HARTFORD, Conn. — Hartford police are on the streets again, bringing back walk beats to some neighborhoods.
Walk beats are nothing new for the department, but this time it's permanent.
City leaders, business owners, community stakeholders and neighbors went outside Thursday on the sidewalks to talk about what they’d like to see come from this "boots on the ground" policing. Specially-assigned officers will cover certain neighborhoods, not in a police cruiser, but by walking around and talking with the community. The Hartford Police Department says rather than responding after a crime occurs, the hope is these officers can find solutions before there's a public safety issue.
“We start off (everyday, going to) businesses to see the people and the citizens on the road,” says Officer Abriana Diana, who’s been assigned to one of the city’s walk beats. “We say good morning to everyone. That’s first and foremost.”
The goal is to increase law enforcement visibility, effectiveness and transparency.
One woman who made it a point to shake hands with officers and share her story was Sally Oliver. She lost her son, Brian, in 2021. He was shot and killed off Albany Avenue in Hartford’s North End when he was only 21 years old.
“The shootings. The killings. The stabbings,” Oliver, a Hartford resident, said to FOX61 Thursday morning. “I want it all to stop.”
She still wears Brian’s photo on a necklace around her neck. Oliver is now an activist but also still a heartbroken mother who wants to see the same streets that killed her son be a safer place for other families.
Hartford police and City Hall are hoping these walk beats will be an answer to a call for a better public safety strategy.
"Police officers care so deeply about this city. Residents get to meet them person to person,” said Mayor Arunan Arulampalam at a press conference in the Upper Albany neighborhood Thursday with Hartford police. “We think this is going to make a huge impact on the feeling of safety in communities like this."
It's no secret the city's policing practices have been called into question, especially by the city's minority groups.
In 2023, a video on social media showed Hartford Police recruits marching in formation through the Frog Hollow neighborhood. The video was posted by one of the recruits on X. It drew backlash.
The department said they wanted recruits to get a better sense of the neighborhoods they would be serving, but the optics weren't great. Community leaders said that was not what community policing should look like. In January 2023, a spokesperson from BLM 860 questioned why 30 officers had to march down a Hartford street. She questioned whether police were trying to intimidate residents.
But that was 2023 and today, it’s a new administration. There’s a new mayor and a new interim chief of police. Interim Chief Kenny Howell and Arulampalam say they’re trying to address the call from the public for enhanced policing.
Walk beats aren’t anything new. The most recent iteration had to be scrapped because of staffing issues and the pandemic, but they existed long before that.
"I've heard from so many residents who lived in Hartford in the 60’s, 70’s 80’s. They talked about them with such emotion,” said Arulampalam. “(They liked) the relationship with their walk beat officers and the ties they had to their family. We want to continue to rebuild that.”
The officers on walks beats aren’t new officers, but have been reassigned to specific neighborhoods. There are two officers assigned to Park Street, two assigned to Albany Avenue and one assigned to downtown.
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