BADGE was formed specifically to address the "quality-of-life" issues in and around the neighborhood in Forest Park.
SPRINGFIELD – “Mary” is an on-again, off-again drug user who hangs out a lot in the area of lower Belmont Avenue in the city’s Forest Park neighborhood, and she is quite familiar with members of the Police Department’s BADGE unit.
They’ve arrested her four times over the past eight months for drug possession.
When “Mary” bumped into two of the unit’s officers, Sgt. Julio M. Toledo and Edward G. VanZandt, while they were on a recent walking patrol, the three exchanged pleasantries like old acquaintances.
She assures them that she is not using drugs, and she says she’s found steady work. They encourage her to keep it up.
“They’re doing a good job,” she tells a visitor about the officers. “I don’t like them, but they’re doing a good job.”
BADGE is an acronym commonly used in the place of its more clunky formal title, “Business and Domicile Geographic Enforcement Unit.” Its specialty is patrolling the streets in and around the area of Forest Park where Belmont Avenue, Sumner Avenue
and Dickinson Street intersect.
In its eight months of existence, the unit has made its presence felt in the enclave of streets known as the “X.”
Politicians, business owners, community leaders, residents and, now, even those who find themselves on the wrong side of the law are offering praise.
“The good people like us, and the bad guys don’t,” said Toledo. “It’s understood.”
Since it was formed in November, BADGE has accounted for 210 arrests, 1,020 motor vehicle citations and 98 criminal complaints. It has conducted 213 field interviews in high-crime areas and been involved in the seizure of five firearms and an undisclosed amount of narcotics.
Not a bad accounting for a unit that is comprised of just four officers: Toledo, VanZandt, Daniel Brunton and Brian Belliveau.
More than the numbers, though, the unit has made its presence felt in other ways.
Gone are the aggressive panhandlers bothering customers at businesses along Belmont or Sumner avenues, and the numbers of people hanging out on lower Belmont looking to sell – or buy – drugs is greatly reduced, observers say.
“A few months ago, if you went to buy (drugs), it would have been hopping,” Toledo said while driving his cruiser along Belmont Avenue. “They know we are out to lock them up, so they don’t hang out any more.”
BADGE was formed specifically to address the “quality-of-life” issues in and around the neighborhood in Forest Park.
Based on a similar unit, the North End Initiative, which was credited with reducing crime in that neighborhood of the City of Homes, BADGE was designed to be focused on a small area – roughly 1,000 feet in any direction from the “X” – and to work closely with businesses and residents to address their concerns, be they major or minor.
Drug dealers, panhandlers, reckless drivers, absentee landlords, problem tenants, noise complaints, BADGE deals with it all, Toledo said.
“People are concerned about loitering, loud music, trash, all the quality-of-life issues,” he said. “We can make 210 arrests, but the people only care about the quality-of-life issues.”
Mayor Domenic J. Sarno has praised the unit for helping empower those who live and work in the neighborhood.
Daniel P. Morrissey, president of the Forest Park Business Association and co-organizer of the Forest Park Public Safety Initiative, believes the numbers are impressive.
But, just as impressive, said Morrissey, is “the productive and collaborative relationship that the BADGE unit and neighborhood groups have built in such a short period of time.” He hopes the unit remains in place for a long time.
Teresa Fernandes,
“You don’t hear about the crime anymore,” she said.
Fernandes, who has operated her salon for 25 years, has seen good periods and bad, when police have concentrated patrols on the area and when they haven’t, she said.
“When coverage is cut back, (crime) gets worse,” she said. “Their presence is
important.”
Crime is not necessarily the biggest problem at the “X,” when compared to people’s perception of what’s really happening in the neighborhood, Fernandes believes.
That perception, she contends, is the result of media coverage, which routinely strings together isolated and unrelated incidents and portrays them as a ongoing pattern of violence in the neighborhood.
“I had a client come in here for product, and she said her husband warned her not to come into this area,” Fernandes said. She’s also lost customers who are afraid of being mugged, robbed or murdered because of some media reports.
“It’s the perception people have of the area,” she said. The media “never say anything good.”
Toledo has heard the same complaint from business owners. “The recurring theme is they get upset because the media makes it worse than it is,” he said. “They see us every day, and they know what we are doing.”
VanZandt said there are some crimes which will get attention. “But the business owners feel it gets so much attention, and it draws people away,” the officer added.
Elke Bosshart, who has operated Elke’s Bake Shop at 672B Sumner Ave. for three years and who also lives in the neighborhood, said the crime which occurs here usually involves drugs or family disputes.
“I never had a really bad feeling or something that its dangerous here. And that’s the same at my house,” she said.
Anytime something happens in the “X,” no matter how random or isolated, she said, though, “the whole area gets put in one pot and labeled ‘a bad area.’”
Bosshart has nothing but praise for the BADGE team. “I think they have really cleaned up the area. Really, you see their cars always driving by. You see the cops more here,” she said.
The 1,000-foot radius has been stretched this way or that when necessary.
For example, Elke’s Bake Shop is beyond the 1,000-foot marker, but Toledo said it did not make sense to exclude businesses that fell just out of range. “We expanded the boundaries a bit because we don’t want to neglect these businesses,” he said.
“We’re cognizant that you want to make sure everybody in every business feels like they’re getting an equal amount of service,” VanZandt added. “We hit all the businesses.”
They also patrol residential areas, making note of who is supposed to be there – and who isn’t. If someone is hanging around for no reason, the officers tell them to move along.
Prior to becoming part of the BADGE team, Toledo worked as an undercover narcotics detective. “I’d buy drugs for a living,” he joked. “That’s why I know all the drug dealers. They really don’t like me.”
Toledo knows the streets of this neighborhood; as he patrols the area, he can point out boarded-up buildings where he once conducted drug raids.
VanZandt served in the department’s Street Crimes Unit, the specialty squad that is dispatched to patrol hot spots for crime.
BADGE has elements of both men’s previous assignments, but at the same time, their current work is very different, they said.
“We have the luxury of not responding to 911 calls or going on ambulance assists,” Toledo said. “We have more time to do proactive, high-end enforcement.”
The key word there is proactive, not reactive, the officers underscore.
“Any officers we see are 90 percent reactive,” VanZandt said. “We don’t have to answer most calls, and we have a lot more time to deal with issues people have.”
On this afternoon, Toledo and VanZandt drive out of their area to go to a property management company in the nearby South End neighborhood.
They want to ask the company to hang some no-trespassing signs on property they own on lower Belmont Avenue in the BADGE district. The signs, Toledo said, would make it easier for police to arrest drug dealers and prostitutes who set up shop on the property and charge them with trespassing.
Toledo calls it one of those “dot the Is and cross the Ts” things that will aid both police and the neighborhood in the long run.
“It’s petty and sometimes mundane, but that’s what needs to be done to get that done correctly,” he said. “It’s those little things that go a long way.”
VanZandt and Toledo hand each person they meet on their patrol a business card. Each time, the officers make a point to note that the telephone number on the card reaches their cell phones, not some answering machine or the main switchboard at the police station. Call the number on the card, they say, and you will get an answer.
It’s a simple gesture, they say, but one that fits with the BADGE mindset: Success will come when the police and those in the neighborhood feel free to communicate with each other.
“If we make arrests and are doing what we supposed to do, holding up our end of the bargain, the business owners and property managers and stake holders have to hold up their end of the bargain,” Toledo said. “It’s a ‘one hand washes the other’ thing.”