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City Police Take To The Streets

Hartford Mayor Announces More Walking Patrol Beats

By MARK PAZNIOKAS
Courant Staff Writer

August 29 2003

On the corner where a city councilman recently was mugged and not far from where a police officer was shot, Mayor Eddie A. Perez announced Thursday the reassignment of 20 police officers to a dozen new walking beats throughout Hartford.

Several community activists literally applauded the mayor's news, while others complained the election-year announcement before an array of television cameras was political theater, not public policy.

"Eddie, I'm just very proud of you," prominent activist Jackie Fongemie told Perez as she hugged the mayor off camera. In a low voice, she added, "You're going to hear a lot of that -` it's political,' but it's not."

The announcement comes just12 days before a Democratic primary for city council, and it follows several shootings that have made crime a top campaign issue. But the mayor said the timing was driven by the recent graduation of 48 police officers from the academy, not politics.

"We are taking the old model of the cop on the beat and applying it to a modern community-policing plan," Perez said, standing at Farmington Avenue and Evergreen Street in the West End.

Perez said he has sought to improve community policing throughout his first term as mayor, but the department's chronic staffing shortage handcuffed the police command staff. Only with the recent graduation did the department return to its authorized strength of 420 officers.

Some of the walking beats will be filled by new officers, accompanied by their field training officers. The new officers cannot be deployed on their own until completing field training this fall. Others will be reassigned from patrol and the department's community response division.

The mayor had pressed the police to create new walking beats, but the specifics of the plan were left to police commanders, said Matt Hennessy, the mayor's chief of staff.

Kevin Jones, the assistant chief in charge of operations, said the reassignments will not reduce the department's car-patrol plan. Some activists at the announcement were skeptical.

"It's smoke and mirrors," said Kevin R. Brookman, a city businessman and frequent critic of city hall. "He's stripping one division to have these guys walk beats."

Even Fongemie, a fan of the mayor's initiative, said she and others will watch to see resources are not shifted from one front-line unit to another. "My concern is that we don't rob Peter to pay Paul," she said.

Hyacinth Yennie, another activist, said, "This is great news. This is what we have been talking about for years and years."

Attending the press conference were most of the mayor's council allies, plus the endorsed Democratic council slate backed by Perez.

Absent was Councilman John B. Kennelly, who was beaten on the corner a week ago after he resisted three muggers. He suffered a torn ligament in one knee, and a recent X-ray showed he also broke his tibia.

Kennelly, who was not endorsed for re-election, is leading a council challenge slate in a Democratic primary. Perez said he had invited all council members to the press conference, but Kennelly said he did not receive an invitation.

Kennelly did not criticize the initiative.

"Anything that increases public safety in the city of Hartford, I am behind 100 percent," Kennelly said. "Like a lot of things, we have to try this. Hopefully, it will have some effect. I am glad to see we are trying new initiatives."

The mayor walked the neighborhood after the announcement with two foot-patrol officers, Brian Salkeld and Shawn St. John.

"Is that the mayor? Oh, my goodness," a young woman called down from an apartment balcony. "Mr. Perez, right? What's going on?"

The mayor told her about the new walking beats. She replied she's been seeing more cops on her street, which has been a drug-dealing hot spot.

"You'll see us even more," St. John called out.

Within minutes, they passed the spot on Evergreen where Officer Andrew Jacobson was shot and wounded trying to arrest a man after a motor vehicle accident July 3.

It was Salkeld's brother, Officer Richard Salkeld, who then shot and killed Jacobson's assailant.

Salkeld thanked the mayor, who was out of state on vacation at the time, for calling his brother after the shooting.

"He really appreciated it," Salkeld said.

As the mayor politicked, the two young officers chatted easily with residents who sat outside, enjoying the comfortable late-afternoon air. A few stared down the block, where television news trucks remained on the corner preparing for the evening news.

St. John, a cop for seven years, shrugged when asked if the new initiative was window-dressing or a real change in emphasis by the department.

"They say it's the real deal," said St. John, who did not object to the new assignment. "I did a walk beat for a year back when we had more of them. I liked it."