The Glen Woods Crime Watch Association hosted an information session with the Cranston Police Department and Cranston Fire Department on May 6 at Glen Hills Elementary School.

Representatives from both departments were present, and Capt. Vincent McAteer III, head of the police departments Office of Community Outreach, ran the meeting. Barry Weiner, assistant director of rehabilitative services for the Rhode Island Department of Corrections, was a featured guest, as was Stephen A. Macintosh, fire marshal for the city of Cranston. Also present and speaking throughout the meeting were Albert Melikian and Suzanne Arena, co-founders of the Crime Watch Association.

Melikian spoke to the large group of residents, stating that his purpose in having the meeting is to help establish confidence and a working relationship with law enforcement and to address any safety issues residents may have.

McAteer thanked Melikian for setting up the meeting, and thanked his fellow colleagues in attendance. He also thanked Glen Hills principal and Glen Woods neighborhood resident Jay DeCristofaro for the use of the room.

McAteer welcomed Col. Michael Winquist, the 22nd chief of the Cranston Police Department, to the meeting.

Winquist stated some of his objectives when creating the Office of Community Outreach, including being transparent and accessible, developing relationships with the community, and reducing crime. He touched on several topics of interest, summarizing for the group some of the progress and statistics in areas such as traffic enforcement, breaking and entering, property crimes, sex offenders and narcotics activity.

“Breaking and entering and property crimes are down citywide and down in this neighborhood,” he said. “Years ago there was a network of criminals breaking and entering in this neighborhood, and they are now in jail. It doesn’t mean that we can rest on our laurels, however.”

Winquist spoke about the issue of sex offenders in Cranston, namely at Harrington Hall, where a homeless shelter for men was been established years ago.

“I know that Harrington Hall is in your neighborhood. People do need shelter during the winter months. We have an officer dedicated to tracking and monitoring the activity there,” he said.

The chief also noted that the amount of detectives in charge of monitoring narcotics activity in the area has recently been increased, and that as of the date of the meeting there were 147 officers on staff, the highest ever, and three more were currently finishing up at the police academy.

“They’ll graduate on May 22, and hit the ground running,” he said. “I am very proud to be here. You are in very good hands with our command staff. Our office is always open, and you will always get a response.”

McAteer showed the residents an in-depth slideshow presentation, noting that residents of the area are vigilant, calling the police for suspicious activity and utilizing house alarms. He compared statistics for 2013, 2014 and the current year.

“All of that bodes well for this area,” McAteer said. “We’re going in a positive direction.”

He introduced a new program being instituted, Cranston Walker Watch, created by the Office of Community Outreach. He asked for a show of hands in the audience as to how many residents walk or run through the neighborhoods as a form of exercise, and asked of those residents how many had an iPhone. He showed a QR code that could be downloaded using the free Tipsoft app and utilized to report tips of suspicious activity to the police department. He then defined suspicious activity as being suspicious or unfamiliar vehicles, especially those driving slowly, someone looking into car windows or walking around the perimeter of a house.

“Safety is your first priority,” he said, reminding the residents to use caution and report any suspicious activity they see.

Each resident present was given a pamphlet explaining the program in detail, along with McAteer’s business card for easy contact information.

McAteer welcomed questions from the residents, providing answers or directing to another speaker who could whenever possible.

“The police force is great about monitoring the sex offenders at Harrington Hall, they go down there at 7 a.m. to monitor them,” Arena said. “The problem is, they go from Harrington Hall to the libraries, to the ballfields, to the parks during the day. It’s a hardship on our police, fire and emergency personnel to keep responding. We’d previously talked about having a comprehensive plan in place for the homeless, and having them occupied during the day. Why is that not happening? We’d talked with [House Speaker] Nick Mattiello about wanting to cap the number of sex offenders at Harrington Hall between three and five, but as of today, there are 13. That’s far too many.”

McAteer said the concerns were valid, and he encouraged residents to make a call if they feel the least bit unsafe or uncomfortable about anyone or anything that they see in the area.

“We are very accessible and we have a quick response time in terms of the calls we get,” he said.

McAteer invited Weiner to speak to the issue of the homeless sex offenders, having been at his post as assistant director for the past 10 months.

“The sex offender issue is an issue every day. There is not one person in this room who thinks fondly of sex offenders. They’ve done horrible things, and one victim is too many, one offender is too many. If we could get them out of our city, our state, our country, we would,” Weiner said. “The vast majority of offenders are people who are step-dads, uncles, cousins, boyfriends of women with children. They are intra-familiar with people that the child knows.”

He told the residents in the audience that a situation in which any friend, neighbor or relative shows a keen interest in their children should make a red flag go up.

“We have a treatment program which is a residential program at the ACI and we have a 4 to 5 percent re-offense rate. Any re-offense is horrible, one is too much, but the concern that these people are lurking and going to get you on your walk is probably not realistic,” he said.

The bigger issue, according to Weiner, is that no one wants the sex offenders in their backyard, so the ability to move them out of Cranston or to provide services for them outside of Cranston is almost impossible.

“Non-profits get shut down. No one wants sex offenders in their neighborhoods. No one wants a counseling center for them or a probation center for them. A lot of people mean well in these neighborhoods and are trying to help with the problem, but they get shut down,” he said. “So we have to consider our options. Are we better off having them in a shelter where they have counselors, where we know where they are, where their probation officers know where they are, where the shelter is staffed 24/7 and monitored? Or do we want them walking around? What do we, as a community want?”

When Melikian asked Weiner the status of the comprehensive plan for tackling the issue of the sex offenders in Cranston that had been outlined during a past meeting with former Gov. Lincoln Chafee, Weiner didn’t have good news in his response.

“I don’t think we’re very far. I’ve sat in on lots of meetings, and discussions. I’ve heard lots of plans. Each time they are shot down because no one wants the issue in their own back yard,” he said. “I think you’re absolutely right. We need a comprehensive plan. We need our legislators to be on board, because it’s the constituents that are saying, ‘Not in my backyard.’”

As the question-and-answer portion of the event progressed, questions were raised about graffiti and gangs, to which McAteer stated that more officers would be on the bike path in the summer months patrolling.

Winquist also clarified that graffiti is often an issue of vandalism, not necessarily an issue of gang activity.

“I spent a few years on the gang unit in Providence, and graffiti itself is not necessarily a sign of gang activity. Gangs are prevalent more so in Providence than in Cranston, but our officers are educated in what to look for and we’re definitely not resting on our laurels,” he said.

Macintosh was asked by Melikian what types of assistance could be provided for the elderly who have issues with changing the batteries in their smoke detectors.

“Numerous times our officers have assisted the elderly in changing their batteries. I’ve even put up detectors for people who are unable to,” Macintosh said. “The first line of defense should be to ask friends, family and neighbors, in order to avoid having to send out the fire truck to your house, because we can’t just send someone in their car, but we can get it done.”

Other concerns were raised with regards to the inappropriate activity behind Glen Hills School at night and on the weekends, which residents agreed has been an ongoing problem for many years, and which leaves inappropriate evidence on school grounds in the mornings for the students to see.

McAteer stated that the school grounds are a priority checkpoint for officers, and emphasized the importance of calling in any type of inappropriate activity any time it’s noticed.

As the meeting wound down and remaining questions were asked, members of the police and fire departments both encouraged residents to stay aware, stay safe and stay in touch, calling when issues or concerns arise.