No less than 15 minutes later, I spied out my kitchen window into my back parking lot, and I spotted a police cruiser parked next to a brown, early 1990s Toyota Celica.

The cop, Officer Michael Castagno, was in one of three cruisers responding to the prowler, who was arrested for attempted burglary for trying to break into a house across the street.

The still-running Toyota, Castagno said, was stolen and deposited in my parking lot before he arrived. The thief fled.

When I asked if we could shut it off (global warming, you know), Castagno said the ignition was shot, and the tow truck driver would drive it to the wrecker.

Okay, so within the time I took to shower, a would-be burglar and a stolen car passed through my back yard. Maybe I'm a suburbanite at heart. But if crime like this occurs on even half of the blocks in the city, I understand why the Hartford Police Department has its hands full and why no one wants to live in this jungle.

What I can't understand, though, is the reticence to open more community policing substations like a potential one on the corner of Laurel and Farmington. The cops who I met July 3 said it sounded like a good idea.

Further conversations with the Mayor's office reveal Eddie Perez's administration is not moving on landlord Tom Shelto's proposed donation of the corner retail space for a substation. The Connecticut Army National Guard Recruiting Center abandoned the space and Shelto said previously he wants a greater police presence on the corner.

The Mayor will leave the substation issue to the discretion of the Hartford Police department, said Mayoral Aide Susan McMullen.

"Who says substations solve crime?" asked Nancy Mulroy, police spokesperson, voicing sticking points like a sad song.

Nothing is free, Mulroy said of Shelto's offer.

"There are costs associated with it," Mulroy said, like phone lines, etc. Yet she promised that Lt. Peter Bergenholtz, the Northwest District Commander, would follow up with Shelto.

The second stanza would be that HPD already has two substations nearby: one on Sargeant Street (buried in the secure Veeder-Root complex), and one on the corner of Girard and Farmington (technically in the West End).

"They are well-known and well-utilized," Mulroy said. "We can't open a substation on every corner."

Echoing comments from the Mayor's office, Mulroy said that 90 percent of police time is spent responding to calls, and the other 10 percent of an officer's time is occupied by paperwork. Thus, the substations sit empty most of the time anyway.

For my money, those deserted substations may as well be on Mars. They are more than a mile away from the problems of Laurel, Marshall and Farmington.

Asylum Hill is a high priority area, Mulroy acknowledged. But what HPD is doing to combat the problems, "I cannot discuss the tactics and strategies," she said. She listed off a litany of arrest statistics for the Northeast Violence Reduction Initiative, but nothing for this my embattled neighborhood.

The solution may lie in McMullen's suggestion that substations should rotate every few years. Seeing as how crime in the West End is not as bad as Asylum Hill, or that the Veeder-Root substation is invisible from the road, perhaps the city should move one of those substations to a hot spot.

Or maybe we could move the well-staffed police museum off of Main Street and put it in where the Army fears to tread: Laurel and Farmington.

7/13/05

Email this to a friend.

"Who says substations solve crime?" asked Nancy Mulroy, police spokesperson.

Index Pages

Topics

Archives

Laurel Street Beat (Continued)

"Who says substations solve crime?" asked Nancy Mulroy, police spokesperson.