Paterson's community policing division is changing how it goes about business
PATERSON — With a revised mission on the horizon, Paterson’s community policing division is looking to open a second base of operations in the city’s Northside neighborhood in the 1st Ward, officials said.
Officials at the Paterson Housing Authority confirmed the agency has been involved in lease negotiations that would allow community policing to use the community center on Temple Street for its programs.
The community policing unit, comprised of more than a dozen officers, has operated out of a substation at the South Paterson library branch in the 6th Ward since 2018. That move drew criticism five years ago from activists who questioned the need for a police substation in one of Paterson’s lowest crime areas.
Mayor Andre Sayegh said the new lease would give community policing a presence in opposite parts of the city.
“You’ll have them in the Northside and you’ll have them in the Southside,” the mayor said.
Shifting some community policing services to the crime-ridden 1st Ward seems to fit the changes being planned under the state takeover of the Paterson police department.
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Isa Abbassi, whom the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office appointed as officer-in-charge, has said he wants to redefine community policing in the city.
In the past, community policing mostly has been involved in feel-good events with residents like concerts, cookouts and camps.
But Abbassi last month issued a “strategic vision” for the department with a much different emphasis for community policing. The top three things he listed for his redefined community policing were:
Focus deployment to deter crime and disorder.
Address quality of life concerns.
Arrest those individuals who choose to victimize the innocent and drive violence.
In contrast, during the past decade, officers in community policing rarely participated in arrests, according to current and former members of the Paterson police department.
The attorney general’s press office did not answer questions about community policing moving to another location in Paterson. Instead, state officials issued the following statement: “Community Policing is one of the main pillars of officer-in-charge Abbassi’s plan to bring the next generation of the Paterson Police Department.”
Housing authority officials said the lease negotiations involved 20,293 square feet at the Temple Street center. That area currently is being used for a variety of social services such as camps, basketball, conferences, community meetings and holiday events, housing officials said. Those uses would continue if community policing gets the space, officials said.
Sayegh said he thinks the current community policing programs, such as last December’s “Shop with a Cop” event and the ongoing “Bowl with the Blue” initiative, are an important way to build trust between cops and city residents.
The mayor noted that many people have said those programs caused them to see cops in a different light.
Abbassi’s strategic vision includes such efforts to “build bridges” among the many roles of community policing, but those activities are cited toward the bottom of his list.
Joe Malinconico is editor of Paterson Press. Email: editor@patersonpress.com
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Paterson community policing group will have role in arrests now
