NF POLICE OFFICER MICHAEL CORCORAN STANDS
IN THE DOORWAY OF THE SOUTH END POLICE SUBSTATION
By Nancy A. Fischer
NIAGARA NEWS REPORTER
December 20, 2009, 6:54 AM /
NIAGARA FALLS POLICE OFFICER MICHAEL CORCORAN, RIGHT, TALKS WITH DET. SHAWN BOSI (BEHIND DESK) AND PATRICIA FREDERICK, EAST SIDE BLOCK CLUB PRESIDENT, AT THE NEW SOUTH END SUBSTATION.
NIAGARA FALLS — It took many months to make the South End Police Substation a reality, but after a month in operation, police and those in the surrounding neighborhood already are seeing trickles of positive change.
Surveillance cameras — including those that will be placed at all three city police substations and City Hall — will arrive in a few months. New businesses, including the Polish Nook, reopened a few weeks ago. Community services are being offered in the new substation, and residents are feeling a bit more confident to walk streets that now have fewer prostitutes and drug dealers on them because of the stronger police presence.
These are just a few of the positive changes.
Drugs and prostitution, which often go hand in hand, have been regularly reported on the corridor between 17th and 21st streets, and Falls Street and Pine Avenue. The substation, at 19th Street and Ferry Avenue, is in the heart of the troubled neighborhood.
Last year, 68 percent of all prostitution calls handled in the entire city were reported in this area. It also accounted for 20 percent of the drug cases, 57 percent of the loitering cases and 35 percent of the robbery calls.
Police Superintendent John R. Chella said that when police run crime statistics it’s always the area with “the most red dots.”
Police now are in place to “win back the neighborhood,” Chella said.
The city already had an established Roving Anti-Crime Unit to deal with gangs and hot spots, but Narcotic Detective Steven Reed said 19th Street appears to be a hot spot because it is one of the few streets that many use to travel from one end of the city to another.
But when the substation opened Nov. 17, the city adopted a zero tolerance policy in the corridor as it prepared to crack down on crime.
Chella said the policy is based on policing’s “Broken Window Theory.”
“The theory is that if residents don’t care and they allow a broken window to go unfixed, criminals that
come in there think there is no ownership to the neighborhood, so basically they can do whatever they want,” Chella said.
Chella told those who attended the grand opening of the substation that any criminal who wanted to test the theory would be welcome as a guest at 1925 Main St. — the city jail.
The police superintendent wants criminals to know that officers and concerned citizens are taking charge of the neighborhood.
“There’s a partnership here with residents,” Chella said. “We won’t tolerate it, and they won’t tolerate it. That’s the whole concept. We will take prompt police action. We will be there, and we will be there a lot more consistently . . . “There are no more slaps on the wrists.”
AN EARLY TEST
Officer Michael Corcoran, chosen as the liaison to interact with neighbors and patrol the streets, said officers were tested the very first day, by a man who decided to urinate on a building.
“We are really taking zero tolerance to heart,” Corcoran said. “One hour after the grand opening, this man was caught. In the past, he might have been caught and sent on his way. Not anymore. We want the public to know this will not be tolerated. Whether it’s urinating on a building or driving around looking for drugs or a prostitute, small crimes or big crimes, we will take appropriate police action.
“I haven’t gotten any negative feedback,” he said. “I haven’t seen as many prostitutes out [on the streets] lately.”
Community Police Liaison and Weed and Seed Coordinator Allan Booker said door-to-door surveys by block clubs found the biggest problem cited by people in the 19th Street corridor last year and this year was crime, specifically drug trafficking. Added to the list this year was prostitution.
Mark Smith, vice president of the East Side Block Club, lives a few blocks away from the new substation and said there have been too many bad days in his neighborhood.
He said he watched the building of the new substation with pleasure.
Within site of the substation, a man recently was shot while sitting on his porch, Smith said. “People are always trying to sell drugs around here,” he added.
Patricia Frederick, East Side Block Club president for the past four years, said the club hopes the new substation can bring back their neighborhood.
Frederick and her family have lived in the area for decades.
“From hearing my mother’s stories as a child to when I was a child to what we have now, it’s totally changed,” Frederick said. “We still have a lot of older people in the neighborhoods, and they looked out for us, and now we need to look out for them.”
TRAPPED BY CRIME
Many feel trapped in their homes by crime, Frederick said.
“I see the loitering, the prostitution at the corners. People are afraid to drive or walk,” she said. “Now we are taking back the neighborhood, and [criminals] better beware.”
Others, she said, can look to Corcoran to feel safer.
“Those are the people who are afraid to come out. They might be looking out their window because they are too afraid to come out, but when they see an officer it makes them feel safer,” Frederick said.
“I’ve seen a lot of arrests,” she added, “and I hope people are thinking twice. I hope the word is getting out that you better watch out. We suffered through enough of people taking away our freedom and our rights to enjoy our neighborhood that we worked for.”
Corcoran said he is getting feedback from Niagara Falls Community Relations Detective Shawn Bosi and said he is rotating hours with Officer Daniel Bird, who also works at the other two city substations, at Highland and Garden avenues and at 18th Street and Linwood Avenue.
“We are trying to get as much time in there as possible,” Corcoran said.
Chella said that once the 19th Street substation has a wireless Internet link, which is expected soon, officers will be able to make arrests on-site for some crimes.
“It’s twofold. People want to see an officer in the substation, but we want to see an officer on the street,” Chella said.
He said the Roving Anti- Crime Unit recently stepped up arrests in the South End and has been used in the area for years, but the substation was more than just law enforcement.
“We want the people who are happy to see us to see us there, and the people who are not happy to see us there to see us there,” Chella said. “We are hoping that with the substation we will get more bang for our buck. Corcoran is tailored for both enforcement and for community relations.
Corcoran said a good example of community involvement is a 90-year-old woman who called him recently to tell him what had been going on in the neighborhood.
“She told me exactly what has been going on there [with drug dealers],” he said. “She asked me to watch it. I will enforce what I see and will forward that information back to Narcotics. It’s kind of like a big circle. It’s everybody reaching together to solve that problem. That’s what’s going to make a difference.”
NEXT WILL BE CAMERAS
Although the site is not a community service center, like the substation at 18th and Linwood, many community policing- related services—including for young parents, domestic violence victims and those who want to know more about insurance — are offered at the new site.
“Highland Avenue [the first substation] was located in the city’s Weed and Seed site, and if we are successful we may expand [the South End] to a Weed and Seed and a substation,” Chella said.
Booker said there has to be a certain amount of crime to apply for a Weed and Seed area, then a certain strategy, which includes law enforcement and community policing.
“The seeding part is preventing, intervention and treatment,” he said. “We’ve already conducted that survey. The goal is to help change that area.”
Booker said that the five-year grant is very competitive and the federal government has made cuts in the program but that a latest grant request, if awarded, could offer up to a $1 million for a Weed and Seed for the 19th Street corridor. Work being done and recognized in advance helps land the grant money, he said.
“Hopefully, when the five years is up, you have sustainable programs,” Booker said.
The substations are funded by federal community development block grant funds; $145,000 out of the $2 million the city receives in block grant funding pays for officers, rent and utilities at the three sites.
The next step in security for the city will be cameras.
Officer Nicholas J. Ligamarri, who leads the Police Department’s grants development unit, said officers are surveying areas and during the next few months plan to put in eight wireless security cameras throughout the city. Two more security cameras and a card-access security system also will be put in place at City Hall.
Ligamarri said it will cost just over $100,000 for surveys, cameras, equipment and labor. Funding came from Weed and Seed, Homeland Security and Community Development.
The eight cameras not at City Hall will be located at the city’s three substations and at various businesses and designated crime hot spots. All will link directly to the police station, Ligamarri said.
“It’s all wireless, so you will be able to look at stuff from your laptop. So a few people from different block clubs will even be able to monitor their specific camera,” he said.
Frederick said cameras and community services will help them rebuild.
“People,” the block club president said, “won’t be afraid to go out.”
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