Police Chief Joseph Gaudett and Housing Authority officials were among those announcing the opening of a new police substation, located in the Trumbull Gardens public housing complex, where ten people have been shot, including one fatally, in less than a month.
The substation is located in the basement of a high rise apartment building that sits directly across Trumbull Avenue, where a Shelton man was killed and eight others were injured by gunfire on June 11. Then, Monday night, another man was shot several times in an adjacent parking lot, but he will survive.
Among the upgrades will be security cameras, strategically placed throughout the complex, beginning in the next several weeks. The substation will be command central.
“We're talking about being able to monitor and see everything that's going on development wide from this station,” said Lee Byers, the Executive Director of the Bridgeport Housing Authority. “ The police will also be able to link into (the Trumbull Gardens cameras) from downtown.”
Police say the recent bloodshed created an urgency to open the substation, which they insist has been in the works for over a year. It is an election year and skeptics believe the city was trying to upstage former Mayor Joe Ganim, who is running for office again.
On Tuesday, Ganim announced a Wednesday afternoon grand opening of his second campaign office, which, he says, doubles as an unofficial police substation, right next to Trumbull Gardens, on Reservoir Avenue. The city sent out a press release, at 1:15 Wednesday afternoon, announcing a 2 p.m. press briefing. Ganim’s grand opening had been scheduled for 4 p.m.
Ganim took the high road.
“I'm glad that they (the city) finally decided to make a commitment to Trumbull Gardens. We decided to do this because of lack of police protection. If they (the city) wants to come and help, we appreciate the help,” said Ganim, who was the Park City’s Mayor from 1991-2003.
Two substations, a block apart, are great news for residents, many of whom are afraid to leave their apartments. Incumbent Mayor Bill Finch is livid that Ganim would bill his campaign office as a police substation.
“Citizens can't just go and declare a police substation on their own. It's just not the way government works. He has a criminal past. So, maybe that's part of his flavor in thinking,” said Finch.
Finch says no private citizen or candidate for elected office can legally open a police facility. Ganim, who spent time in prison for political corruption, asserts he is breaking no laws and plans to open additional, unofficial, police substations in other parts of the city in the near future.