Concord Cops Target South End

The is reallocating some of its current resources in effort to focus on stepped up patrols in parts of the South End.

Chief said that the effort was being put together in order to tackle an increase in crime directly and indirectly connected to people who live or hang out in the neighborhood.

Duval said that calling it “the South End” was a bit too broad a term. The department is stepping up its efforts in the area around Monroe to West streets and east to west, from South State to South streets.

The area, Duval noted, was unique to the city for a number of reasons, including that it was an older neighborhood, consisting of many multi-family dwellings, that during the last several years, had seen an increase in absentee landlords and transiency. He also called it a close neighborhood that had seen a number of fairly high profile arrests including , r, , and a on South Main Street, where the alleged perpetrator was caught in the neighborhood.

“So what we’ve decided to do, instead of waiting for the next event,” he said, “the folks in that neighborhood a right to a quality of life and to be able to come and go without concern that things may be deteriorating.”

The “proactive” effort will feature “multi-pronged strategies” in order to step up patrols and enforcement. Those strategies include getting investigators out in the field for part of the day and increasing foot and bike patrols in an effort to visibly be seen in the neighborhood more. The police will “shine a bright light on the area” and work with business owners, taxpayers, and residents, to come up with ways to deal with the problems, Duval said.

“This was really us, hitting the pause button in our operations, and sitting down at the table and saying, 'Let’s analyze the way we police that area,'” Duval said. “How can we be proactive? How can we look at the issues and come up with strategies, within our budget, to address those issues.”

The police department will be trying to stay within its current budget to pay for the effort. It may cost a small amount of overtime. But Duval said that there were some vacancies in the department so other resources could be diverted into the area to focus on the new plan. He said the department would not be “spread out too thin” between sectors. Police patrols would not be taken out of one area the city to add double service to the South End, he said.

“We have not taken any officer from any part of the city,” he said. “And it’s nothing that the taxpayers are paying extra for.”

Instead, the department will shift the overlap staffing between the core sectors of the city, refocusing their time with more flexible shifts and coverage.

Currently, the neighborhood is quite transient, with families of many different socioeconomic levels occupying the multifamily building, with even more low income housing slated to be constructed at the new building. Duval said he wasn’t that concerned about the potential for new housing at the school, which is smack dab in the middle of the expanded patrol area.

“In and of itself, I think if you look at it from a singular perspective, without really closely analyzing it, it would be easy for me to say that I’m concerned about that,” he said, “But I’m immediately drawn to other comparisons where we have other populated areas of the city, with similar types of, for our standards, densely populated areas that may be subsidized housing or other projects, that we don’t have problems. This boils down to responsible management and timely actions when situations occur.”

Executive directors and CEOs of management companies know that when a large number of people are brought together in an apartment building, things can happen, Duval said. The key is to focus on stopping the behaviors of the people that don’t follow the rules, he said. That one apple, Duval noted, spoils the whole bunch.

“When you do that, you have a neighborhood where everybody coexists,” he said, “and they can enjoy the environment that Concord has to offer.”