After a couple was held up at gunpoint while taking a nighttime stroll on East Rock’s Lawrence Street, they decided not to slip away as lone victims of a random crime. The result: A crowd of 60 neighbors gathered at a block party Wednesday to share stories, talk to police and revive dormant block watches near where the mugging occurred.
One night a couple weeks ago, David Silberkleit and his girlfriend, Leslie Prodis, went out for a stroll. It was about 10:30 p.m., a time when dog-walkers and students still roam sidewalks. The couple was walking near Lawrence and Orange Streets when “someone pulled a gun on us” and demanded cash. They didn’t have any; the man left.
Without a cell phone, Silberkleit ran from house to house, ringing doorbells to get someone to call 911. By the time police arrived, the mugger had fled. But he and the woman who opened the door for him that night, Claudia Tatinge Nascimento, have made a connection. They both showed up Wednesday evening for the block party on Cottage Street to talk about tackling crime.
Tatinge Nascimento (pictured at right) shared stories: Her Honda was broken into twice outside her Lawrence Street home (and then hit with a school bus). Others told of drug deals in the basement of a nearby apartment building at 691 Orange St. Others were miffed when their snow shovels had been stolen.
Where’s that man on the bike, and can we buy a new one?
Silberkleit described a rash of crime: His mugging, a break-in at the Orange Street Market, and another burglary at Lulu’s coffee shop.
It wasn’t clear Wednesday whether those three incidents depict a greater trend. But as the crowd closed in on the neighborhood district manager, Police Sgt. Romano Ratti, one thing became clear: Neighbors feel there’s less of a police presence than there has been in the past.
Lifelong East Rocker Bill Donohue, 71, pointed out a decline in community policing in the neighborhood. In the past, a much-loved cop wheeled around on a bicycle patrol beat. Why is there no bike cop now?
Ratti explained a change in how police resources are being allocated: Now, some officers roam between neighborhoods on a squad called ID-NET that targets areas where there’s a spike in crime. Right now, that’s not East Rock. “Right now, it happens to be the shootings on the other side of town.”
The particular bike cop is now behind the wheel of a car, ready to speed away to calls within a greater radius, said Ratti.
Donohue wanted to know if ID-NET represents a move away from the type of community policing that New Haven embraced, and gained national praise for, in the 1990s. “How does [ID-NET] interface with community policing?”
“When we had the bicycle officer who was there, you could stop and tell him things,” said Donohue. The cop was a “symbol,” a daily affirmation that the department was in tune with neighbors. “I think some of us felt better when the cop was on the bike.” An elderly woman agreed: She had the cop’s number pasted on her fridge.
Silberkleit, still shaken from the assault two weeks ago and eager to find new solutions, didn’t want to settle for the conclusion neighbors were reaching: That the police department was “stretched like crazy” and unable to track down the offenders in East Rock burglaries and muggings.
If we can’t get a beat cop assigned to East Rock, could we buy one instead? he asked. This is a wealthy neighborhood; “if money is the issue,” could we raise the funds ourselves and pay for a beat cop to patrol the East Rock streets?
“I don’t think the city would go for that,” said Ratti. But he didn’t give a reason why neighbors couldn’t hire an extra-duty cop, just as downtown nightclubs do. It would just be expensive: about $60 an hour, by Ratti’s reckoning.
Curtains and Shades
Ratti (pictured at right) did have some cheaper solutions that didn’t involve adding more cops to the streets. Just as in Westville, he sees a lifestyle —” open garages, items left in cars —” that invites “crimes of opportunity.” He looked across the street to an open, curtainless window on the first floor. “I can see right in.”
Why not take measures to protect yourselves —” buy curtains, shades, motion-triggered lights, or audible alarms, he suggested.
Or —” for those in the crowd who winced at the thought of blaring alarms and barred windows —” get a block watch started? The evening, after all, was intended for residents of Avon, Cottage and Lawrence Streets to revive and create block watches.
A woman on Avon Street said she’d been block watch captain five years ago, but there’s so much turnover on the street —” a lot of transient Yale students and staff —” that now she’s the only one left from the group.
Debbie Chrostek of Cottage Street started her block watch 20 years ago. She just learned her block watch had “expired” due to inactivity.
Will one man’s assault trigger new vigilance and stronger neighborhood bonds? East Rock Alderwoman Elizabeth Addonizio gave fiery encouragement: We need to “get the word out that we’re a unified, active neighborhood that’s getting together to stem crime.”
Too many times, people witness fishy behavior but don’t make a call, she said. Through block watches, neighbors keep in touch via monthly meetings or phone-tree alerts. Neighbors who know who lives next door can better detect suspicious visitors. At a bare minimum, those on the street can take a simple vow to leave porch lights on. The result: An atmosphere of proactive vigilance.
Silberkleit wasn’t sure if Wednesday’s shared stories and renewed vigilance would yield more than just a heightened sense of fear. But block watch veterans seemed confident in their groups’ revival, carrying away a fresh list of 20 volunteers.