Search This Blog

Sunday, July 8, 2012

ARE WE REALLY PAYING FOR THIS?

This coming week appears to be the week when a new police chief will be announced for our city.

The whole process has appeared to be bizarre when you consider the events that unfolded. Last year Governernor Malloy and Chief State's Attorney Kevin Kane, concerned over the rising number of shootings and homicides plagueing Hartford, brought about the creation of the Hartford Shooting Task Force. Kevin Kane's Chief inspector from his office , James Rovella,was hand selected to oversee the task of creating and operating the Task Force.

Rovella's efforts produced almost immediate results and the results were clearly obvious. Violent crime as well as homicides appeared to come to a screeching halt as the numbers that initially promised to set record numbers for Hartford leveled off and most people felt safer. The constant stories in the media of gun seizures and arrests under Rovella's leadership became almost a daily reminder of what could be done to turn Hartford's image around and make its neighborhoods safer.

Then internal management problems inside HPD began to fester and became public. The Lt Brook's transfer by Chief Daryl Roberts resulted in Mayor Segarra calling for an independent outside review, conducted by former HPD officer Frank Rudewicz. The final report was less than flattering to the current HPD management and eventually resulted in the resignation of Chief Roberts. Assistant Chief Brian Heavren was appointed as the acting Chief , and for whatever reason, that tenure was short lived and after two months, he was removed and Chief Rovella assumed the reigns of HPD.

Many people , myself included,considered Rovella the perfect fit to assume the top leadership role in HPD permanently. He knew the organization well since he had retired from HPD before going to the State's Attorney's Office, he had made Mayor Segarra look like a hero reducing Hartford's homicide rateand violent crime  drastically in less than 8 months and he had very strong ties to both the State's Attorney's Office, the Governor's Office as well as the courts.

For whatever reason Segarra chose to conduct a national search at the cost of over $50,000 to the tax payers of a cash strapped City. Robert Wasserman of Strategic Policy Partnership was selected to conduct the search and his results seem to reinforce that Rovella was the best fit all along.

One of the candidates , Frank Straub , is resigning as the Public Safety Director  for Indianapolis Indiana effective August 1, 2012 under a cloud of reported inefficiency and mismanagement during his short tenure in Indiana. Straub has also never been a certified Police Officer and would most likely have to complete the full Police Academy training requirements to serve as Hartford's Chief. That would potentially mean 23 weeks of Academy training as well as 12 weeks of Field Training time with an experienced Police Officer (FTO). Hartford can hardly afford to hire a Chief  and wait more than half a year for him to be able to begin functioning in his position.

The municipal code of the City of Hartford also requires that the Police Chief be a sworn Police Officer  with "full powers of arrest". The full powers of arrest can only be obtained by a "POST" certified police officer. POST is the Police Officers Standards and Training Council in Meriden which certifies every Police Officer in the State of Connecticut.

I really have to question the Wasserman selection process and what they consider as "Top candidates" " when you look into the qualifications  and history of those names they brought forward.
Although Straub may just be unqualified because of his certifications issues, running his current agency at an estimated $30million dollar deficit should raise some red flags. But when you look at the next candidate, red flares should be bursting all over City Hall.

Candidate number two  on the Wasserman list is a former Police Chief in Newark New Jersey, Irving Bradley jr.. The press release from Mayor Segarra's Office by his Chief of Staff described Bradley as follows:
Irving Bradley, Jr., former Chief of Police in Newark and Director of Police in Trenton, NJ, is Vice President for Education Safety and Security with Bowles Corporate Security, the company charged with handling security for the Trenton school district. He also served as Director of Communications for the City of Trenton, where he directed and managed all activities of the public safety Communications Center. He graduated from Shaw University in Raleigh, N.C. with a BA in Behavioral Science and is an active member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives.

They left a couple of his other accomplishments out of the press release.While the Communications Director for Trenton New Jersey, Bradley apparently had a few too many drinks and was found slumped over the wheel of his City vehicle by a Rahway New Jersey police officer. After an altercation in which Bradley was alleged to have assaulted a police officer he led the Rahway Police on a a chase, in his city car.

After Bradley was eventually apprehended he was charged with the following before agreeing to a plea deal: resisting arrest, reckless driving, driving while intoxicated, refusal to take a Breathalyzer test, eluding police, aggravated assault, failure to stop, improper lane change, two counts of failure to stop or yield, two counts of failure to observe a traffic signal and speeding up to 40 mph in a 25 mph zone, according to the Star-Ledger.

Allegations such as those Bradley was charged with would prevent most applicants from even being considered to be hired  as a new police officer in Hartford, never mind them being considered for Chief. Is this the leadership we would encourage for Hartford PD.  I guess I have a much different view of a qualified applicant than Mr. Wasserman does.

This is the best we can get for a $50,000 search?


Saturday, June 30, 2012

SHOT SPOTTER SHUT DOWN

What was sold to residents as a potential solution to Hartford's gun violence has instead proved to be a major drain on police resources.  The Shot Spotter Technology was sold to local residents at community meetings as an intelligent system that was smart enough to determine the difference between gunfire, fireworks and other ambient noise such as backfires and construction noises.

The system would then triangulate the noise and analyze it and provide police with information within seconds of the location of any gunfire in the covered areas of the city

It now appears that Hartford's system isn't as intelligent as we were told and most likely graduated in the bottom of its class. The system is apparently on a trial basis for Hartford and was supposed to be tested and evaluated through June 30th. During the month of May over 98% of the activations were false alarms according to police sources, the majority of which were fireworks, which shotspotter is not supposed to send an alarm on.

The system also showed an alarming increase in gunfire in the Barry Square area during May until it was realized that the activations were actually noise and jackhammers from construction projects in the area.

The system also has placed a huge drain on police resources as two officers and a supervisor are required to respond to every shotspotter activation. The first officer assigned then has to write a report regarding the alarm and the supervisor has to write an unusual incident report whether the activation is gunfire or fireworks.

The system was so unreliable that it has now been shut down to get past the July 4th fireworks and the trial has been extended. Shotspotter representatives attended police roll calls this week to address the patrol officers required to respond to their false alarm activations and sources tell me it appeared to be a move by Shotspotter to salvage their system in Hartford.

New Haven is also using the shotspotter technology and according to media reports, New Haven Chief Dean Esserman is considering removing the system altogether due to its inefficiency. On New Years Eve in New Haven the system was actually shut down when it was overloaded by false alarms from fireworks. Media accounts also claim that New Haven's first homicide of  2012 was never detected by shotspotter, although the shooting took place in an area coverd by the system and numerous shell casings were found on the ground.

Information on how many of Hartford's recent shootings actually triggered a shotspotter response are unavailable at this time, but it should be renamed "bottlerocket spotter"

To read more on shotspotter in New Haven, click here

"I WILL ANNOUNCE A POLICE CHIEF BY JULY 4TH"

The above comment was made by Hartford's Mayor Pedro Segarra in front of the television cameras as he walked Albany Avenue during his "On The Beat "tour as he reacted to a violent weekend recently.

The fourth of July is four days away and sources are telling me that several roadblocks may be in the way of naming a permanenet Chief.

Although Segarra has told me and others that acting Chief James Rovella is "his guy", the Wasserman Group apparently has a different view. The Wasserman Group, run by Robert Wasserman was contracted by the City of Hartford to conduct a national search for a new Chief at an estimated cost in excess of $50,000 dollars to the taxpayers of Hartford.

The question has been asked all along by myself and others why a national search was necessary when it appears that the perfect fit for Hartford at this point in time is already in place in acting Chief James Rovella. Through the efforts of Governor Malloy , Chief States Attorney Kevin Kane and the efforts of the Shooting Task Force that they formed, Rovella's results have been impressive.

Violent crime is now at a 5 year low according to HPD statistics and may even be better but long range numbers are not available at this time.Those numbers aren't happening by accident. Out of the nine homicides recorded so far this year. arrests have been made in 7 of the 9. That is also an impressive number.

But back to the Wasserman Group. Sources are also telling me that the number one pick for Hartford's next Chief is the embattled Public Safety Director for Indianapolis Indiana Frank Straub.
Straub , a former Deputy Commissioner for NYPD  brings flashbacks for me to former Chief Patrick Harnett who arrived in Hartford 12 years after his retirement from NYPD.

Harnett was never a good fit for Hartford or its residents and Straub may mean more of the same. Internet comments I have found paint a less than flattering picture of Wassermans guy. One Indianapolis blogger commented "Straub, as public safety director for Indianapolis -- admittedly, an embattled one, with spurs in shreds sometimes -- was clearly not the right guy for the job. He could crow with the best, but the fact that he has resigned effective Aug. 1 shows us he's a guy who does not deliver (on his pledge, or threat, to clean up our police department"


News  accounts claim that Straub has resigned as Public Safety Director for Indianapolis effective August 1st . Whether that resignation was vouluntary or forced is open to discussion but there seem to be serval clouds hanging over Straub and his tenure at IMPD. First is the fact his agency is reported to be running as much as a $30 million dollar deficit for this year, hardly something Hartford could afford. At HPD every penny is being counted to continue to provide proper police services to the communtiy.

 News accounts also claim that Straub, after being hired in Indianapolis renovated the Office Suite he occupied at a cost of almost $1million dollars and then took a sworn police officer off the streets to act as his chauffeur.

There was also criticism of a no bid contract Straub assigned to one of his former bosses, former NYPD Commissioner Willam Bratton to investigate corruption in IMPD imternal Affairs Division.  Bratton and other former NYPD higher-ups seem to have built a fraternity of sorts for themeselves where they hire each other in Departments they take over to continue their consultant careers. Former HPD Chief Patrick Harnett was also part of the Bratton fraternity, landing lucrative consulting contracts across the Country.

More troubling though are media accounts of the mishandling of evidence in a DUI accident
involving one of Straub's IMPD officers's in which a motorcyclist was killed by the officer driving drunk. TO READ MORE ON STRAUB FROM THE INDIANAPOLIS NBC TELEVISION AFFILIATE, CLICK HERE

Sources are also telling me that Straub is not a certified Police Officer, never was and only attended a Fire Academy training program in White Plains New York when he was the Public Safety Director there.

It seems as though the right choice for Chief is already here , Mr. Mayor. pay the balance to the Wasserman Group with the taxpayers thanks and make the announcement and let's move on.

Friday, June 15, 2012

COTTO RESIGNS FROM COUNCIL

Councilman Luis Cotto has apparently resigned from the Hartford City Council effective July 31, 2012 according to a "tweet" he sent out this afternoon.

Cotto will be moving to the Boston area.

According to the City Charter, Cotto will need to be replaced by another Working Families Party member

Thursday, June 14, 2012

IS IT REALLY HPD'S FAULT?

As any regular reader of this blog is well aware, I have no problem criticizing the Hartford Police Department when I think they deserve it. I also believe in fairness and will defend HPD when I think that is fair.


Most people will agree the print media, and for that matter media outlets in general, are not what they used to be. The news cycle now is driven by the latest rapes or sex crimes, homicides and events that tend to emphasize the sensationalism that attracts readers and viewers like moths to a flame. I get that and I hope most people can understand what drives the media and realize that there is a lot more that we never hear about.


A "cartoon" and the attached comments in our local paper of last resort this week really set off my "fairness meter". The "cartoon" depicted a Hartford Police officer lying in a hammock with bullets flying with the comment "we're on it". After the violent weekend the city just experienced, is it fair to put the blame on HPD? Is HPD responsible for raising and nurturing young persons that think nothing of putting a gun to someones chest and pulling the trigger?

And for the comments from the retired Hartford Fire Department captain and former City Councilman quoted in both the article and the cartoon's explanation, this downfall of our City has been going on for decades, there is more than enough blame to go around.


Would it then be fair if we suddenly experience a weekend of tragic fires where people die in a fire to depict Hartford firefighters laying in a hammock with hoses leaking all around them? The rationale seems the same, if people die in a fire it must be directly attributable to the laziness of HFD.


The article also had a quote from the former Councilman that he only sees police officers in his neighborhood when the officers are working construction jobs.


With the amount of road work going on in the City, those officers are a much appreciated presence by most neighborhoods and residents. They should be even more appreciated when people realize that those officers cost us nothing, not one penny, since they are paid for by the contractors. In reality, the city actually makes money off every one of them standing out there.


The fact of the matter is also that even though they are there to direct traffic around construction sites, they are still police officers and just their presence is a deterrent. Is there a problem with a handful of officers and the hours they work and is the City being properly served when their work their regular shift? Most likely, but that is something for the next Chief to address.


The cartoon might have been more accurate depicting Hartford's Chief Operating Officer David Panagore in the hammock with Mayor Segarra serving Panagore an iced tea. That is rightfully where the blame properly lies. Most people would agree that Segarra seems to answer to Panagore. If the opposite were true, Segarra would have ended the sham search with Panagore's consulting buddies and we would have had a permanent Police Chief months ago.

The truth is that acting Chief James Rovella is working with one hand tied behind his back and that hand has been tied by Panagore.Rovella is unable to make any major personnel changes and his Command Staff at this point is more about survival for themselves than it is about assisting Rovella to move the Department forward. Segarra is well aware of this and continues to let it happen. Rovella knows what he needs to do to make Hartford safer, but he is not being allowed to do it.

It might be interesting to see a reporter go to the resident's of Edwards Street or Williams Street to interview them on their opinion of HPD. The offices for the Shooting Task Force as well as the PAL program and the Police Academy sit squarely in this neighborhood in a school that was pretty much written off by the Hartford School System.

Maybe the resident's would tell the story of how Chief Rovella went to the obvious drug dealers conducting business on the street corner and told them it was time for them to move. Guess what? They moved.

Since the Shooting Task Force took up residence on Willaims Street almost a year ago, the reduction in crime and calls for service in the surrounding streets has been dramatic. Neighbors are no longer afraid to come outside, their street is no longer run by drug dealers and crime. The numbers citywide have also been impressive overall and the number of shooting victims and homicides is well under this time last year. That didn't happen by luck.


Although the work of the Shooting Task Force under Rovella has been impressive, the Task force doesn't work in a vacuum. The Major Crimes Division has also been doing a stellar job in bringing about arrests of those thugs responsible for the homicides. Prior to the recent homicides, which I am told have solid leads that will most likely result in arrests, four of the first five murders of the year had resulted in arrests. That is a pretty good average that isn't achieved by detectives swinging in a hammock while the bullets fly.


Even the Patrol Division has been decimated by attrition that City hall refuses to keep up with. A class of twenty or twenty-five new officers hardly keeps up with the projected loos of up to 50 officers this year alone. That attrition rate is from the Mayor's own numbers, and if the way City Hall runs the numbers, that number is probably far from accurate.


The Patrol Division is not only understaffed, but its resources are being taxed by the implementation of "Shot Spotter". So far the activations are running between 95 and 98% false. Although we were sold on "Shot Spotter"at community meetings as being such an intelligent system that would differentiate between gunfire and other noises such as fireworks, car backfires and other noises, that seem to be proving untrue.


We definitely now know that we have a problem with fireworks in Hartford and even that the Barry Square neighborhood has seen a drastic increase in "construction noise". Yes, even jackhammers and dumptrucks are setting off shot spotter. Unfortunately for HPD, every activation requires a response by two officers and a supervisor from Patrol, whether it is a jackhammer or 9mm round. One officer familiar with the system half-jokingly told me he thought he could stand in the street and if he clapped his hands loud enough "Shot Spotter" would go off.


I was going to get into the root of the problem, the breakdown of our parenting structures and our mentality that children seem to be brought up now that shooting someone is "OK", but I think you get my point. Our Police Department is there to enforce laws, not to be raising Hartford's children and teaching them right from wrong. I really don't think that is fair to blame HPD when we have parents, schools, churches and neighborhoods that should be doing that.


We will see many more "bad weekends" if that message doesn't start getting out.

Friday, June 8, 2012

ANDREW'S FUNDRAISER


I have posted previously about my nephew Andrew who is in training to hopefully compete in the 2014 Paralympics in Russia. Andrew has become a competitive skier despite having Cerebral Palsy. You can read more about his efforts at his website, andrew races.com
His first fundraiser for the upcoming ski season will be held tomorrow at the Outback Steakhouse in Enfield, CT. Details are in the flyer above