Congratulations Lt. Eleni Barbieri and Lt. Matthew Benoit as well as Sgt. Melissa Rodriguez and Sgt. Doug Bernier. All four were recently promoted and are very well deserved of their new ranks.
Summer is a difficult time to make promotions, because of our shortages you hit the rank running and pinning ceremonies are tough to schedule with vacation times. However, the vacancies need to be filled with all our retirements and I’m sure families and friends made sure their accomplishments are well recognized!
I’m on vacation myself and headed to my Jersey shore respite to recharge for a busy fall schedule. I enjoy the ocean and watching my nephews have fun in the waves. Taking two dogs is probably going to keep me more active than what I would like, but they enjoy the change of scenery.
Crime issues
We are continuing our journey of meeting the requirements of the consent decree, but without taking our eye off of crime issues that have been creeping up. I am proud of our department’s efforts to curb the illegal dirt bikes but the TikTok KIA and Hyundai challenges have kept us busy.
We have made some excellent arrests in the area of School and High streets and we will continue to do so. The courts have realized some of our troubles — and progress has been made in some of those areas. Thank you, judges, for understanding it is not us against you but rather good people trying to do the right things and needing help from our court counterparts.
Those committing crimes sometimes need help, with programs and assistance with education and addiction. They sometimes need long incarceration because the help is refused and innocent people need protecting.
An Aug. 6 article in The Republican dealt with our continued challenges to black market marijuana dealings. Many are surprised by the number of home invasions and homicides over marijuana, but the legalization created a lucrative black market.
Many of our homicides this year are because of territorial fights of drug dealing. We continue to try and make the area of High Street and School Street safer for our residents and officers. The attraction to the area is low level street drug dealing, prostitution, availability of vacant apartments to trespass in and set up shop for dealing illegal drugs.
When these arrests are made, the enthusiasm to prosecute and incarcerate for misdemeanors has been missing, and the individual is returned to the neighborhood, sometimes within hours of the arrest. We have seen these lower-level crimes and misdemeanors lead to arguments and homicides. We will continue to work with the management company of the apartment buildings, with the courts and our community partners to understand that the old “broken windows” theory actually does work when we all work together.
All of our cases involving use of force and citizens’ complaints are being reviewed and we are confident that the reviews will be positive. We continue to stress upon our officers to be informed of the new policies, follow them, and enforce the laws as your training dictates.
Hiring challenge
A new list has been formulated for police officers for our hiring process to begin. Only 120 of the active list are residents and the screening and background checks have begun. That number used to be around 600, but we are still suffering from tough hiring times. Young people feel our profession is too dangerous, we have a bad reputation from past incidents, pay is viewed as not worth the risks, and sometimes the challenges of making the correct split-second decision is too demanding.
I tried to attract 50 recruits last year, we graduated about 30. Our cadet program has expanded and we are trying to recruit from the city high schools. Capt. Jeff Martucci and Lt. Barbieri are running the program and expanding the cadets’ duties to make it more of an incentive for young people.
Those of us who were cadets tend to make this a profession and excel in it. The cadets are going through the physical fitness portion of the hiring process so they are ready for the academy. I was a cadet in 1979 and I was the supervisor for many of my bosses today, like Danny Reigner, Brian Beliveau, Jeff Martucci and many more who have definitely carved out successful careers for themselves.
Congratulations to Jim Henderson and Sam Hannah on turning 99 years young!! They are part of my McDonald’s coffee crew who give me encouragement every time I get a chance to visit.
Superintendent Cheryl C. Clapprood leads the Springfield Police Department.
