Public safety is an evergreen concern in Springfield, a topic for endless debate and a source of considerable consternation among residents, business owners, and especially politicians: How safe is the city, really? And what can be done to make it safer?
“No matter what happens in Springfield, everyone talks about public safety as a huge challenge, and a huge problem, if you will,” said City Councilor Tim Allen, who represents Ward 7. And the efforts he’s seen to address that problem—imposing a 1 a.m. curfew on bars’ entertainment licenses; a proposal to ban cars from the “entertainment district” on weekend nights—just haven’t been enough, he added.
“I don’t want to throw anybody under the bus, but they’ve been nominal at best,” Allen said.
At a City Council meeting earlier this month, Allen and Ward 2 Councilor Mike Fenton released a multi-pronged public safety package that they hope will have a broader effect. A mix of ordinances and non-binding resolutions, the plan covers a range of ideas, from establishing a dedicated “gun court” in the county to addressing the city’s high student dropout rate.
“The package is designed to think about public safety in a way that we haven’t before, and to take a more proactive approach,” Fenton told the Advocate.
At their April 2 meeting, city councilors voted to send most of the proposals to committee for further review. Ultimately, several of the ideas—arguably, the most crucial ones—also will need buy-in from the police and prosecutors who would use the crime-fighting tools proposed. So far, local law enforcement seems open to the general thrust of the proposals, while nonetheless raising some important concerns about their efficacy and legality.
Two of Allen and Fenton’s proposals address crime among young people.
The first is a nonbinding resolution in support of a dropout prevention bill now before the state Legislature, which includes, among other measures, a requirement that students stay in school until age 18, up from the current 16. The bill is sponsored by Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz (D-Boston); state rep Ben Swan, a Springfield Democrat, is a co-sponsor.
In 2011, Springfield had a dropout rate of 25.7 percent, according to the Mass. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. “When a student decides to dropout [sic] of high school the chances of that person living a productive and fruitful life is [sic] greatly diminished,” the resolution notes.
Another resolution called on Mayor Domenic Sarno to revive the city’s Youth Commission, which has been dormant in recent years, with an eye to addressing youth violence. The Youth Commission resolution was the only element of the crime-prevention package to come to a vote at the April 2 Council meeting, passing unanimously.
Among the proposals sent to committee was a resolution calling on Springfield’s License Commission to consider requiring bar owners, managers and bouncers to undergo safety training through the Springfield Police Department. The training would focus on “safety, crowd control, proper restraint methods, de-escalation of potentially violent situations and communication with law enforcement.”
That proposal gives pause to veteran at-large councilor Tim Rooke. While he supports a number of Allen and Fenton’s public safety proposals, Rooke said, he considers this proposal “a little overstepping, putting more burdens on the businesses,” especially given that the state already offers training for bartenders.
Allen and Fenton also have proposed an ordinance that would create an Entertainment and Nightlife Commission in the city, “to assist the mayor, licensing commission and designated municipal departments by advising, informing and creating a forum for the development of a comprehensive citywide entertainment plan.” The commission would have 15 members, including representatives from the police department and the district attorney’s office, the Springfield License Commission and the state Alcohol and Beverage Commission, the Chamber of Commerce, the Business Improvement District, and community and neighborhood groups, as well as mayoral and City Council appointees.
Fenton said that the commission would focus specifically on addressing violence in the city’s entertainment district and on making downtown a safer, more appealing place for people to live or come for a night out, in ways that fall outside the scope of the License Commission. That commission’s primary role is to issue licenses to businesses that sell alcohol and hold hearings when a license holder has violated liquor laws.
Rooke questioned the need for such a body, which, he said, could add “another layer of bureaucracy—but I’m keeping an open mind.” Rooke also noted that bar owners would not be directly represented among the 15 commission members, an omission that’s likely to raise objections in that sector of Springfield’s business community.
*
The highest-profile elements of Allen’s and Fenton’s plan address one of Springfield’s most daunting public safety problems: gun violence.
They include a resolution in support of the federal Fix Gun Checks Act, which calls for the names of people who are prohibited by law from carrying guns to be included in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
The federal bill also would require that background checks be conducted on buyers in any gun sale. Right now, small-scale private dealers are exempt from a federal law that requires background checks on potential customers—the so-called “Gun Show Loophole.”
While Massachusetts is among a minority of states that regulate private sales—all prospective gun buyers in the state must first obtain a permit, a process that includes a background check—restrictions are weaker in a number of neighboring states, and that contributes to illegal guns coming to Springfield, Fenton said. “It’s very easy to get your hands on a gun in New Hampshire and bring it to Springfield and sell it for drugs here,” he said.
Both those proposals are backed by the nonprofit Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which counts Sarno among its members.
Allen and Fenton also have proposed an ordinance that would allow city police to seize vehicles in which illegal guns are found, in much the same way cars involved in the drug trade can be seized. The cars could then be sold at auction, with the proceeds distributed among four programs also proposed by the councilors: the Springfield Police Department would receive 45 percent to support a gun squad within the department. Fifteen percent would go to the District Attorney’s office to help fund a court that deals specifically with gun cases. Thirty percent would go to a Neighborhood Public Safety Revolving Fund, to be distributed evenly among the city’s eight wards. The remaining 10 percent would support an SPD tip-line program where residents could report, anonymously, illegal guns in the city; callers whose tips led to the successful retrieval of an illegal gun would be rewarded with a $75 gift certificate to a city business.
While the proposed city programs—the neighborhood safety fund; the SPD gun squad and tip line—fall within the City Council’s jurisdiction, the gun court would not. To that end, Allen and Fenton also filed a resolution urging the Hampden County District Attorney to establish such a court, similar to ones already in place in two Eastern Mass. counties. The court, the councilors said, would help expedite the prosecution of gun-related cases through the crowded court system, keeping gun criminals from returning to the streets to commit more crimes while awaiting trial.
Fenton said the proposals he and Allen put together attempt to address not just public safety policy, but also its costs. Springfield is facing yet another budget crisis—the Sarno administration recently proposed raising the city’s trash fee and is warning that city workers could face layoffs this summer—and there’s only so much the city can raise through taxes. “We’ve got this dwindling revenue picture, and we need more revenue sources to fight crime and have a better public safety outlook,” Fenton said. “We’ve got to give crime fighters more tools and better tools and tools that are fit for 2012, and the ability to generate revenue sources from criminals that are creating violent crime in the city.”
*
For Fenton’s and Allen’s plan to work, two crucial players need to be on board: Springfield Police Commissioner William Fitchet and Hampden County District Attorney Mark Mastroianni. Earlier this month, the councilors met with the two law enforcement leaders.
In an interview with the Advocate, Mastroianni praised the councilors for their “forward-thinking” efforts; in particular, he said, he finds the suggestion of a court devoted specifically to gun cases “intriguing.”
Indeed, since taking office a little more than a year ago, the D.A. said, he’s been mulling over the idea of creating specialized courts within the system, such as a gun court. But first, certain questions need to be answered: would a dedicated court ensure that gun cases are processed more efficiently? And does the court system have the resources necessary to support a separate gun court—a judge and staff from the clerk’s office, prosecutors and support staff from the D.A.’s office, plus probation and court officers, all assigned to this specific court? “There are so many intangibles you have to consider,” Mastroianni said.
Mastroianni said he’s collecting and evaluating information about the two existing gun courts in the state, in Middlesex and Suffolk counties. Suffolk, in particular, sees so many gun cases that it makes practical sense to run a specialized court there, he noted. He’s also consulted with Judge William Boyle of the Springfield District Court about whether such a plan would work here.
“It may be feasible at this point,” Mastroianni said; while the District Court has been short on judges in recent years, Gov. Deval Patrick last month named two nominees for the court who are now awaiting approval from the Governor’s Council.
Even with the new judges in place, though, Mastroianni said, there are other issues to consider, including whether the court would actually move gun cases through the system more efficiently. The D.A.’s office already prioritizes gun cases, he said, but sometimes the cases are slowed for reasons that a special gun court wouldn’t be able to address, such as the long time prosecutors often have to wait for legally required ballistics testing to be done on weapons. In addition, Mastroianni said, in gun cases, the defense almost invariably files a motion to to exclude the weapon as evidence in a trial, another time-consuming process.
“We can forget some of these things when we say we want to get these cases done more quickly,” he said. “There are reasons why they’re backed up.”
While his office would still need to sort out what Mastroianni called “reality-check issues” before deciding whether to proceed with a gun court, he called the suggestion “a positive idea and a useful idea” that might work best locally on a part-time basis, with a special gun court held several times a month, rather than daily.
Mastroianni was less enthusiastic about Allen’s and Fenton’s proposal to allow police to seize cars carrying illegal guns—a move, he said, that would violate the state’s forfeiture statue. By law, a vehicle can be seized if it is being used in illegal gun sales, but not for illegal gun possession. “I didn’t think [the proposed ordinance] was workable because it was in contradiction to the state forfeiture statute,” said Mastroianni, who suggested the city councilors take the ordinance to the city Law Department for further review.
*
Sgt. John Delaney, spokesman for Police Commissioner Fitchet, also praised the councilors’ efforts to address the city’s crime problem. “They’re not sitting on their hands. They’re trying to do something,” he said. “I applaud them for that.”
But, like the district attorney, the commissioner’s office has concerns about the practicality of the car seizure ordinance. “The Police Department stance is that anything we can use as a tool to fight crime we will use,” Delaney said. “But how effective it will be remains to be seen.”
The SPD takes about 200 illegal guns off the street every year, many of them seized during drug arrests, Delaney said. But only a very small percentage of those guns are taken from inside cars. Drug dealers, knowing that the law allows police to seize vehicles used in drug deals, tend not to use their own cars, but instead rent or borrow someone else’s car, or operate from a house or the streets, he said. In the years he spent in the SPD’s narcotics unit, Delaney said, the majority of illegal guns he seized were on the perpetrator’s person or were taken from a house during a raid.
While the police would use the proposed ordinance where appropriate, Delaney added, “I don’t see it being a windfall for the city, where we have all this money coming in.”
Allen’s and Fenton’s idea of requiring training for bar workers is a good one, said Delaney: “I’ve always been a firm believer that anybody that’s responsible for security, whether it’s a security officer in a mall or a store or a public place, should have training.” That training, he said, should include CPR classes as well as information on how to defuse tense situations peacefully before they escalate. Bar owners also need to make sure employees know how to operate security equipment, added Delaney, who said he’s seen bouncers using metal detection wands that weren’t even turned on.
“Some of the bouncers they hire, I wouldn’t hire them to wash my car, let alone be responsible for the security of a place,” Delaney said. “Just hiring some football player or a gym freak on steroids to stand at your door to provide security. … There should be some type of training, because sometimes lives depend on it.”
But the biggest support city officials could give to the SPD, in Delaney’s estimation? More cops. “Manpower in the police department is an issue,” he said. “We need more police officers on the street.”
While some of the specific proposals need more research or fine tuning, Allen said he’s pleased that the public safety package has received a generally positive response.
“We just want to get good ideas out there, and get people in Springfield feeling like they’ve got elected officials thinking outside the box,” he said. “If we do the same things we always do, even at an A-plus level, it’s probably not good enough.”
