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Mid Hudson Times, Wednesday, February 20, 2019
How do we overcome a bad reputation?
Continued from page 1
“My issue is that some of these news
entities put this information out without
a phone call even to comment about it,”
said City of Newburgh Police Chief, Doug
Solomon. “When people rely on what
they see on the internet, it creates all this
confusion and then we are tasked to undo
what has already been done.”
The
website
Neighborhood
Scout is a resource for those looking
to gain information on the quality of
neighborhoods across the country.
Neighborhood Scout uses unique
analytics to create ratings for a database
comparing cities to one another.
The organization creates a crime index
ranking each of the cities based on crime
rates, with 100 as the safest. Newburgh
is ranked 9, claiming that it is only safer
than 9% of U.S. cities.
“It’s a stark contrast to what we’ve
been trying to do, it sends the wrong
message to people who want to establish
themselves and move to the city,” said
Special Projects Lieutenant, Joseph
Cortez. “It’s tough when somethings put
out there to rectify it. The numbers have
reduced significantly. It’s made to sell
their product, to do that off the back
of the community, I was quite offended
actually.”
Statistics released by Neighborhood
Scout are higher in some areas compared
to numbers put out by the Newburgh
Police Department and the 2017 FBI Crime
Statistics. The FBI highly discourages
organizations from using their Uniform
Crime Reporting (UCR) data to rank cities
or areas.
“UCR data are sometimes used
to compile rankings of individual
jurisdictions and institutions of higher
learning,” wrote the FBI Crime Statistics
Management Unit. “These incomplete
analyses have often created misleading
perceptions which adversely affect
geographic entities and their residents.
For this reason, the FBI has a longstanding
policy against ranking participating
law enforcement agencies on the basis
of crime data alone. Despite repeated
warnings against these practices, some
data users continue to challenge and
misunderstand this position.”
Since filling the Chief position in the
City of Newburgh, Solomon initiated
various programs and tactics in the
department to reduce crime. One of
the biggest successes so far has been
moving from a zero-tolerance policy to
a targeted policing policy. The previous
anti-crime unit was labeled as the “Jump
Out Boys” this group has been re-branded
as the Community Progressive Response
Team (CPRT) in the past month. A
group of officers in the department were
handpicked by Cortez to participate in the
unit.
“The mission of the anti-crime unit
was not in keeping with the philosophy
that the department had already been
going in since before I got here and since
I got here,” said Cortez. “So it needed
rebranding. It was largely ineffective
anyway when I got here. We want to make
sure the guy sitting on the sidewalk just
drinking a beer after work is not treated
the same as a person responsible for
violent crimes.”
Newburgh was declared a part of
Thomas and D’Elicio walk through the
community on foot patrol as a form of
enforcement and creating positive relations
with the community and law enforcement.
the Gun Involved Violence Elimination
(GIVE) Initiative in 2014. Orange County
is one of 17 counties that account for
80 percent of crime in New York State
outside of New York City, qualifying for
GIVE funding.
The Group Violence Initiative (GVI)
is a program implemented in 2015 to
tackle gang violence in the city. CPRT is
the community liaison and enforcement
arm of the Group Violence Initiative,
funded through the GIVE program. Since
starting the GIVE program in Newburgh
the department has decreased the number
of bullet to body shootings from 55 in 2015
to 8 in 2019.
The department uses field intel
officers and crime statistics to dictate
their policing. Andrea Vey, City of
Newburgh Crime Analyst, is the woman
behind the scenes detecting trends and
pulling together all information brought
into the department. She finds locations
with the most criminal or group activity
so officers can run extra patrol and
enforcement in those areas.
“I synthesize hundreds of reports
that come in,” said Vey. “Let’s say we’re
having issues with auto theft, I can show
them the trends and give them direction
on how to do proactive policing. I just put
out the information the guys need to have
a successful patrol.”
Part of Vey’s job is to meet weekly
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