Syracuse residents are giving mixed reviews to a new police program that’s supposed to curb neighborhood violence and illegal activity. The Strategic Team-Oriented Policing In Neighborhoods, or STOP-IN, is a four- to six-week pilot program that places officers in neighborhoods with troubled histories, Deputy Chief Joe Cecile said. These officers will work out of trailers on or near Fernwood...
Officers Steve Bear, left, and Jim Hiltbrand of the Syracuse Police Department stand next to a "Stop-In" mobile policing unit at the corner of Highland Street and Knaul Street in the Northside of Syracuse. Three units have been been placed in some of the most crime saturated areas of the city to increase police presence. "Stop-In" is acronymic for "Strategic Team Orientated Policing In Neighborhoods". Syracuse residents are giving mixed reviews to a new police program that’s supposed to curb neighborhood violence and illegal activity.
The Strategic Team-Oriented Policing In Neighborhoods, or STOP-IN, is a four- to six-week pilot program that places officers in neighborhoods with troubled histories, Deputy Chief Joe Cecile said. These officers will work out of trailers on or near Fernwood Avenue, Rockland Avenue and at Knaul and Highland streets.
“The mission of this thing is to identify the top five issues (and) challenges for that neighborhood, based on what the residents are telling us,” Cecile said. “Then bring in resources, codes, zoning, social services, to try to see if we can fix those five issues and also develop Neighborhood Watch groups, block groups, groups that are coordinated, talking with each other, so that when we move out ... it would be a neighborhood that is communicating, being proactive, calling the police when they see something going on.”
Rockland Avenue residents contend they’ve kept their word about being proactive, but some of them believe the police have not kept theirs, said community activist Cherylene “Twiggy” Billue.
May 31, Billue and about two dozen neighbors met with Syracuse Police Chief Frank Fowler to express concern about violence in their community. She said that during the meeting, Fowler introduced the STOP-IN program and showed satellite images of where the trailer would be placed — right in front of Billue’shome, near the middle of Rockland Avenue.
In the end, however, Cecile said, the trailer was placed on Bissell Street because Rockland was too steep. “It was higher than we originally thought,” Cecile said. “The truck just wasn’t able to put that unit up on that hill.”
Because members of the community were never informed about the location change, they felt cheated, Billue said.
“The fact of the matter is, people are still asking me where (it) is. ... It is startling and alarming to me. ... giving us a false sense of security,” Billue said. “The least they should have done was be men of their word, and if they said it was going to be there, they put it there. If they needed to lower the grade to do it, they are the city. They can do it, they own the lot.”
In 2009, 34 people were arrested on Rockland Avenue and in the surrounding community. More than 500 police calls were made that year.
Ryan McMahon, who has been the common councilor for Rockland Avenue and the third district for five years, contends that the trailer should have been left in the original location because of the level of activity coming from South Avenue down into Rockland.
“I truly don’t know why they didn’t put it there,” McMahon said. “I am troubled as to why we didn’t put it in that spot to protect that street. ... We’ve never seen guns the way we’ve seen them on the streets.”
Residents of Rockland Avenue, Knaul Street and Highland Street also think that four to six weeks is not long enough to fix the community’s problems.
“I really don’t see how you can change anything in that amount of time. That’s too short,” said Aundra Billue, Twiggy’s husband. “It’s almost like, how in the world ... a problem that has been festering for over three years now, how is six weeks going to resolve it for us?”
Allen Jock, who has lived on Highland Street for two years, said he feels the same way.
“I’d rather they be there longer,” Jock said. “That ain’t going to solve anything.”
Since the program started about three weeks ago, Ann Snyder, of Knaul Street, said she has not seen a change in the community.
“It’s the same, selling drugs all the time,” Snyder said. “What the hell they put it up for? They ain’t never there. It’s a waste of money.”
More than 850 police calls and 120 arrests were made last year around Knaul and Butternut Street.
It is a different story on Fernwood Avenue, where residents say they have seen a dramatic change in their community since the program started.
“Basically, they are doing a good job,” said Angela Scott, who has lived on Fernwood for 16 years. “I’m glad that they’re here. We don’t have all that traffic out in this area anymore. It’s kind of slowing down.”
Rosie Davis, who has lived on Fernwood for 45 years, remembers how the neighborhood was before the trailer was installed.
“It was bad,” Davis said. “I had a neighbor that was always complaining about gunshots, kids climbing over her fence and getting into her yard, throwing bottles into her yard. I appreciate the fact that they (police) put it there.”
Last year, more than 650 police calls and 35 arrests were made around Fernwood Avenue.
The rented trailers, which have electricity, cost about $230 a month, Cecile said. The officers working from them are usually in the schools, Cecile said.
“We wanted to utilize officers that were working in the schools ... because some of the issues we knew that they would be dealing with might be juvenile-related, and they would know everybody,” Cecile said. “They are going to be out there, on different streets, canvassing or talking to residents one-on-one. It’s going to be staffed very frequently.”
McMahon hopes that the program will have a positive effect on these communities.
“This is not your regular community policing detail,” McMahon said. “This is an aggressive approach to figure out what the problems are. ... It is critical that we get ahold of what’s going on, we figure out who the bad guys are, get them off the streets and get the guns off the streets.”
--Contact Fernando Alfonso III at falfonso@syracuse.com or 470- 6078 .