East Hartford would be up to task of policing casino, developer says
A partnership offering an East Hartford location for a third Connecticut casino renewed its pitch Monday, saying the East Hartford Police Department would be capable of policing a casino in its midst.
The pitch came in the wake of Springfield, Mass., officials’ announcement last week that they plan to establish a new police unit to patrol the area around MGM Springfield, the $950 million resort casino that's scheduled to open in 2018.
East Hartford is one of five municipalities the casino-owning Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes are considering for a casino location. The tribes, partners in an entity known as MMCT Venture, hope to develop a $200 million to $300 million casino to offset MGM Springfield’s impact on Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun.
The other municipalities are East Windsor, Hartford, South Windsor and Windsor Locks.
Silver Lane Partners, seeking to have the tribes choose as a casino site a former Showcase Cinemas property off Interstate 84 in East Hartford, re-released an Oct. 14, 2015, memo in which East Hartford Police Chief Scott Sansom says the city’s police force, one of the biggest in the state east of the Connecticut River, has 125 sworn officers and its own Public Safety Telecommunications Center.
Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno told residents last week that the city plans to police MGM Springfield with a 41-member police unit dedicated to the city’s downtown and South End areas. The unit will comprise six supervisors and 35 patrol officers.
“As Springfield Police Commissioner John Barbieri recently stated, ‘[A casino] requires a different level of policing,’” Tony Ravosa, Silver Lane’s managing member, said in a statement. Ravosa, a Springfield native, served as a member of the Springfield City Council from 1989 to 1995.
“In the case of East Hartford, if a casino were to be built in town, there should be absolutely no question about the ability of Chief Sansom and the men and women of the department he leads to carry out their expanded mission effectively,” Ravosa said.
The crime rate in the municipalities surrounding Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun fell in the years after the casinos opened compared to the years before they existed, statistics have shown. That trend mirrored a drop in crime nationwide.
Andrew Doba, a spokesman for MMCT Venture, declined to comment on the East Hartford proposal.
“Crime has been a major problem in Springfield for a long time, and that fact will keep some patrons away, especially if they have a safer alternative in Connecticut just a short drive away," he said.
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