‘A better way to police’
RTM’s attempt to return officers to Greenwich Avenue fails
GREENWICH — The more than 90-year tradition of stationing police officers on Greenwich Avenue to direct traffic may be “an iconic symbol,” but it is now history despite a last-ditch effort by the Representative Town Meeting to restore it.
A “sense of the meeting resolution” on the issue was voted down Monday night, with 81 voting in favor, 127 opposed and seven abstaining.
The resolution would have been nonbinding even if it had passed, but that didn’t stop an extended debate over pedestrian safety, beloved traditions and allegations that new residents “speed down Greenwich Avenue ... and don’t know how to navigate our three-way intersections,” according to residents and RTM members who spoke out on the issue.
“Police directing traffic shows we value protecting residents and visitors,” District 1 member Ed Dadakis said. “It is an iconic symbol of our town.”
But Chief of Police James Heavey, who worked with First Selectman Fred Camillo to redeploy the officers, said, “A vote for this (resolution) is a vote for no confidence in police leadership.”
“I’ve been told numerous times not to take it personally, but I do,” Heavey said on the RTM’s Zoom meeting. “I’m a resident and I grew up here. This is a great town — and it isn’t a great town because a police officer stands in a little white circle. It isn’t that the officers would rather ride bikes than direct traffic. It’s that they want to be police officers.
“They’re doing a lot more work on the bikes and on foot than they would if they were just swinging their arms and doing traffic,” Heavey said. “I’d really like you to vote no on this.”
The police chief pledged to remain responsive to community concerns while calling his plan “more effective and more efficient.”
The officers were moved off traffic direction last spring. Now, they are assigned to a downtown electric bicycle patrol that operates daily from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. as well as to plainclothes roles in the organized retail criminal activity team that combats shoplifting.
Capt. Mark Zuccerella, who oversees the police patrol division, said that previously only three officers were assigned to direct traffic, and they did not leave their circles, working Monday through Saturday. The current plan, he said, deploys four to seven officers every day and in more mobile positions.
Camillo and Heavey said the new setup is a better use of resources, even if it did end a tradition.
“I have counted myself in that camp (of wanting officers to remain) for many years,” Camillo said. “But over the years I have listened to people, mainly our law enforcement professionals, who have said there is a better way to police and protect our public. The past 11 months have shown that is exactly what has happened.”
RTM resolutions
The sense of the meeting resolutions are nonbinding, but they have been used more frequently as a way for the RTM to communicate its views on town issues. And several members and residents used the debate to criticize the change.
“Safety should be our highest priority,” RTM District 2 member Nancy Burke said. “Safety for the young who dart in and out of the intersections. Safety for the elderly who will be making their way slowly across the intersection from the Mews to the Senior Center and elsewhere. And safety for the motorists looking every which way at intersections for other cars, (and) for now skateboarders are back and I understand they have been zooming straight down Greenwich Avenue without stopping.”
Dadakis praised the officers’ high visibility and interactions with residents. He also pointed out that an online petition received 1,600 signatures in favor of assigning officers to directing traffic.
Others said conditions on Greenwich Avenue had become more hazardous due to an influx of new residents.
“COVID has brought new residents to town and they really didn’t come here because they were moving to Greenwich as their dream location,” resident Alyssa Keleshian said. “They came to escape New York, and they brought the rat race mentality with them. Like the culture in Manhattan, they speed down Greenwich Avenue. They’re less courteous, less cautious and don’t know how to navigate our three-way intersections.”
Having the officers on Greenwich Avenue is “who we are as a community” and it showed how “warm and welcoming” the town is, said Keleshian, a downtown
commercial property owner who was one of several speakers during the lengthy debate.
But Officer Robert Smurlo, who was assigned to traffic detail on Greenwich Avenue when he started with the department, supported the change.
“Since the bike unit has been established, we’ve been able to cover much more ground and do more actual policing. We’re also able to respond to calls quicker and on a bike,” said Smurlo, who is now a member of the bicycle unit.
“When we officers are standing in the traffic circle, our main focus is simply traffic direction. We have limited interaction with
the public and merchants and we’re not able to leave our posts,” he said. “So when we see something, we called it in and doing that wastes precious time.”
More members weigh in
RTM District 1 member Dan Quigley, who lives downtown and said he regularly walks on Greenwich Avenue with his 7year-old son, offered his support for Camillo and Heavey.
“I really don’t recognize the Greenwich Avenue that people are speaking about tonight,” Quigley said. “It sounds like the most dangerous place on Earth. Crossing Greenwich Avenue sounds more like crossing a
racetrack during the Indy 500 than crossing our main street. It simply isn’t the case.”
RTM District 8 member Carl Higbie questioned why the RTM would seek to overrule the police department’s decisions — and he also knocked the RTM’s increased use of “sense of the meeting resolutions.”
“I just think in general SOMRs are really dumb,” Higbie said. “It’s like a strongly worded letter from the UN that doesn’t mean anything. I can tell you one thing I do trust is that our law enforcement knows what the best thing to do here is.”