Feb. 12--NIAGARA FALLS -- The Niagara Falls Police Department already patrols the streets. Now it is working with residents to make the streets a little safer.
Two new liaison positions in the department, one working with youth and another working with businesses and churches on the South End of the city, are designed to help prevent crime. Both jobs are part-time and are funded with federal grants, one from the Bureau of Justice Assistance and the other from community development block grant funding.
"We haven't changed anything with patrols," said Administrative Lt. Kelly Rizzo, who oversees the community outreach programs. "We want kids to have a better chance at succeeding in life, a better quality of life. We are also trying to promote law enforcement as a career and reach out to these kids when they are younger."
Police Superintendent John R. Chella said the two added positions will double the total of community liaisons from two to four.
"I expect the outreach back and forth from the community to us, and from us to the community, to increase significantly. And I like the position of youth mentoring," Chella said.
Rizzo said the new positions will help fulfill the terms of a consent decree from the state attorney general's chief counsel for civil rights, asking for the department to change its use-of- force policy and to hire more minorities.
"It's a nice ancillary benefit because as part of the consent decree, they asked us to create some community outreach programs, but we had this idea in place long before that consent decree was reached. It will fit that need, but I don't think those programs will be enough," Rizzo said.
Allen Booker, the community policing liaison, is in the full-time city-funded position to administer the liaison programs at the city's three substations at 18th Street, 19th Street and Highland Avenue.
"The key to have the three [police] substations is to offer different quality- of-life-type programs," he said.
Rizzo noted the reason for using the substations in the liaison programs. "What we are trying to do is to get [residents] to see the man in the uniform differently than they have in the past. [Substations] are a neutral site," he said.
The new liaisons are another step in changing the role of the Niagara Falls Police Department to help build trust in the community and a step forward in keeping substations open on a more regular basis, Rizzo said.
Raymond Allen, a Houghton College business graduate and a minister at Bethany Baptist Church in the Falls, was appointed last week as the community policing aide stationed at the 19th Street substation. His responsibility will be to strengthen relations with the ministerial council while working with businesses and residents to improve the South End of the city, which has been hard hit by crime.
"A major issue with the community as a whole is a dialogue [with police], and it is needed in order to have
a clearer line between the police and the community," Allen said.
He said that as a minister he finds that people often turn to their parish community.
"The common perception is us against them, and in order to break that barrier down I think it very important to reach out not only to church groups but block clubs as well," Allen said.
"The ultimate goal is to build that trust," Rizzo said. "One of the major problems we face is the lack of victim and witness cooperation. People don't feel they can be protected if they testify against other people.
"We want to educate them: If you stand up and take ownership of your neighborhood now and we start getting rid of the people that behave that way, before long everybody is going to stand up, and it will be many standing against a few."
Adia Tyson, a newly appointed community outreach worker for the department, is a graduate of Niagara University with a degree in criminal justice. She has a social work background, working in the city with victims of abuse and domestic violence. In her job she will work as the administrator for the youth mentoring program, providing services to young people and their parents at the 18th Street Community Center, which is the largest police substation, offering a number of services.
Rizzo said offering more programs at the community center has also meant that the building is staffed and open on a more regular basis.
Tyson's mentoring program will be open to 15 young people who will be offered programs on such topics as college preparation, career and entrepreneurship training, and health and wellness.
"As a mother of a 13-year-old and an 8-year-old, I see the need in the community for them to have something to do that is going to be positive and give them something that's educational and activity-based that's going to prevent them from finding other things to do that are not that constructive," Tyson said.
She said she is looking for a diverse group of young people to participate in the new program -- both those who are at-risk and others who are doing well so that they can strengthen each other. Programs also will be held for parents.
"My desire is to draw them here to erase any negative connotation they have about the Police Department and the Niagara Falls community as a whole, especially the minority community," she said. "That image that they have that snitches get stitches and all that other foolishness. By drawing them in they will get to see the positive face of law enforcement."
Both Tyson and Rizzo said they are looking for donations, grant funding and philanthropy to expand. Booker said people have volunteered to help.
"We hope it takes off, and definitely it will grow," Rizzo said.
"What you are giving the kids is hope. There has been a kind of hopelessness which leads to apathy, which is kind of where we've been in the past. It's nice that we are starting to see people say enough is enough and bring the city back up. It doesn't have to be this way," Rizzo said.
"A lot of parents are stuck in the mentality that the police are the bad guys, and that rubs off on their children," Tyson said. "Children end up with a fear of police. We are trying to teach them to have respect for law enforcement, themselves and the community."
"Ironically, we are trying to teach them not to need police," Rizzo said. "If anyone goes through life not needing the Police Department, then they have had a pretty good life."
The program for youth starts in March and continues through June. The first parent orientation meeting was held Saturday, but anyone with questions who would like to participate or join some of the open sessions should call Tyson at the community center at 285-2010.
Copyright 2012 - The Buffalo News, N.Y.
