Still from security camera video, with cyclist and driver involved in pushing incident.
Someone cut the line at P&M Orange Street Market. A pushing incident ensued.
Across the street, a security camera attached to a neighbor’s house caught the action. The neighbor saw officers investigating the incident. So he approached them and offered them his security footage.
He had just bought the camera, following a more serious crime — an armed robbery — that occurred practically in front of home on Oct. 3. He didn’t recall receiving a knock on the door for that one.
The neighbor (who declined to be identified in this story) got to wondering: What if officers had knocked and asked for information or footage, and he wasn’t home? How might footage of a more serious incident been of potential use, if nobody asked?
The neighbor brought that question to the most recent meeting of the East Rock Community Management Team. That sparked a conversation about citizen assistance to law enforcement — and, two days later, a renewed call by an assistant police chief for neighbors to share surveillance video with the cops through an Amazon app.
The East Rock gathering Monday evening, hosted by CMT Chair David Budries, drew about two dozen neighbors via the Zoom teleconferencing app.
“I would think it’s standard procedure for officers to drop a card as lots of people have cameras,” the neighbor said. “You could have people coming forward, given the technology, with great information.”
District Manager Lt. Manmeet Colon, whose report of serious robberies on Oct. 2 and 3 prompted the discussion, said she likes the idea, in principle.
“I appreciate your willingness to help officers knocking on doors,” Colon said. “It’s standard to do a [post-crime] canvas, and you bring up a great point, leaving our information.I would have to work on these guys and gals [officers] to get them cards.”
Colon confirmed in an email after the meeting that the neighborhood had been canvassed after the incidents at the beginning of October. Two of the witnesses from one of the robberies, she reported, provided the bulk of information on a car used in one getaway and also a subject description. In this instance that was sufficient for detectives to follow up.
Colon provided a summary of the robberies. The Oct 2 incident was a purse snatching without a weapon; the male perpetrator fled in a car. The car, later recovered had been involved in a separate incident on Mechanic Street.
The second more serious incident occurred the following night at 11. A man pointed a revolver at a woman he was robbing, then fled in a vehicle.
“The NHPD is doing the best given the shortages and resources available, and I understand there is always room for improvement,” Colon stated. “As a result of these robberies, I (also) deployed extra patrols to the area.”
Meanwhile, the police department has been working on linking more with neighbors and their video footage citywide.
Before the pandemic hit, the department started urging people at community management team meetings to subscribe to Amazon’s free “Neighbors by Ring” app. Assistant Chief Renee Dominguez, who oversees patrol, Wednesday renewed that call. She said the app enables the department to monitor videos already posted by neighbors, and follow up on them.
The department does that not only for major crimes, but for incidents like thefts from porches. Often the footage will capture someone known to have committed other crimes as well, Dominguez said. She said Lt. Colon has knocked on doors of people who have posted such videos, proactively encouraging them to file complaints so police could make arrests.
Police do regularly canvass neighborhoods, knocking on doors and leaving notes, after major and many less-than-major incidents, Dominguez said. She urged people with security cameras to sign up with the Neighbors app as well — noting that that enables the police to learn about existing footage more easily (since people don’t need to be home to be reached). People don’t need to have Amazon’s Ring service to upload their security footage to Neighbors.