Neighborhood Watch: Branford Police Prepare Condo Residents for Crime Prevention

The Foxbridge Clubhouse in the condos off Hemlock Road swelled with people last Thursday who were eager to learn how the is working to keep their neighborhood safe.

With more than 525 condominium units in the area off Brushy Plain Road, Branford Police shared with the group that crime has a tendency to go unnoticed with the increased population in a small area.  There are several condo complexes off Hemlock Road including Foxbridge Village, Foxwood Crossing, Foxwood II and the Meadows. Part of a new neighborhood police initiative, Branford officers have been working vigilantly to prevent crime, empower residents and offer constant police presence in the area for residents.

The neighborhood officers for the Hemlock Road condos include Sgt. Kris Hormuth, Lt. Raymond Dunbar, Officer Joseph Peterson, Officer Raashad Roach and Officer David Atkinson–several who were in attendance at the meeting on Thursday.

For the past six months, this team of officers has been working the streets of the condo complexes, looking for potential criminal activity and offering a sense of safety to residents. Their focused efforts in this area may be new for the residents of Hemlock Road condos, but neighborhood policing has been going on around town for the past three years.

According to Captain Geoffrey Morgan of the Branford Police Department, officers have been patrolling Stony Creek/Pine Orchard, The Center Business District/Harbor Street and Short Beach. In addition to policing, officers have held meetings like the one on Thursday in several of these areas to communicate to the public how to live safely and reduce the potential of crime.

Starting off the meeting echoing , Dunbar explained, “For a crime to occur, we’re going to have to have a motivated offender. People’s motivations are what they are. That motivated offender needs an opportunity.”

Elaborating, Morgan added, “If people don’t take guardianship over their things the motivated offender is going to take that opportunity.”

One way the Police remind the community to remember to lock their vehicles and homes, is the use of the “If I were a thief” flyers (see PDF). Officers place these flyers, in open cars or near open doors of homes as a reminder to property owners to be mindful. The flyer, an initiative brought to the department about two years ago by Captain Kevin Halloran’s father who was a community police officer for one year, offers a checklist of how someone might have stolen something. For example, if a person leaves a GPS on a car dashboard, an officer might leave a slip stating, “Easily stolen items were left visible.”

In recent months, Branford Police have seen a spike in crime in the Hemlock condo area–mostly theft from automobiles–and the department is warning residents to be vigilant about locking cars. Showing residents that the statistics of crime in the area are up and are predicted to keep rising based on past comparison data, the crowd began to perk up and whisper among themselves.

Morgan reminded residents “crime on a whole is down. Things can happen in anywhere USA.” The goal, explained Morgan, is not to instill fear, but empower residents to be vigilant about their property and their neighbor’s property.

Morgan explained that Pine Orchard resident Wendy Giordano, who was for her efforts, was able to put an end to a rash of burglaries in Branford including the daytime burglary of the late volunteer firefighter home during his funeral, because she was a vigilant neighbor. After having been notified about an increase of burglaries in her area through the Police Department’s B-Informed system, Giordano saw suspicious activity and called 911. Her led to the arrest of who was linked to 13 area home burglaries.

The hope to increase the department’s eyes through alert citizens to thwart crime has been an ongoing effort of the Police Department for the past few years. Former New York resident and New York City Fire Department member Joe Higgins who now lives in the condos said in support of the department, “There’s only 52 of you people. We have to realize that his is not the New York City Police Department.”

Showing the group how to use the notification system B-Informed to receive alerts from the Police Department as well as the online crime data map Crime Reports to track incidents, the group began to open up.

One woman stated that she was upset that a repeat offender, who is a resident of the area, keeps getting out after committing crime. “He has robbed from our community, a sense of security.”

The perpetrator has been arrested for more than 20 incidents in his criminal history according to Roach and the court system is what keeps him from serving time. Unable to tell the concerned woman that the man would be locked up for good, he said afterward, “We will be vigilant. A patrol officer will stay in the area and we hope that someone will call if they see something.”

An other concern from citizens was the release time of stolen goods held as evidence. Branford Police Detective Dan Travisano explained that stolen items have to remain as evidence per court order. When an incident happens, he said, the victim receives a blue slip with the responding officers’ contact information so he or she can call for follow up on the status of their goods.

Though it took months to get his laptops and other electronic devices back following a break-in, Foxbridge condo resident Shivakumar Nadgouda said his items were returned. He told his fellow meeting attendees that to be patient thorough the process.

When asked about the neighborhood police initiatives, Nadgouda commented, “You feel safe. You feel a little leary but I see, almost all day, my wife tells me, Officer Roach roams around.” Laughing he agreed that that type of roaming was a good kind to have.

To learn more about preventing burglary, see the above PDF; to find out if your neighborhood has patrolling officers, contact the Branford Police Department at 203-481-4241.