July 13, 2011

Clement calls for re-establishment of special Midtown-focused police unit

Mayoral candidate Hayes Clement said Wednesday that Kingston must reestablish a special police unit focused on combating crime and gang activity in Midtown. The unit, patterned on the Midtown Stabilization Unit that was deployed in the neighborhood during the 1990s, is the foundation on which any successful attempt to revitalize Midtown must be built, said Clement, the alderman representing Ward 9 on the Kingston Common Council and a Democratic candidate for mayor. There is never going to be a safe and thriving Kingston without a safe and thriving Midtown, and making that happen starts with getting more of our police professionals on Midtown streets, plain and simple, said Clement. We can talk all we want about task forces and legal strategies for prosecuting gangs, and they certainly play an important role in the fight, but the bottom line is that were reaching a crisis point and we have to deploy more manpower, more visibly, in Midtown and other hotspots. Clement said a new Neighborhood Engagement Team (NET) ideally would include at least six police professionals, preferably four uniformed officers and two investigators, and that the personnel could be redeployed from other functions in the Kingston Police Department, including training, or freed up for service by reducing the number of days-off currently granted by union contract. The team would focus on law-enforcement visibility and citizen interaction by getting officers out of patrol cars and on foot or on all-terrain vehicles. Officers on the team would also take a lead role in an expanded Block by Block program, an initiative focused on enforcing codes and tackling blight on select streets in Kingston. The team could also be deployed to other neighborhoods, as acute problems arise. These are proven tactics, not just for taking back the streets from gangs, but for giving at-risk children positive role models, Clement said. When individual officers become a familiar part of the neighborhood, relationships form, residents gain confidence that they are being listened to and protected, and they are more willing to cooperate in providing intelligence about gang members, drug dealers and other criminals. Putting those proven tactics back to work again in Midtown has to take priority, both when we select a new police chief and when we renegotiate a new police union contract.

Most officers in the KPD understand the importance of establishing such a team, and are really eager to see it happen, said Clement. It will require some discussion, sure, but its essential. Violence and gang activity in Midtown, left to continue on its current growth pattern, jeopardizes not just Midtown but all of Kingston.