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Mid Hudson Times, Wednesday, February 20, 2019
How do we overcome a bad reputation?
Continued from page 3
with the CPRT team. She locates areas for
the unit to do a foot patrol, and the time
of day they will be most effective. The
unit uses the “Koper Curve” theory which
focuses on hot spots of crime, identified
by Vey. Officers will then visit these spots
on foot or with frequent stops to these
areas.
“Some of the responsibilities they
are tasked with is connecting with the
community, so what they’re looking for
is to identify certain areas because of
their group activity aka gang activity
and they’re put into that area,” said
Cortez. “This implementation they are
doing now, it’s a focused deterrence on
groups. We are trying to stop the people
that bring this community down through
violence and more importantly through
gun violence.”
Officers Dan D’Elicio and Deluano
Thomas are part of the CPRT unit. They
are not required to take regular calls
in order to allow for focused policing in
hotspot areas. The two spend their day
responding to calls and monitoring hot
spots.
Riding around in the back of the
car with D’Elicio and Thomas, you can
see the policies laid out by Lieutenant
Cortez take place in real time. The two
break through the barrier created by
the uniform getting out of their car and
engaging with community and group
members.
Driving past a young delivery driver
D’Elicio calls out the window giving the
kid a heads up on where to park his car.
Later on, that day the boy delivers a meal
to the department as a sign of gratitude.
The two officers were born and raised in
the City of Newburgh and it shows. They
can’t take a step without being stopped
to talk with community members in the
street.
This type of policing is one of many
ways the department is trying to connect
with the community and end gang
violence.
In a recent shooting the group member
killed was on a perishable list, where
the department reaches out right away
with a custom notification to warn of
potential group involvement or activity.
The day before he was killed officers were
knocking on his door trying to warn him.
“For me personally, if there is one
shooting one homicide, then I have failed
this community, not that there aren’t a
lot of successes because there are quite
a bit of successes but I keep that because
this job inherently is to put ourselves
out of business,” said Cortez. “I take
that for me and say you know what there
was a shooting a bullet to body shooting
or a homicide, I’ve failed, but now let’s
maintain this. Let’s hold this close inside
to prevent more from happening.”
The department uses organizations
like the Youth Police Initiative and the
Cadet Program to reach community
members at a young age, changing the
perception of law enforcement.
The result of all these actions is a
community that feels safer than it did in
the past. In a survey conducted by the Mid
Hudson Times, 154 Newburgh residents
and workers voiced their opinions on how
they feel about the city.
The survey took a poll with one being
concerned for safety and 10 unconcerned
about crime in the city. In the survey
87 participants voted from 8 to 10, only
20 participants voted from 1 to 4 and 44
participants voted between 5 and 7.
The Mid Hudson Times asked
residents for their opinion on the way
the city of Newburgh has been portrayed
in the media. The survey was sent to
various organizations and members of
the community to distribute and share on
social media.
Responses fell into six categories;
reporting is accurate, it is improving, it is
unfairly reported with too much focus on
the negative, it is negative, it is inaccurate
and it depends on the outlet.
The survey showed a majority of
participants believe the media gives a
negative, unfair or inaccurate portrayal of
the City of Newburgh. Many participants
showed anger in the lack of positive
media and articles published about the
city, leading to its bad reputation.
“I think it’s portrayed very negatively,
but they also don’t sugar coat it,” said
Mateo Diaz. “Newburgh is a dangerous
city, let’s be honest, crime and drugs are
out of control. I feel like it’s overlooked
quite frequently. Inner City Newburgh
is being kept alive by all the beautiful
locals. When tourists come to the City
of Newburgh, I want them to explore the
whole city not just a small part of it. Some
people don’t see the potential in it, but it’ll
happen, just wait a couple years.”
Some participants were content with
current media coverage, 13 participants
believe the city of Newburgh is accurately
portrayed by the media
“It’s pretty accurate, I think the city
can be a little stronger when it comes to
law enforcement,” said a participant. “I
see people smoking and selling drugs,
cops drive by them like they are afraid to
enforce the law. This has been happening
for years.”
Ultimately 96 participants responded
to the survey with frustrations that more
positive stories are not published about
the city to highlight the people working to
lift up the city.
“I find it frustrating, the statistics used
seem outdated and certainly aren’t close to
accurately portraying the Newburgh that
I see every day,” said a survey participant.
“It’s obvious that there has been a
concerted effort to address the crime and
negative stereotypes of Newburgh. The
fact that inaccurate portrayals of the
city continue to plague its reputation
and put a damper on potential growth
is frustrating. We need to do everything
we can to ensure that the crime statistics
cited are accurate and up to date, because
these so-called statistically informed
opinions are inaccurate and belittle the
great strides made by our leaders in the
city.”
City manager appoints new comptroller
Continued from page 1
sure we are accurate to make sure we know exactly what
is going on. It’s about making sure everything is where it
is supposed to be and figuring that out.”
In his first week on the job, Venning is looking
at the city’s financials to get a clear picture of the
municipality’s financial health. He refrains from setting
any priorities until he has a clear understanding of what
is possible in the current financial state.
“The biggest thing right now is review the finances,
we have a large set of financials so it takes some time to
go through,” said Venning. I’m going to meet with the
City Manager and Department Heads to see where we’re
at.”
Venning has been a Newburgh resident for 15 years,
volunteering his time at the Boys and Girls Club in
Newburgh and serving as a Postgraduate Fellow with
Legal Services of the Hudson Valley introducing him to
the City of Newburgh.
“Todd Venning is not only impressive on paper,” said
Mayor Torrance Harvey. “He has real life experience
that the city of Newburgh has needed for some time.
I welcome him with open arms and look forward to
working with him.”
Venning hopes to finish his deep analysis within 90
days, once his analysis is complete he will meet with
Donat and Department heads to craft a plan that meets
the needs of the city and maintains a positive financial
health.
“Hiring a comptroller has been my number one
priority since taking on the role as manager,” said Donat.
“Todd is my first appointment, and I am confident he
will be a great fit and work collaboratively with all city
staff to help us move forward in a fiscally responsible
manner.”