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WPCNR MAIN STREET JOURNAL. Interview with Dennis Power By John F. Bailey. July 8. 2005: Dennis Power, Democrat Candidate for Mayor, on the first day back from being discharged from White Plains Hospital Center for treatment of an undisclosed minor ailment, called Thursday for a city wide review of municipal parking garage security in an exclusive interview with the CitizeNetReporter.
Power, (who fought for and helped establish the Post Road Open Arms Shelter in White Plains fifteen years ago), told WPCNR the murder in The Galleria was not a homeless problem, but a communications problem.
DENNIS POWER (shown last month in his Mayoral kickoff) took Mayor Joseph Delfino to task for his statement of last week on The Galleria Muder where the Mayor threatened to sue the county for dropping off homeless persons to wander in White Plains during the day. Power suggested that Public Safety Commissioner Dr. Frank Straub and County Public Safety Commissioner Tom Belfiore meet to discuss measures and improvements in monitoring releases of the homeless into the community that might be taken to help people feel safer. Photo, WPCNR News Archive
Power also proposed beefing up police presence in the municipal garages and enhanced technology and adding monitoring staff to renew public confidence in the city’s garages.
Here is Mr. Power’s answers to a series of questions posed by WPCNR regarding The Galleria murder of a White Plains citizen last week. Police have arrested and charged a homeless man, Phillip Grant who is a Level 3 sex offender, with the crime.
WPCNR: What is your reaction to last week’s crime?
POWER: My overall reaction is the slaying of Concetta Russell-Carriero is such a horrible tragedy. My feelings go out to her family and friends. I’m concerned about the safety of all our residents who come to White Plains every day to work and shop. I don’t think we can turn the clock back on what happened but I think as far as the city government goes we have to work in consort to make sure we prevent this from ever happening again. I think we need to work real decisively to restore the public’s confidence in our ability to provide a safe environment to work and live.
I think the (Mayor’s) knee jerk reaction of just saying it’s just all tied together to the homeless is incorrect. We (the Mayor) are talking about suing the county government to prevent the people from coming in here. We’re talking about a horrible crime committed by a former felon.
It is not a homeless problem per se, that’s the situation as I see it. We have problems at the state level with the high risk offenders and how they’re treated and released. We need to be talking with our assembly people to get their version of the bill dealing with civil confinement. We need to press them (the assembly people) as a city government to be working at the state level. We need to be working responsibly on how we can resolve what is basically a statewide problem it is not tied to homeless people being dropped off in the city (by the county).
WPCNR: Do you think homeless persons dropped off (by the county) should be registered (with police or a homeless shelter) when they are dropped off?
POWER: Right now we have in place through the county government, we have a lot of systems in place to help people and to deal with people. This policy of picking off and dropping off, as you know originated back in the late 80s. There’s a lot of people in government who know why it was done, why this safety valve was put in place. You talk about people dying in the streets – those things were happening you know back then.
It was also understanding, dealing with the escalating homeless problem, getting people away from the neighborhoods and the downtowns and give them a safe place (overnight) to go, as opposed to letting them just wander around.
We’re talking about a major problem around the country. We’re talking about people’s rights. There are thousands of success cases in Westchester County alone in terms of helping people and getting them as contributing members of society.
So when you’re talking about, can we just box, cordon off and secure and prevent people from being here when we have all these services and programs and jobs and so forth here, in the major cities, I think the answer is no.
I think maybe what we could do though, a more responsive way would be to have our Public Safety Director, Frank Straub, sitting and dealing with Public Safety Commissioner at the County Level, Tom Belfiore, maybe getting the two of those law professionals with years of experience, maybe sit down ways of improving safety and security. I’d rather county and city government, and especially top level officials talking. have them talking amicably over a table about ways of what can be done, possibly there can be some improvements so that people could feel safe.
WPCNR: What kind of improvements?
POWER: I think if we get people working together, I think we can up with some ways of monitoring, working together, come up with some ideas. This policy (of picking homeless up and dropping them back in the city in the morning) has been in place a long long time. You’re talking about thousands of people. We can’t force everyone to accept services, we can make them available.
WPCNR: Do you think we should have a place where homeless persons who are dropped off who have no place to go except to wander around malls, sitting on stoops begging, which I have seen them do in the last week. I’ve been panhandled twice in the last week. Do you think we should have a homeless center during the day for these people to go?
POWER: I think we ought to be very careful. You don’t want White Plains being a magnet for everything. We have over the course of the years established some incredibly good programs, Open Arms and Samaritan House, where they are doing the kind of thing you’re talking about. But if we also have to have that ( day dropin sort of facility)here you’re talking about as well, I don’t know if we need to be establishing another dropin kind of place down here. I’m not the last answer on that.
WPCNR: Do you feel the security in the municipal garages needs looking at, improvement?
POWER: There is no question in my mind. We need in my opinion a total review in terms of security in municipal garages. The safety and security for everyone using the garages is paramount, everyone who uses them. I think we have to take whatever measures, we need to make sure the people are safe. Right now , public confidence has to be restored.
People have been talking about more police patrols. The police do a fantastic job, a phenomenal job (now), but you know, maybe we need more around. Maybe people need to see police more visible at all levels. A number of these things have happened at the high levels in the parking permitted areas.
As far as technology and cameras go. There were a heck of a lot of cameras when the Galleria was first opened.
WPCNR: I’ve been told the cameras there are basically to monitor the traffic alleys.
POWER: What I was going to get to, which is your point, is you’ve got the elevators and other areas. You need the safety people to take a careful look at the comings and goings, and what are the patterns, and where do cameras need to be, where they need to be installed. We’re talking about modern day technology.
We need to be putting resources to bear in the physical presence of people, police around, as well as surveillance.
And, the other thing too, you know, John, if you drive in there (municipal garages) and watch the staffing of the security areas where cameras are monitored, and how many jobs people have to be doing at the same time time.
WPCNR: They don’t watch the monitors.
POWER: Yeah, and it’s not the fault of the people (garage office staff), if they’re doing multitasks there are a lot of monitors there, and they also have to be giving out change, collecting fines, and lots of other things, they work hard. But how many things can people do (and still be checking the monitors)?
In this review, we have to really look at the number of people who are being utilized to kind of back up a little bit more secure system. I’m sure we can come up with more creative suggestions.
I think that’s where White Plains attention really needs to be on safety and security in the garages and the streets here.
The city is so dependent on the sales tax revenue coming from the retail stores and also the revenue generated from those parking meters and fines, it is incumbent on the city government to make sure the residents use them.
WPCNR: Use them.
POWER: Exactly, John that they use the garages in order to shop and do things. Not just the garages downtown but all the garages throughout the city, they even have this new garage at Mamaroneck and Bryant. It’s big. It’s all about safety.
People really don’t feel safe. They’re driving them over in vans to doctor’s offices. People won’t allow their kids to go certain places, they only will drop off their kids at certain places in front of doors and places. We also don’t know what has been going on in the garages. I think we need to be looking and seeing what has been going on in the garages.
WPCNR: It is my understanding from police sources there is not a high number of serious incidents in the garages. There’s not a lot that really happens in the garages.
POWER: All I’m saying is we have to look at the total picture.
