The Enterprise of Brockton, Mass.
www.enterprisenews.com
Story published: Sept. 23, 2007
Little details, big change
By Maureen Boyle, Enterprise staff writer
BROCKTON — Officer Mike Bunker and state Trooper Robert Dubois hopped out of the unmarked cruiser and walked toward the two women and three men gathered around the park bench near an old Main Street bus stop.
"How you guys doing?" Bunker asked, smiling.
"Good, good, good," Marian Clark, 48, answered.
"You're not drinking, right?" Bunker asks.
"No, no," one of the men on the bench answers, nodding.
It is one of several stops the pair will make during their 8-hour "quality of life" patrol in the city.
Each day, on the day and the evening shift, a Brockton officer and state trooper pair up in plainclothes to look for the things in the city can affect residents day-to-day — such as public drinking and graffiti — and problems that may be brewing.
"We're not running from call to call," Bunker said. "We can spend more time looking for the things that affect people."
That means checking abandoned houses for drug dealers, the homeless and youths hanging out. It means creeping through brush to see if someone is dealing drugs outside a house. It means stopping to talk with alcoholics gathered in small clusters downtown to see if they're drinking in public. It means getting information about youths hanging out on city corners and the streets. It can mean stopping speeders and keeping traffic moving.
"They are proactive," Police Chief William Conlon said. "There was a need for this type of patrol."
And watching the little things is paying off in big ways.
Between May and Aug. 1, the patrols — the latest in the department's decades-old community policing effort — resulted in 103 arrests, the seizure of four guns, 26 prostitution arrests, 31 drug arrests, five drinking in public arrests, and the seizure of marijuana, cocaine and heroin.
And sometimes, the officers wound up finding guns when they least expected it.
When Bunker and Trooper Paul Dunderdale spotted a car parked on a sidewalk in front of 88 North Main St. on Aug. 2, they walked over to find out why.
They found the passenger, who was wanted on a warrant, had a .40-caliber Glock 27 handgun stuffed in the pants.
Another time, officers on the patrol spotted what appeared to be a drug deal on Warren Avenue the afternoon of July 24. They swung back and, after talking with the suspects, seized a .25-caliber pistol and small bags of marijuana.
In May, Officer Jason Sullivan and Trooper Dubois saw a car near a gasoline station with no inspection sticker. The passenger in the car, who first gave an alias, was carrying a 9 mm handgun with one round in the chamber.
Officer Bunker and Trooper Dubois creep through the brush, listening as a group of men talk outside a house.
Days and weeks earlier, several people living there were arrested on warrants. Today, the officers are checking to make sure no one is dealing drugs.
Dubois slips around a fence, branches cracking under his feet. Bunker circles around, crouching behind a tree as the voices carry through the air.
"Yo," one man says.
There is laughter.
The pair move in closer, listening.
Minutes later, they leave.
"They're just hanging around," Bunker says, getting back in the cruiser.
Officers and troopers rotate every two weeks in the patrols, allowing as many as possible on the two forces to work the day and evening "quality of life" shifts.
"They go to where the problems are," Conlon said.
Quality-of-life patrols are known by a variety of names throughout the country and studies have found that targeting street problems, including graffiti, can cut crime and make residents feel safer.
When New York City launched aggressive street crime "quality-of-life" patrols, including targeting street-level drug dealers, officials there reported in 2000 an 8 percent decrease in crime in a nine-month span.
What makes the Brockton patrols unique is pairing a city officer with a state trooper.
"It's extra manpower," Conlon said. "It's extra help."
Dubois said it also tightens bonds between the two departments, allowing officers and troopers to get to know each other better on the job, and provides a good way to swap street information about crime. "New faces, more intelligence information," he said.
Officers on the "quality-of-life" shift often back up uniformed officers in emergencies — giving the department an extra manpower boost when needed, the police chief said.
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