Some of us are familiar with Community Policing and others are not. Generally residents who reside in an urban setting are, though many are not. Perhaps they don’t have problems in their area that make them become familiar with this type of Policing or they are just not aware.
Community policing is a whole different breed of Officer. Community Officers are full fledged members of the Police force and have worked both sides of policing, but deal mostly with the Social problems in the Community. They focus on the little problems to prevent them from blossoming into larger problems thus, hopefully, saving a situation from becoming much more serious. What problems do they encounter you might ask? Well in Troy, Absentee Landlordism probably fills their slate during the day the most. Part of the problems that stem from this new breed of Entrepreneur are garbage issues, overcrowding of apartments, illegally breaking down on larger houses or apartments, code violations, noise and a variety of other issues that can make residents life miserable.
Anyone who attends their monthly Neighborhood Assn. meeting knows their Officer personally and seeks their help with the issues that are brought to the forefront at the meeting. Not only do you get to know your Officer first hand but we tend to “bond” so to speak with them, they become our ‘friends’ and not just a Cop. So where am I going with this? Well this week our Officer for the North Central area, Kevin Sessions, was injured while on Bike Patrol. He was biking on Fifth Avenue, when a women opened her car door into traffic and right into the path of Kevin. Yes, Kevin got whacked, he was injured pretty well, he was knocked off his bike and his arm and knee were quite damaged. He has a good injury on his upper arm and this could have been much more serious then it was. What if Kevin had been thrown into the path of the car following him? What if the other cars in the road hit their brakes and swerved to avoid him and then hit another car or pedestrian and most folks were injured? None of these things happened but poor Kevin is on the injury list. He is new to Community Policing and we feel badly this happened to him. We miss him.. So let us all let him know we are thinking of him. A card can be sent to him at 55 State St. Troy, NY, OR you can leave your ‘get well soon’ thoughts or comments here on the BLOG for him.. Let’s make him laugh and see the humorous side of this, because that is the way we are!
Kevin, hope u are getting better, hurry we need you back ASAP. What you do is so important to the survival of our community. Hurry Back...
ReplyDeleteTina: Let me share a experience that I had with one of our community police officers. At the intersection of 101th & 5th Ave. I was driving west on 101th toward 5th Ave, attempting to make a right turn onto 5th Ave. I had the green light, there is this dark custom cab pickup truck stopped part way in the intersection. Out of the passenger window I see this hand coming out, while someone standing in front of the old LaPosta's walks toward the pickup truck. I have seen many drug buys, this is your classic drug buy. To bother this drug buy I decide to blow my horn to get them to move. Then out of the rear door of this pickup jump a character with a bullet proof vest & guns, ect. NO identification as to who or what he is, although by now I figured he was a police officer, of what department I still don't know. He chewed me out royally for blowing my horn, interfering with his investigation, a investigation that I had no idea was going down. It looked like what it was, a drug buy. He tells me that he's going to write me a ticket for blowing my horn.
ReplyDeleteThis experience with our Community Police has lowered by opinion of them. If they need to use unmarked vehicles then they should of just drove on after I blew my horn, by jumping out of the truck they blew whatever cover this truck was giving them. Whatever plan they have for cleaning up the drug business in Troy in my opinion is not working.
Hi Troy Resident, Reading your letter, I would just like to clear up, that isn't "Community Police" it is/was most likely IMPACT or the Street Crime Unit. The STreet Crime Unit is the best tool we have in the City, for as soon as they see a Patrol car they scatter or act like Angels. We need to grab them unaware the best way we can. Community Police officers are always in a Patrol car or on their Bikes or walking , but ALWAYS in Uniform. I don't blame you for trying to irritate the drug dealer, but ya know, they would have just kept on doing what they were doing and maybe just flipped you off, they are go damm arrogant!
ReplyDeleteTina
kevin y r a good guy but that jerk castle is the biggest punk on the force and he looks to make trouble too bad that guy didnt have better aim!
ReplyDeleteGET rid of all the public housing and most of our problems will be gone!!A despert person dose despert things and troy is filled w/them we have more public housing per, cap, then the bronx anther dump!
ReplyDeleteWe need a pit bull law, ban them or make the owner take a safty test and pay money no felons should be able to own or posses one and no one should be able to walk one under the age of 18!there used as a weapon by most owners now days let them go to albany or back to the bronx!
ReplyDeletePublic housing, priviate housing...Where a person lives has nothing to do with anything. It's how a person is raised and the values instilled. A person can be raised in the best of families and reside in the nicest area of the city and still be a trouble making thug!
ReplyDeleteOh..by the way the next time you decide to comment on something use your dictionary before you submit your comment.
Anonymous
LOOK ITS OBVIOUS U DONT KNOW TROY OR HAVENT LIVED IN THE BAD NEIGHBORHOODS, PUBLIC HOUSING HAS EVERYTHING TO DO W/OUR STAFTY ON OUR STREETS AND OUR ECONOMY!WE HAVE TOO MANY PEOPLE ON PUBLIC ASS,WE NEED BALANCE! ARE U EDUCATED?IF SO USE STATISTICS AND U WILL UNDERSTAND BETTER! U MUST LIVE ON THE SYSTEM LIKE SO MANY OTHERS IN TROY!!
ReplyDeletethats not ture i lived there and l tryed to do good and beause my name is not liked i was held down and you people didn t even no were i came from and didn t matter
ReplyDeleteTina: What's you opinion of the up coming closing of St. Patrick's Church. ????
ReplyDeleteWhat will this do to the North Central Neighborhood ???
The closing of St. Patrick's Church will hurt the North Central Neighborhood beyond what anyone can imagine. Imagine turning the lights off locking the doors and walking away from these beautiful buildings. How long will it take before someone throws a stone through one of those beautiful, irreplaceable stain glass windows. We supply food to hundreds of people that live in the North Central Neighborhood, they will have to travel to another site for food. Putting another burden on their already troubled lives. Our City & State Government should step in to prevent this closing to happen, just look at the numbers for the North Central neighborhood it's has the worst per capita numbers in the state.
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ReplyDelete