Tonight I'm sitting on the couch watching television with my dad who is visiting from Texas. An extremely loud gunshot goes off, shaking the house and making us duck for cover. My dad, who knows what he's talking about, verifies that it was in fact a gunshot. I call 911 and give them the location, that someone fired a gun on Wood Street near the corner of Oak Street. Five minutes later, a cop car drives down the street without stopping, without sirens, nothing. The street "party" is continuing as it did before the gunshot and before the cop.
My dad, needless to say, is very unhappy that I live in Waterbury. In any of the places he's lived, the police would have swarmed on the scene instantly. In Waterbury, where people are killed by guns, the police stroll by and effectively ignore what's going on.
I've heard a lot of people say they will support the chief of police, Neil O'Leary, if he runs for mayor. Yes, the PAL program is good. Everything else I've seen is absolutely inadequate.
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At this point, I'll just add that I was very upset when I wrote this. The only part that I will amend right now is the last paragraph. Not everything is inadequate. There are plenty of good things that O'Leary has done.
BUT I really do not like having a seemingly unresponsive police department and I absolutely do not feel like the police are currently doing anything to keep my neighborhood safe.
they are massively unresponsive. up in bucks hill we've had hooligans try and break into empty houses, ATVs destroying private property, constant dumping, noise that cannot be imagined, etc., etc., etc.
and when one calls the dispatcher, it seems a terrible trespass on their time. 75% of the time no one even bothers to show up, and when they do, absolutely NO action is ever taken.
is it any wonder that waterbury is a city mired in litter and garbage up to its neck? i have actually seen used needles thrown out of cars. the police here are COMPLETELY ineffectual for anything other than grandstanding. we had friends whose business was robbed and vandalized. detectives were to be dispatched. they never showed. never.
this is outrageous. this police department is a joke. i'm thrilled that violence in waterbury is much lower than other cities in connecticut on a per-capita basis, but i suspect that is more to do with the population here than anything else.
i also suspect that some crime statistics are lower because the police don't both showing up, filing records on the calls, or both.
i can relate. my vehicle was hit in a parking lot and the guy who hit me drove off. when the cops came an hour later i gave the vehicle make and model(silver bmw 3 series) along with the license plate number to the cop. when i went and picked up the police report it said that i had said i was hit by a black or silver bmw/mercedes with unknown registration ( i even confirmed the plate number on the officers computer in his vehicle).
the funny part is the next part of the police report says that the officer canvassed the neighborhood looking for the vehicle.
i was hit at the corner of meriden and frost rd. and they canvassed the neighborhood 90 minutes later??? what good was that supposed to do, in 90 minutes this guy could have been in new york or massachusetts and i'm sure 50 cars just like his drove by while i waited for the police.
i decided not to pursue it as i felt it would have been way too uphill of a battle for to not only get the report corrected but then try and get $$ to repair my car.
I will also add that my complaints about insufficient police action brought about a next-day strong response from the Mayor's office and the police department.
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