In the News

Funding Secured for Springfield Police Hub & COR Initiative

Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, Police Commissioner John Barbieri and State Representative Angelo J. Puppolo, Jr. announced today that $25,000 has been secured for the Springfield Police Department’s Hub & COR (Center of Responsibility) program.  The announcement was made this morning at a meeting of the South End C3 amongst various police and community partners.

“I’m very appreciative of State Representative Angelo Puppolo’s lead efforts along with our state delegation to secure these funds, along with the buy in of our City Council, especially City Councilor Jesse Lederman,” said Mayor Domenic J. Sarno. “This Hub & COR initiative builds upon Commissioner Barbieri’s and my administration’s proactive and innovative C3 and Flex/Ordinance Squad’s community policing programs to get to and stop the root causes of crime.”

The Hub & COR policing model was pursued for Springfield by Mayor Sarno and Commissioner Barbieri who in March of 2015 traveled to Chelsea, MA to meet with Chelsea Police Department officials, along with officials from Canada whose successful program was on the verge of becoming an international model at the time.  The risk-driven model offers the promise of greatly expanding the city’s collective capacity to respond to the needs that are driving costs in policing and in our partner sectors. The Hub & COR program operates on the simple principle that if something bad is predictable, it is also preventable. This principle is supported by a growing body of social science that consistently reveals ‘identifiable risk patterns’ as antecedents to a host of negative social outcomes.

Police Commissioner John Barbieri said, “This funding for Hub & COR will allow our officers and service providers to continue to get our residents in need connected to agencies.  Ultimately the goal is that they will get the help they need while reducing the number of service calls for those individuals.”

The earmark was secured as a part of the 2019 state budget by lead sponsor State Representative Angelo J. Puppolo, Jr., who stated, "This is another targeted investment providing funding to proactively help fight crime and criminal behavior responsibly by identifying risk factors and then attempting to minimize negative outcomes. I commend Mayor Sarno and Commissioner Barbieri for initiating this program in Springfield, and this additional funding will go a long way in implementing the Hub & COR program as another tool working within the community and partners long with the Police Department to help prevent crime and enhance the quality of life of our residents."

Background:

Hub & COR operates in two parts. The Hub Situation Table is a twice-weekly, ninety minute roundtable attended by members of the SPD and staff of public and private human service agencies. The focus of Hub meetings is to identify individuals or families with acutely elevated risk factors that cannot be addressed by a single agency alone, and to mobilize human service agencies toward a targeted and timely response, outside of policing, specific to individual and/or family need. 

In addition to operating Hub meetings two times per week, the project team also manages a COR. The COR plays in integral role in the overall program with its main functions centered on data collection, research and quantitative analysis of Hub data (typically one COR team services multiple Hubs).  The Hub & COR program operates on the simple principle that if something bad is predictable, it is also preventable. This principle is supported by a growing body of social science that consistently reveals ‘identifiable risk patterns’ as antecedents to a host of negative social outcomes.

A calendar of Springfield Police community events can be found here.

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Page last updated:  Tuesday, March 1, 2022 01:32 pm