New Haven ends cop ‘caretaker’ program of taking items for safekeeping from unlocked cars- after 1 day Cops were to take valuables from unlocked cars before real thieves could

New Haven Police Department New Haven Police Department Photo: Journal Register Co. Photo: Journal Register Co. Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close New Haven ends cop ‘caretaker’ program of taking items for safekeeping from unlocked cars- after 1 day 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

NEW HAVEN >> East Rock’s unconventional and “creative” car break-in initiative lasted just one day.

In an attempt to combat a string of thefts from motor vehicles, East Rock officers created a “caretaker” initiative. Under it, cops could confiscate items from unlocked cars, such as laptop computers, GPS devices and pocketbooks, for safe-keeping rather than see them stolen later on.

The initiative began Monday and was shut down by Tuesday.

“I thought it was a brilliant initiative but the city was concerned that it could have legal complications,” Chief Dean Esserman said. “So, I asked our officers to stop that initiative but keep on working on car break-ins.”

Corporation Counsel John Rose contacted Esserman Tuesday morning to alert him of the possible legal ramifications of the plan. According to Laurence Grotheer, spokesman for Mayor Toni Harp, “unanticipated press coverage” that “raised community awareness about the issue” also led to the program being axed 24 hours after its inception.

Lt. Herbert Sharp, East Rock’s district manager, planned to run this pilot program for the month of November after residents repeatedly ignored police warnings to lock their vehicles and not to leave valuables in them. The program was not city-wide, limited only to the East Rock policing district.

Sharp told the Register that this time of year there are increased car break-ins and packages stolen from porches. He said there recently had been eight car break-ins in East Rock over a one-week period.

The plan was to have walking beat officers run the plate number of unlocked cars with valuables in plain sight and attempt to contact the owner. If unsuccessful, cops would take the property, lock the car door and leave a receipt informing the owner who has the item and what time to come pick it up.

Esserman said he encourages his officers to be creative. East Rock officers already had tried posting make-believe tickets on car windshields and knocking on doors to alert residents to lock up and keep their valuables out of sight. This was another attempt to creatively combat car break-ins.

“What (officers) were discovering was that people were leaving property in plain sight in the cars and they couldn’t seem to impact that behavior,” Esserman said. “I think there’s nothing wrong with trying new things. Sometimes they’ll work and sometimes they don’t but I applaud the officers for trying something new and taking risks.”

The program is shelved indefinitely. But Esserman said that the last thing he wants to do is criticize any officer for thinking out of the box.

“It didn’t work so we’ll try something else but we’re committed to being as creative as we need to be to keep crime down in New Haven,” he said.

Sharp had said there was hope for the plan to do two things.

“The bad guy is not going to break into the car and be able to take that item. It inconveniences the person to come down and pick up the property,” the lieutenant had said.

The police lieutenant also had planned to measure to see whether there was a drop in these kinds of break-ins after the policy was in place.

Reach Ryan Flynn at 203-680-9962.