This morning Mayor Domenic J. Sarno held a meeting along with Police Commissioner John Barbieri, Massachusetts State Police (MSP) Trooper Michael Cutone, MSP Sergeant Brian Clapprood, MSP Lieutenant Jeff McDonald, MSP Captain Brendhan Shugure, Harvard University Professor of Bioengineering and Applied Physics Kit Parker, New North Citizens Council COO Jose Claudio and Mayoral Aide Mini Marrero. They discussed a ten year review to quantify successes, explore areas of improvement and develop a playbook for other communities across the country, who have reached out to Springfield to emulate the City’s Counter Criminal Continuum Policing (C3) model. As Trooper Cutone, creator of C3 Policing in the North End, along with then Deputy Chief Barbieri, stated, this is only being done in Springfield. Of note, C3 has expanded into our South End, Mason Square and Forest Park neighborhoods too.
The C3 model demonstrates a unique partnership between the City, nonprofits, religious, neighborhood community residents, businesses, and law enforcement agencies working together as one, by claiming ownership to solve the core issues of crime. This innovative approach shapes a good environment for one and all.
As Springfield leads the way across the country, the correlation here is that we have seen overall crime drop by 45% in the last five years, school attendance, test scores and graduation rates are up, while truancy, drop-out rates and teen pregnancies are down. Economic development, investment and jobs are up.
As Mayor Sarno always states, “For any mayor in urban America, ‘the three things that are needed to continue to knock down the vicious cycle of poverty and public safety issues are - #1 Family, #1A Education, and #1B Jobs - put our people to work.’ Though there is more work to do, we are making headway.”
This Harvard study will culminate in a written publication compiling and evaluating the correlation effect of C3’s outreach.
