Groton police to assign officers to Poquonnock Bridge, Navy housing areas
Groton — Groton town police plan to reinstate networking officers in Poquonnock Bridge and in Navy housing as part of a community policing effort, acting Chief Steve Smith said Thursday.
The change would be made within the proposed police budget of $6,657,328 for the coming fiscal year, he said. The Town Council approved the budget, with an increase of 0.7 percent over current spending plan, by a 4-3 vote. Councilors Bruce Flax, Genevieve Cerf and Deborah Peruzzotti voted against the proposal.
The plan is to assign one officer to the Poquonnock Bridge/Ring Drive area and the other to Navy housing, and have the officers work three days a week in a networking office, and two days a week on patrol.
For the first six months, one officer would work in the network office on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and on patrol the other days. Then the other officer would work in the network office Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and on patrol the other two days.
At the end of six months, the officers would remain in their areas but switch the network hours to reach more people, Smith said.
Groton has kept a community policing philosophy, but has not had community policing officers — or those assigned to work in a specific neighborhood — in a few years.
Councilor Joe de la Cruz said the officers are important in intervening and dealing with issues like drug addiction. When public safety or prevention programs get cut, problems surface later, he said. De la Cruz is building an organization to help young people struggling with addiction.
"We sent another young man to rehab today," he said. "He's one of maybe six or seven this week."
Councilor Bob Frink asked Smith about the extent of crime and drug abuse, given a recent string of bank robberies and reported increase in abuse of pain killers.
Earlier this month, Groton police said there had been a recent spate of heroin overdoses, including three fatal overdoses in a two-week period.
Town police on Monday charged a suspect in an April 9 bank robbery at People's United Bank in Groton. The man is also a suspect in several convenience store robberies.
d.straszheim@theday.com
Twitter: @DStraszheim
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