New England Public Radio

Specialized Mass State Police Unit Coming Back To Springfield To Help Combat ‘Uptick’ In Shootings

Springfield officials say the city is about to be bolstered by Massachusetts state police patrols to help combat gun-related violence.

Mayor Domenic Sarno has formally requested the assistance of a specialized state police unit called CAT or Community Action Team.  Sarno spokesperson James Leydon says the request is in response to multiple shootings, an armed robbery and a stabbing in just the past few days – though none of the incidents have resulted in fatalities.

Leydon says the mayor wants to deploy the CAT team in certain neighborhoods like Mason Square and lower Forest Park, as well as the entertainment district downtown, especially during late night hours.

“A lot of these are hot-spot areas. A lot seem to be either domestic-related or drug and gang-related. It’s not widespread; it’s not all over the city,” Leydon said. “But it’s, you know, it’s giving us a bad rap, and he really wants to deploy all resources that are available to try to suppress it.”

The added patrols are being paid for through a $100,000 appropriation from the state legislature. Springfield Police spokesperson Sergeant John Delaney says the CAT team has helped patrol the city in past years, and the plan to have them again has long been in the works. And Delaney stresses that for a city its size, Springfield is still safe to live and visit.

“When we look at our statistics over the last year, you know, crime is down in Springfield. But when you watch the news, people have the perception that crime is up because there’s a shooting here, there’s a shooting there,” Delaney said. 

Delaney says Police Commissioner William Fitchett is scheduled to meet Tuesday with State Police officials to coordinate deploying the CAT team in Springfield, who could be on patrol as early as this weekend.

Worcester Passes Ordinance to Limit Panhandling, Similar to Springfield Law

The Worcester City Council passed an ordinance on Tuesday limiting so-called “aggressive panhandling.” The law officially went into effect Wednesday. Springfield has a similar law on the books, but panhandling still persists in the city.

Worcester’s new law doesn’t ban soliciting money in public places, but it does limit where and how a person can panhandle. People can no longer beg aggressively – no touching, blocking, or using profane or threatening language when soliciting passerby’s for money – and no more panhandling on traffic islands or city streets. Solicitors must also stay twenty feet away from banks, ATM’s, and public transportation. City Councilor Sarai Rivera was one of two councilors who opposed the ordinance. She says the law doesn’t do enough to address systemic issues of homelessness and poverty, and doesn’t prevent begging in the city.

“It doesn’t prevent people from panhandling, it just prevents them from panhandling in certain areas. So how does that solve our issue of panhandling?”

Springfield has outlawed aggressive panhandling, with many of the same provisions as Worcester, since 1996. But Sergeant John Delaney says panhandling, particularly in traffic, is still a problem in the city.

“They’re stopped at a red light, and these individuals are brazen, they come up to the doors and windows, and  they knock on the door, demanding money, and they feel uneasy, the drivers feel uneasy. They don’t want to roll down the window, they’re pretty forceful in what they’re doing.”

Delaney says police make an effort to find shelters for panhandlers, who are often homeless, but says police occasionally arrest aggressive panhandlers. And he says the law itself hasn’t stopped aggressive solicitors in the city. 

Springfield Sees Increase in Violent Crime

Blame it on the heat, the economy, or the summer break from school, but violent crimes in Springfield have gone up significantly in the past week. Police Sergeant John Delaney says the Springfield Police Department has received about a dozen reports of shots fired, with several incidents resulting in injuries or fatalities. Delaney says many of the recent incidents have involved what he calls “street gangs” whose members are between thirteen and twenty years old.

“They run around the streets, they scribble on walls, but they carry guns,” he says. “Just last Friday, a sixteen-year-old was arrested for murder, and then a couple days later we had another sixteen-year-old with a gun near the Forest Park section who was shooting his gun off in the air. [He] thought it was amusing until he was arrested, and the gun was recovered.”

Delaney adds the recent shootings have not been random.

“They are shootings where the intended victim was shot at, and the people that are doing the shooting are getting arrested.”

Delaney says despite the recent violent altercations, crime on the whole – including break-ins, robberies, and assaults – has been down in the city.

Boston has also seen a surge of violence in recent weeks, including  a shooting that killed three 22-year-old women and wounded another in the Dorchester neighborhood on Sunday night.