The Hoboken Housing Authority has implemented a new approach to community policing by placing officers in their buildings at Christopher Columbus Gardens and 320 Marshall Drive as part of the “Officer Next Door” program.
Officers Kevin Cooney and Angel Velez are living in the projects and interacting with residents to provide neighbors with a police contact in their building. The HHA expects to announce soon that they will add more officers to the program.
Cooney and Velez will be walking the stairwells, hallways, and courtyards in the buildings, and the HHA has provided a phone number for residents to leave a voice mail for the officers.
The officers pay a reduced-rate rent to live in the building and receive a stipend for the extra duty.
At an introductory meeting last week, Velez also provided residents with his cell phone number to call in case a problem.
The officers will be providing HHA Deputy Director Carmelo Garcia with written security action plans.
HHA officials see this as a proactive approach to solving the crime problem in the projects, a way to deter criminals by having the officers’ presence felt in the community.
Garcia said that the HHA hopes to expand the program in the future.
Locks at last
Aside from the live-in cops, the HHA has taken a few different steps to improve safety in the more than 1,350 units of subsidized housing in Hoboken.
They have installed ID card access points at entryways, and doors are scheduled to be locked this week. In the past, anyone could walk into the buildings.
According to HHA Director Robert DiVincent, the locking will begin at Columbus Gardens then buildings on Marshall Drive, and may take a while since entry buzzers have to be synchronized to ring tenants’ home or cell phones.
The doors-locking was supposed to begin on May 1, but the HHA has had trouble getting all residents their ID cards.
“A lot of the [criminal] activity in these buildings is disturbing a peaceful environment.”
– Carmelo Garcia
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The cameras are accessible by police and the HHA and they include two license plate recognition cameras linked to a database of those wanted by law enforcement.
Getting enough for $540K?
In addition to these measures, off-duty police are working extra hours patrolling the buildings between 8 p.m. and 4 p.m. as part of a $540,000 contract with the Hoboken Police Department.
However, tenants have been complaining that the contract is not being honored by the police department and board members aren’t sure that the HHA is getting its money’s worth.
Commissioner Perry Belfiore said that he’s not sure whether it’s a case of not getting police coverage or just not getting paperwork.
Michael Russo, 3rd Ward councilman and housing commissioner, said that the board should consider not paying the Police Department for the services until they provide reports that the contracted coverage is being fulfilled.
“There should be a police presence anyway,” Russo said.
Chairman Angel Alicea, who is also a police officer, said that the coverage has been sporadic.
“I blame the leadership,” Alicea said. “We’re going to find a resolution to this issue.”
He said that he would reach out to new acting Police Chief Robert Lisa this week.
Meet your neighbor
Garcia introduced Velez to residents last week at a small event in the basement at Columbus Gardens. Cooney had been introduced at a similar event the week prior.
“A lot of the [criminal] activity in these buildings is disturbing a peaceful environment,” Garcia said. “This is a pioneering program.”
Mayor David Roberts and Assemblyman Ruben Ramos Jr. were on hand for the introduction ceremony, as were HHA Commissioners Angel Alicea, Robert Davis, and Perry Belfiore.
Roberts said he was there to listen and called the Columbus Gardens community a “very pleasant, beautiful place to raise a family,” crediting Garcia with improvements made to the grounds.
Alicea, also a police officer, said, “The priority is and always has been to improve the quality of life for the residents.” He said that the community policing approach should help forge a relationship between police and residents who can work together as a team.
Velez, who had been recovering from two surgeries, is now back to active duty and is excited to get this new project underway.
“I’m going to make a difference,” he said. “I love Hoboken, I love being a cop in Hoboken.”
Alicea said that Hoboken has to break away from the “containment” philosophy of keeping crime in the city in one area, specifically the western side where many of the HHA buildings are.
He said in an interview that policing from the inside may help to turn the tide of those who distrust the police because they feel they have been neglected or manipulated by law enforcement.
Belfiore said that the live-in police can help law enforcement and the HHA board determine whether those “causing havoc” in the projects are coming from inside the community, or from visitors and trespassers from outside Hoboken.
Joe Dimonde, president of the tenants association at Columbus Gardens, said that the new security efforts have already made a difference.
“People see police around and in the buildings,” Dimonde said. “We feel more secure already.”
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