Adrian Kulesza, Senior Photographer

Car thefts and juvenile crime were the main focuses of the Westville Community Management Team meeting this week. 

In a meeting on Wednesday evening, members of the Westville community questioned their two state representatives, their state senator, Alder Adam Marchand and their police district manager on rising instances of juvenile crime and car thefts in the neighborhood, as well as about the institutional problems that have led to this crisis. 

“How did we get here?” Lieutenant Brian McDermott of the New Haven Police Department posited. “We experienced the perfect storm,” he said, pointing to the combination of several factors that have led to rising crime.  

A main focus of McDermott’s speech was understaffing in the Westville Police Unit, leaving them unable to handle multiple problems at once. 

McDermott, who has been civically involved in New Haven for 28 years, mentioned how the number of police officers assigned to the Westville district had fallen from seven to two in recent years. 

“Unfortunately, we got ourselves into a bad situation here in New Haven, where we’re grossly understaffed right now in Westville,” McDermott said. “Nobody in the New Haven Police Department thinks that’s acceptable, but it’s the reality we’re dealing with.”

McDermott attributed this understaffing to a myriad of factors, including failures in recruiting and staff retention rates.

Dennis Serfilippi, a Westville resident and former alder candidate, added that complicated contract negotiations between the city and the police union have exacerbated the issue. 

Serfilippi referenced a contract between the city and the NHPD ratified on Oct. 12 that increases officers’ salaries, which took a month to negotiate.

“I don’t feel safe in my own city when I go to Stop and Shop or CVS … When are we getting to the number of officers we need?” Serfilippi said.

Westville residents and their elected officials also discussed institutional choices made by the city, including how the justice system deals with juvenile offenders. 

Responding to complaints about the leniency with which the city has treated juvenile offenders, especially those involved in car thefts, state Sen. Gary Winfield mentioned a 60-day plan to increase detention orders to see its effect on crime levels.

On the city’s policy of leniency, Winfield acknowledged “We’ve kind of created an environment in which (juvenile offenders) say ‘Well, nobody’s going to do anything. I’ll try this out.’”

Not all residents favored a standard tough-on-crime solution to this problem. Some residents suggested an increase in mentoring programs to keep underprivileged kids away from a life of crime. 

Adding on to this, state Rep. Toni Walker described her background as a social worker and witnessing the effect of chronic incarceration. 

“All I was seeing was something that was being maintained in the chronic system of arrest … These are the children of our communities. We cannot just walk away from them and say, take them away, because they’re going to come back to our neighborhoods.”

Westville is home to many of Yale’s athletic facilities, including the Yale Bowl.