It was just a few years ago that Haverhill police added bicycle patrols — considered a way they could get an edge on inner-city crime.
Officers could quietly patrol tightly packed neighborhoods, sneak up on drug dealers and other street criminals, even zip through back alleys where cruisers would never fit.
What a difference a decade makes, for both the city and the officers who fight crime here.
With Haverhill at its highest population ever at 62,000 and continuing to grow, police are trying to keep pace by stepping into the high-tech world.
While the police chief continues to call for the city to hire more officers, the department has developed other ways to keep its finger on the pulse of crime.
Big Brother watches from electronic eyes downtown. A police station on wheels allows officers to move a command center into trouble spots within minutes. Computers in cruisers let officers do criminal background and Registry of Motor Vehicles checks from the street. A noise-measuring meter settles neighborhood disputes and gives police a way to justify fines for offenders.
While police embrace new devices that give them an edge, they also wrestle to hang on to old-fashioned methods that work — walking the streets and getting to know residents and merchants, keeping their ear to the ground.
A new station, but no more officers
At the center of the crime fight in this growing community is the police station on Bailey Boulevard, a block north of downtown. The station signalled the start of the department evolving into a force that has modern facilities for training, computers and communications.
In 1999, the department moved out of the dark ages, almost literally, as it left the damp and shadowy basement of City Hall and the first-floor of that aging building for the new $7.5 million station.
Besides boosting the morale of officers who felt stuck in an unprofessional environment in the City Hall quarters, the new station offers a variety of facilities — a gym, a training center where officers from Haverhill and other departments meet to study crime fighting trends, an area where police drive prisoners into part of the station instead of having to walk them into the building, a video room that allows officers to walk into a simulated crime situation to test their judgement on pulling their guns and firing, and overall better security than the old station provided.
Department spokesman Sgt. John Arahovites and other veteran officers remember walking prisoners into the old City Hall station, past residents and others who had business at the building — and the security risks caused by those encounters. They also remember how the public could walk into the police command center on the first floor of City Hall, with nothing but a swinging door and clear plastic window (not bullet proof) separating them and the officers.
After moving into the new station, police leaders echoed a concern they had voiced for years — with Haverhill's population growing toward 60,000 and many new homes being built on the city's outskirts, they needed more officers.
The department has 94 officers, about the same number it had in the early 1990s. There are 74 patrolmen and 20 superior officers, including police Chief Alan DeNaro and Deputy Chief Donald Thompson.
"The FBI says the average should be two to two and a half officers per thousand people," Thompson said. "But you have to take other factors into account. One is the size of the community in terms of area," he said, pointing out that Haverhill has nearly 35 square miles. "It's harder to cover."
The high-tech crime fight is on
Unable to afford as many officers as department leaders would like, police have turned to creative ways of tracking crime — whether using computers to figure out trends and where to focus officers, or using surveillance cameras in areas known for crime.
Big Brother is indeed watching in Haverhill. In and near busy spots like downtown parking lots, police have installed several electronic eyes that allow them to monitor areas with histories of car breaks and vandalism.
The surveillance cameras give police another set of eyes. When the cameras detect a problem, an officer can be sent to the scene, giving him a chance to catch the thief or vandal, rather than responding after the crime is discovered.
Computers in cruisers, another recent addition, allow officers to do criminal background checks or look up records with the Registry of Motor Vehicles. The computers will eventually allow police to call up the floor plans of public buildings like schools, so officers responding to emergencies can be prepared, Thompson said.
Devices like the surveillance cameras and computers were bought primarily with grant money from the state and federal governments.
"You want to take advantage of the new technology so officers can be aware of what's going on without being right there," Thompson said. "Quite often people will mention they see a cruiser parked in a parking lot. What they have to realize is that they no longer come back to the station to do the reports. They do them right in the cruiser on the computer" which also allows them to be on the street longer during their shifts, he said.
Lawrence police Chief John Romero said the Haverhill force has been creative with its methods.
"Fighting crime is different than it was 20 or 30 years ago," he said. "A police department has to change as well. You can't abandon the basics of being out there in the street, but you have to use technology to know where your hot spots are. You have to do more with less. The population is growing and you have to deploy your officers smartly, and if you want them to do the job you must give them the tools."
A department on the move
A few years ago Haverhill began putting officers on bicycles and motorcycles. Today they ride on a boat, drive through trouble neighborhoods in a mobile police station and are soon to mount all-terrain vehicles to chase dirt bikers out of the backyards of condominium projects built on the outskirts of Haverhill.
The community has changed and the department has had to find ways to go where the crime is. The Merrimack River has been teeming with boats the past few summers, giving police another area to watch. The department bought a boat, allowing officers to patrol the waterways at times like the July 4 festival when partying boaters pack the river to watch the city's annual fireworks show.
As more and more houses and condos are built on Haverhill's rural outskirts, homeowners complain about dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles zipping through nearby trails and even backyards and streets. Police are looking into buying ATVs so they can catch the offending riders.
Despite the growth on Haverhill's rural outskirts and increase in boating on the river, the focus of crime fighting here remains on two inner-city areas — the Acre and Mount Washington, Arahovites said.
"Most of it is contained to those two areas," he said. "Most of your tenements are there, your absentee landlords are there, and low-income people are residing there."
That's where the mobile command center comes in. It's a mini-police station on wheels that allows a team of officers with weapons, computers and communications equipment to pull into an area where there is trouble and stay as long as necessary.
The old-fashioned way still works
Surveillance cameras and computers in cruisers are fine, but there's nothing like seeing a police officer walking the beat.
So say business owners in the resurging downtown who have had trouble with vandals and thieves over the last few years. They welcome the men and woman in blue, as do residents of high-crime areas where officers are sometimes assigned to spend entire shifts.
"All the technology is great, but it makes myself feel good and my customers feel comfortable because we see more of them around," Alan Boisvert, owner of Keon's restaurant on downtown Washington Street, said of officers who sometimes walk the beat there.
Police officials said as much as they gain with the watchful eye of Big Brother and officers in cruisers having criminal records at their fingertips, they can also lose some effectiveness.
"You've got to interact with the people in the street," Thompson said. "You've got to talk with them, know what's going on. We have added tools, given officers more things they can do in the cruiser, but they've still go to get out and walk."
Arahovites said there is no substitute for having enough officers to patrol the entire city effectively.
"We're understaffed and that's where technology can help you," he said. "But it's not a catch-all. You still need the bodies to apprehend the criminals and do the investigating. Technology is a great tool. The downside is you have to get out and work the street. Criminals do not fear computers."
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Snapshot of Haverhill
Size: 35 square miles (4th largest in Massachusetts)
Population in 1990: 52,493
Current population: 62,000 (20 percent growth in the last 18 years)
Predicted for 2030: 73,000 people
Number of police officers: 94 patrolmen (74 patrolmen, 20 superior officers)
Number of officers city should have: 120-130 (based on FBI formula)
