the BHA housing projects. During this period, the gangs were in decline and the murder and shooting rates were similarly in decline…
We can see what a difference an Administration(s) makes (i.e., the past two, in this regard — especially the present…) to public safety…
Bring back real community policing, including a PD-coordinated, block-watch monitored street-camera system (for “virtual”, safe neighborhood citizen patrols — as the LFA Block Watch had advocated for years — and watch the gangs retreat and the present open gang, street-warfare, neighborhood control/intimidation decrease.
It will be much more difficult to re-create the block watches in the present street environment, with the latter having regressed back to 90’s levels of gang presence/control, but a joint, locate-state-federal neighborhood outreach/support effort could accomplish this and deliver the streets back to Bridgeport’s citizens…
I for one, would be interested in hearing from Mayor Ganim and the BPD in this regard — but I’m not going to hold my breath (or plan any Bicentennial parties) in this regard…
(Incidentally; the gangs have become so bold and brazen in G2-Bridgeport, that, even with the presence of the Mobile Police Precinct and extra patrol cars stationed in Trumbull Gardens yesterday/last night, the gangs managed to shoot an targeted victim last night at 555 Trumbull Avenue, just yards from that beefed -up presence…)
Happy Bicentennial!!
*** If I remember correctly most of these public housing apartments, have or had satellite P/D offices in the complex’s that were empty most of the time? So whats the difference now, walking the area, riding bikes, $99. trespassing tickets to anyone who does not live there like years pass? Best thing that seems to work somewhat is knocking them down! Most are out-dated, fire-traps, drugs & gangs infested eye soars. ***