Lynn street patrols receive warm welcome

LYNN – The resurrection of the Lynn Police Department?s popular Community Liaison Team had city officials and police officers alike grinning despite gray skies during an informal introduction at police headquarters Wednesday.?I?ve always felt the more human presence and foot traffic there is, the less likely you?ll have the types of crimes downtown has seen in the past,” Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy said at the meeting.Four officers, known as CLTs, hit the streets two weeks ago and in June another three will join the team, Lynn Police Chief Kevin Coppinger said.The officers, veteran cops Mike Gorman, Manny Torres, Shawn Hogan and Jack Torosian, expressed interest in the CLT program and were hand-picked by the department because they are “good communicators” and have a strong work ethic, Coppinger said.CLTs are essentially beat officers who work specific neighborhoods without their patrol cars and assist with what they called “quality of life issues,” from loud music to parking problems, street crime and other ongoing issues.The officers will work on what Coppinger called an “off-shift,” from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m., because studies show crime tends to peak in those hours, Coppinger said. The plan is to eventually open a satellite office in each neighborhood for the CLTs to work from.What?s special about the CLT program, Torres said, is the ability to build relationships with business owners and residents, and listen carefully to their complaints. Gorman agreed, saying he enjoys the opportunity to socialize with business owners and talk about ongoing issues they?re having.?Even the residents that come in the stores are excited to see us and have that person-to-person contact,” Gorman said.Hogan said he preferred meeting and talking with people on the street rather than in businesses and that being free of a police cruiser puts citizens at ease.?On the bike you?re more personable than in a cruiser and you?re not handicapped by your radio where you can?t get to the point they?re trying to address.”The program is also teaming up with the Lynn Housing Authority and Neighborhood Development, just as they did before, which will help citizens convey the problems they?re having to the officers. Each officer will have an office along their route that is equipped with a phone where people can call them directly.?Calling into the station is sometimes not personable,” Hogan said. “This gives us the opportunity to stay there and talk, to address and handle the problems.”Torres said he “hit the ground running” in his first week of patrol and focused on introducing himself to the largely Hispanic population of business owners along Union Street and the rest of his route.?I wanted this back in the worst way,” said Buzzy Barton, city councilor and head of the city?s public safety subcommittee, who advocated for the return of the CLTs in his recent campaign.?Just the visibility alone will help so much,” he said.Barton asked Coppinger and Kennedy to invest in a crime analyst sometime “down the road” who would help determine where the CLTs would be of the best use. He then recalled one of his favorite experiences with the CLTs, as he was leaving the fire station where he worked just before the program shut down.?I was leaving the fire station and I saw two guys doing a drug deal. And all of a sudden two bikes pull up – no one even saw them coming,” Barton said.Kennedy said the main advantage of the CLTs is to be able to notice things by walking that you might not see when you?re “whizzing by” in a car. The increased police presence could likely result in more citizens and residents frequenting downtown businesses, she said.The last time the program was employed, Coppinger said, it had up to 24 CLT officers on the street and crime reduced substantially, in large part due to their presence.?What they did in the neighborhoods made people feel safer and then they go out more, they meet their neighbors and it makes them care about their city,” he said.In th