How do we overcome a bad reputation?

Newburgh residents react to another dose of negative publicity

By KATELYN CORDERO
Posted 2/20/19

Crime in the City of Newburgh comes in at an all-time low for 2018, yet the city cannot shake the reputation of being one of the most dangerous in the country. A recent article from USA Today labeled …

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How do we overcome a bad reputation?

Newburgh residents react to another dose of negative publicity

Posted

Crime in the City of Newburgh comes in at an all-time low for 2018, yet the city cannot shake the reputation of being one of the most dangerous in the country. A recent article from USA Today labeled Newburgh number 37 in the top 50 worst cities to live in the country.

The article blamed the city’s ranking on a high crime rate, low average income, and a shrinking population. According to USA Today the violent crime rate is 1,236 reported incidents per 100,000 people. According to the City of Newburgh Police Department there was a total of 326 violent crimes in 2018 or approximately 1,149 incidents per 100,000 people. The department is experiencing historic low crime rates however online crime data resources paint a very different picture.

“My issue is that some of these news entities put this information out without a phone call even to comment about it,” said City of Newburgh Police Chief, Doug Solomon. “When people rely on what they see on the internet, it creates all this confusion and then we are tasked to undo what has already been done.”


The website Neighborhood Scout is a resource for those looking to gain information on the quality of neighborhoods across the country. Neighborhood Scout uses unique analytics to create ratings for a database comparing cities to one another.

The organization creates a crime index ranking each of the cities based on crime rates, with 100 as the safest. Newburgh is ranked 9, claiming that it is only safer than 9% of U.S. cities.

“It’s a stark contrast to what we’ve been trying to do, it sends the wrong message to people who want to establish themselves and move to the city,” said Special Projects Lieutenant, Joseph Cortez. “It’s tough when somethings put out there to rectify it. The numbers have reduced significantly. It’s made to sell their product, to do that off the back of the community, I was quite offended actually.”

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Statistics released by Neighborhood Scout are higher in some areas compared to numbers put out by the Newburgh Police Department and the 2017 FBI Crime Statistics. The FBI highly discourages organizations from using their Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) data to rank cities or areas.

“UCR data are sometimes used to compile rankings of individual jurisdictions and institutions of higher learning,” wrote the FBI Crime Statistics Management Unit. “These incomplete analyses have often created misleading perceptions which adversely affect geographic entities and their residents. For this reason, the FBI has a longstanding policy against ranking participating law enforcement agencies on the basis of crime data alone. Despite repeated warnings against these practices, some data users continue to challenge and misunderstand this position.”

Since filling the Chief position in the City of Newburgh, Solomon initiated various programs and tactics in the department to reduce crime. One of the biggest successes so far has been moving from a zero-tolerance policy to a targeted policing policy. The previous anti-crime unit was labeled as the “Jump Out Boys” this group has been re-branded as the Community Progressive Response Team (CPRT) in the past month. A group of officers in the department were handpicked by Cortez to participate in the unit.

“The mission of the anti-crime unit was not in keeping with the philosophy that the department had already been going in since before I got here and since I got here,” said Cortez. “So it needed rebranding. It was largely ineffective anyway when I got here. We want to make sure the guy sitting on the sidewalk just drinking a beer after work is not treated the same as a person responsible for violent crimes.”

Newburgh was declared a part of the Gun Involved Violence Elimination (GIVE) Initiative in 2014. Orange County is one of 17 counties that account for 80 percent of crime in New York State outside of New York City, qualifying for GIVE funding.

The Group Violence Initiative (GVI) is a program implemented in 2015 to tackle gang violence in the city. CPRT is the community liaison and enforcement arm of the Group Violence Initiative, funded through the GIVE program. Since starting the GIVE program in Newburgh the department has decreased the number of bullet to body shootings from 55 in 2015 to 8 in 2019.



The department uses field intel officers and crime statistics to dictate their policing. Andrea Vey, City of Newburgh Crime Analyst, is the woman behind the scenes detecting trends and pulling together all information brought into the department. She finds locations with the most criminal or group activity so officers can run extra patrol and enforcement in those areas.

“I synthesize hundreds of reports that come in,” said Vey. “Let’s say we’re having issues with auto theft, I can show them the trends and give them direction on how to do proactive policing. I just put out the information the guys need to have a successful patrol.”

Part of Vey’s job is to meet weekly with the CPRT team. She locates areas for the unit to do a foot patrol, and the time of day they will be most effective. The unit uses the “Koper Curve” theory which focuses on hot spots of crime, identified by Vey. Officers will then visit these spots on foot or with frequent stops to these areas.

“Some of the responsibilities they are tasked with is connecting with the community, so what they’re looking for is to identify certain areas because of their group activity aka gang activity and they’re put into that area,” said Cortez. “This implementation they are doing now, it’s a focused deterrence on groups. We are trying to stop the people that bring this community down through violence and more importantly through gun violence.”

Officers Dan D’Elicio and Deluano Thomas are part of the CPRT unit. They are not required to take regular calls in order to allow for focused policing in hotspot areas. The two spend their day responding to calls and monitoring hot spots.

Riding around in the back of the car with D’Elicio and Thomas, you can see the policies laid out by Lieutenant Cortez take place in real time. The two break through the barrier created by the uniform getting out of their car and engaging with community and group members.

Driving past a young delivery driver D’Elicio calls out the window giving the kid a heads up on where to park his car. Later on, that day the boy delivers a meal to the department as a sign of gratitude. The two officers were born and raised in the City of Newburgh and it shows. They can’t take a step without being stopped to talk with community members in the street.

This type of policing is one of many ways the department is trying to connect with the community and end gang violence.

In a recent shooting the group member killed was on a perishable list, where the department reaches out right away with a custom notification to warn of potential group involvement or activity. The day before he was killed officers were knocking on his door trying to warn him.

“For me personally, if there is one shooting one homicide, then I have failed this community, not that there aren’t a lot of successes because there are quite a bit of successes but I keep that because this job inherently is to put ourselves out of business,” said Cortez. “I take that for me and say you know what there was a shooting a bullet to body shooting or a homicide, I’ve failed, but now let’s maintain this. Let’s hold this close inside to prevent more from happening.”

The department uses organizations like the Youth Police Initiative and the Cadet Program to reach community members at a young age, changing the perception of law enforcement.

The result of all these actions is a community that feels safer than it did in the past. In a survey conducted by the Mid Hudson Times, 154 Newburgh residents and workers voiced their opinions on how they feel about the city.

The survey took a poll with one being concerned for safety and 10 unconcerned about crime in the city. In the survey 87 participants voted from 8 to 10, only 20 participants voted from 1 to 4 and 44 participants voted between 5 and 7.

The Mid Hudson Times asked residents for their opinion on the way the city of Newburgh has been portrayed in the media. The survey was sent to various organizations and members of the community to distribute and share on social media.

Responses fell into six categories; reporting is accurate, it is improving, it is unfairly reported with too much focus on the negative, it is negative, it is inaccurate and it depends on the outlet.

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The survey showed a majority of participants believe the media gives a negative, unfair or inaccurate portrayal of the City of Newburgh. Many participants showed anger in the lack of positive media and articles published about the city, leading to its bad reputation.

“I think it’s portrayed very negatively, but they also don’t sugar coat it,” said Mateo Diaz. “Newburgh is a dangerous city, let’s be honest, crime and drugs are out of control. I feel like it’s overlooked quite frequently. Inner City Newburgh is being kept alive by all the beautiful locals. When tourists come to the City of Newburgh, I want them to explore the whole city not just a small part of it. Some people don’t see the potential in it, but it’ll happen, just wait a couple years.”

Some participants were content with current media coverage, 13 participants believe the city of Newburgh is accurately portrayed by the media

“It’s pretty accurate, I think the city can be a little stronger when it comes to law enforcement,” said a participant. “I see people smoking and selling drugs, cops drive by them like they are afraid to enforce the law. This has been happening for years.”

Ultimately 96 participants responded to the survey with frustrations that more positive stories are not published about the city to highlight the people working to lift up the city.

“I find it frustrating, the statistics used seem outdated and certainly aren’t close to accurately portraying the Newburgh that I see every day,” said a survey participant. “It’s obvious that there has been a concerted effort to address the crime and negative stereotypes of Newburgh. The fact that inaccurate portrayals of the city continue to plague its reputation and put a damper on potential growth is frustrating. We need to do everything we can to ensure that the crime statistics cited are accurate and up to date, because these so-called statistically informed opinions are inaccurate and belittle the great strides made by our leaders in the city.”