“You have to build trust with your community or nobody’s going to want to go to you to fix anything,” Tatyana Young, of Meriden, said.
For decades, Meriden Police’s Neighborhood Initiative (NI) Unit has worked to do just that.
“I think that that’s very important. That makes it so that they’re not a we and them,” Peter Arntsen, of Meriden, said.
The city refers to it as community policing, and on Tuesday, the NI Unit received nearly $35,000 in federal funds to support that approach towards building safer communities.
Get top local stories in Connecticut delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC Connecticut's News Headlines newsletter.
“They are not only attending those neighborhood association meetings, but also paying attention to and building relationships with those in the community to gain that institutional knowledge that we need to make sure we are targeting any specific areas of crime,” Meriden Mayor Kevin Scarpati said.
According to Scarpati, car break-ins and car thefts were two areas of crime that saw an increase last year in Meriden.
“We will hire foot patrols and put them in that area, try and quell it and at the same time they’re out there communicating with people, talking with people, finding out what’s going on--why is it occurring,” Deputy Chief Jeremiah Scully said.
Local
Much of the NI Unit’s work comes through the cooperation of Meriden’s Council of Neighborhoods.
“It’s huge for us because we’re actually able to take funds, put them into the neighborhoods to be able to work on the issues that need to be worked on,” Meriden Council of Neighborhoods President Holly Wills said.
Officials say the funds will also go towards supporting school resource officers and sending officers to community events.
“It’s great. Anything that they can do to bridge the gap between the citizens and especially in poorer communities, I think that there’s a lot of outreach that is helpful,” Arntsen said.
