Public safety was a cornerstone of Joe Ganim’s campaign comeback last year, challenging incumbent Bill Finch on police staffing levels and community policing, in particular the Trumbull Gardens area victimized by a historic shooting. Ganim on Monday, backed by the Bridgeport Housing Authority, announced the Police Department will establish permanent patrols in the city’s public housing projects. The BHA has agreed to commit $600,000 to fund the community policing campaign. The city will fund $400,000 for infrastructure and beautification in the housing projects.
Ganim, with acting Police Chief AJ Perez, made the announcement at a newly reopened police substation near Trumbull Gardens. Ganim has established a Community Policing Task Force that will include two sergeants and sixteen officers assigned to Trumbull Gardens, Charles Greene Homes, P.T. Barnum Apartments, Marina Village and Harborview Towers. Officers will be deployed over two eight-hours shifts per day. New security cameras in public housing locations will be connected to the police monitoring center at 999 Broad Street that Ganim says will produce real-time intelligence in response to public safety.
“As of today, we are fully committed to community policing in our public housing projects,” said Ganim in a statement. “All Bridgeport residents are entitled to feel safe and secure in their own homes. Without police investing in our public housing communities, the criminal element is allowed to run illicit drug and gun rackets in the apartment buildings and towers. Often residents just trying to go about their daily lives in these housing projects are terrorized and afraid to even let their children outside to play out of fear of stray bullets. From today on, our police officers will be there to protect and empower the residents of these communities by gaining their trust and working in partnership. We are here to stay.”
Ganim says the specialized community policing unit will perform patrols throughout the buildings and around the grounds of the housing projects to reduce the incidence of crime and to establish avenues of communication with the residents. The officers assigned will also help organize tenant patrols and youth groups, as well as develop leaders to monitor those entering the buildings. The officers will also make recommendations for the improvement of infrastructure such as camera placement, hallway lighting, door locks and intercom systems within the housing projects.
How about committing the same level of protection to the rest of the city? Where did you pull the two sgts and the 16 patrolmen from? Who suffers now with less coverage? Ganim is full of baloney on this one.
That a boy, AJ. Glad to see you are listening to our adjunct chief Ganim.
As opposed to listening to an old curmudgeon like you who knows zero about police work?
I forgot more about police work than you ever learned while on the job. I know I wrote more felony warrants than you did.
Oh boy. The fancy arson investigator speaks. You couldn’t solve an arson if you yourself started the fire. I did more than you my first week on the job. You spend your days and nights trolling this blog and spewing your BS like you’re the only person who knows anything about this city. You were useless then and are still useless.
Phantom, you spent your whole police career with your fat ass glued to a seat in a patrol car. You want to read one thing I did that changed the law, look it up in the New England law journal, Ref CT Supreme court and needing or not needing a motive to prove arson. I notice there is no mention of any warrants written by you. Why is that? Is it because you did not need to riding a desk or a patrol car? Phantom, what pisses you off is the fact I do know more about the city than you will ever know. Sure I look at the blog every day and I notice you do too. I earned the right. BTW I notice you always read my BS, keep it up and you may learn something.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day. You however are still an waste. All you’re good for is trolling and moaning. How’d that whole MJF support thing go for you?
I will tell you this, MJF ran a clean and honest campaign. She did lose to Finch and the guy who’s in now. You can’t think of anything else to say so you are bringing in MJF, what a total jerk you are. MJF, really. I am good for more than that. I will tell you this, even with my health restriction I am still more of a man than you ever were. What’s the matter, afraid to use your name? Don’t worry, you never pinched anyone so they won’t come after you if they know your name. I will help you out.
Real clean. She reached out to Finch for support and turned off many of her voters. Shaking hands with Finch and Wood. Yeah Andy, real clean indeed. Sealed her own fate. Even your fire brethren laugh at you.
Phantom, you are really desperate. You start out coming after me and you get your ass handed to you so now you are coming after MJF. How does she enter into this? Is it because she is my friend?
She was approached by Finch to accept his support and she did. Let me tell you something, Joe Ganim would have done the same thing.
There are a total of three people still on the job and they are all chiefs who know me, the rest were not on the job when I retired.
One of lessons this blog should provide for us, that is, those of us who live in Bridgeport and love it as home, is we are very adept a attacking and maligning each other and basically ripping each other to shreds.
I blame the ‘burbs for engineering our socioeconomic paralysis, but we have to admit we fall into the “blame Bridgeport,” “blame the residents” and the “blame each other” trap that has been set for us by Hartford, Washington, and our regional overseers through the media and statewide political network.
We should ask ourselves how we can lift each other and our city up, rather than rip each other to shreds because of differences in perception and solutions to our problems.
We need community policing citywide, but certain neighborhoods with more difficult public-safety situations might need a somewhat different approach than other parts of the city. E.g., Lake Forest has a particular problem with traffic safety because we have no sidewalks and are a cut-through for 25-8 traffic and traffic from many other parts of the city (and Trumbull) to/from Main Street shopping and access to/from Route 15. That is our major (but not only) concern. Trumbull Gardens needs constant presence/walking patrols. The upper East Side needs monitoring of its isolated streets and vulnerable (to robbery) commercial/retail/dining venues (as well as traffic-safety patrolling).
We need to attack our problems, not each other.
For instance, if the upper East Side and Lake Forest need surveillance cameras and increased traffic safety patrols, then we need to advocate for these things for our neighborhoods, not waste energy and goodwill attacking each other and fighting over scraps.
If $ is our issue, then we should be “charging” Himes, Blumenthal and Malloy as well as our state delegation for votes.. No money, no votes.
If Hillary, Bernie, and Donald (God help us!) want Bridgeport votes, let them write a promi$$ory note for them before the Connecticut primaries and November general elections.
In any event, it is obvious Bridgeport is a divided community, which condition makes it impossible for us to advocate effectively for ourselves and presents a very inviting opportunity for exploitation by Stamford-Greenwich/the ‘burbs. They have used this situation for decades, very effectively, and will certainly continue to use it if we don’t get smart before the next billion-dollar decrease in our grand list (which they will “kindly” offer to offset with a few more incinerators, power plants and tax-exempt workforce housing for Stamford, and maybe a third train station).
(And those of us who are willing to identify ourselves and take responsibility for our statements/positions on this blog probably shouldn’t even respond, at all, to the losers who love to snipe and start trouble anonymously. They are probably not even Bridgeport residents, and therefore their anonymous and very often very stupid opinions shouldn’t be accorded any attention.)
Jeff, more psychological bullshit. Nothing will change until all Bridgeport’s residents take responsibility for their own actions.
You’re right about the personal responsibility, Quentin. That includes making the effort to at least vote in all elections for candidates who are likely to appreciate the vote and advocate for our city in Hartford and Washington.
We have about 100,000 people who can vote in this city if they register/make the effort to vote. About 60,000 people are registered, about 35,000 of those people vote in a very high-turnout year. 40,000 haven’t bothered to register. So we have a 35% participation rate in a “great” year. Sad. We are not responsible advocating for ourselves. Can’t argue with you about this one, Quentin.
Jeff, a couple years ago there was a ballot question that would have provided voters with the option of voting by mail. No one seemed to notice it. That would have solved some of the voting apathy problem. And I agree with you on the constant bickering here. More time should be spent discussing and debating issues.
Whose community? When Mayor Ganim says community policing is “here to stay,” he’s implying permanent subsidies will be a trademark of his administration and a manpower redeployment of lasting duration is underway.
There’s only one thing worse than socialism and that’s selective socialism, the type limited to public housing projects.
There had been “housing cops” on the job dating back to the early ’70s in Bridgeport. They were supernumeraries who were laid off under Bucci and Moran. They had arrest powers and like the community cops everyone seems to be high on, knew everything and everyone in PT, Marina, FPV, etc. They handled all calls in the projects and it kept the regular cops on their posts. Maybe it’s time to rethink and rehire. Hell, we have BOE and park specials, so why not?
Guidelines call for only two shifts but crime never sleeps.
Rumor Mill: pre-production has started for a new reality TV series called “When criminals meet the night: Third Shift at Bridgeport Housing projects.”
It’s throwing additional taxpayer dollars at a community that is a tiny tax provider. Here’s the worst part: Bridgeport seems to be pandering to the crowd that wants to contain the bad as opposed to growing the good.
You can’t give something to someone without taking it away from someone else.
I agree.