City restores community policing in Marlborough
By Sarah Freedman Community Reporter

Marlborough - As part of a new initiative, community policing will be restored to the French Hill and downtown neighborhoods, which extend from Pleasant to Broad Street and the connecting roads.

In an Oct. 24 press release, Mayor Nancy Stevens announced that Officer Tony Evangelous, who is returning to a previous role as a community officer to the area, and Officer Patrick Hogan will be responsible for patrolling the French Hill neighborhoods and becoming acquainted with the residents in an eff ort to keep the area safe.

Marlborough Police Chief Mark Leonard said he expects good things to result from this initiative.

French Hill, Leonard said, is an older section of the city that is "home to newer residents" and includes many multifamily houses.

He added that, due to the high concentration of people, quality of life can be compromised. Common issues in the French Hill area include blight, overcrowding, public disturbances, loitering and, occasionally, criminal issues, he said.

Leonard's goal for the community policing effort is to improve the quality of life and bring growth back to these neighborhoods by having a permanent, helpful police presence to act as an anchor.

To that end, Leonard said, the Police Department is "really focusing eff orts to get a sustaining presence" in French Hill.

His ultimate goal is to "make sure people feel safe in those neighborhoods" and to "make a lot of contact," one-on-one, with the residents.

Leonard said the scaling back of community policing in the neighborhood occurred because of budget cutbacks in 2003. Now, with more funds to restore these positions, he believes that with local officers who know the residents, issues in the French Hill area can now be meditated before they become large problems.

Responding to something after it has happened, he said, is not as effective as being proactive.

"We're looking to have a substation setup [in that area]," he said.

Leonard also said that six new police officer positions have been gradually added to the force since 2003.

About the time needed to rebuild the focus on community policing jobs, he explained that the eff ect would not be immediate.

"It takes some time to get officers trained," he said.

According to Leonard, the eff ort to revitalize these neighborhoods is a communitydriven one and he believes that this strategy will work to improve the quality of life for residents of the area.

"[Community policing] is something we've had great success at," Leonard said. "We have our work cut out for us."

Leonard expressed his thanks to Stevens and the City Council, who aided the return of this policing eff ort.