Police: Communication key to stop violence

Dustin Luca, The Salem News, Beverly, Mass.
·5 min read

Mar. 4—SALEM — The best way to resolve the recent rash of violent crimes in Salem, police say, is to get everyone on the same team.

Police have responded to four violent crimes in the past five weeks. The list includes shootings on Perkins Street on Jan. 24 and on a walking path along Derby Street on Feb. 14, a stabbing tied to a domestic incident on Boston Street on Feb. 21 and a SWAT response to Highland Avenue this past Sunday, Feb. 28, involving an air rifle.

City Councilors held a committee meeting Thursday night to discuss the events. The meeting was triggered last week by Ward 7 City Councilor Steve Dibble, who called for the public health and safety committee to meet with police to learn how they can further help the department.

The nearly two-hour meeting left a clear message in its wake, however, that the community needs to come together completely — to work with the same information and communicate as much as possible.

"We shouldn't be turning on each other or stoking fear," said acting police Chief Dennis King, working off of a presentation. "We should be rallying to support each other, not jumping to conclusions or characterizing criminal activity before investigations have even begun. Misinformation and disinformation can actually harm investigative efforts."

The city has been hit with several gun-related incidents in the last three years — 11 incidents involve victims and a firearm going back to 2018, by King's count. To date, five have had charges brought while the remaining six are "open pending hopeful victim/witness cooperation," King's presentation read.

"We need more cooperation from individuals that are on scene and the victims," King said, describing the cases as ones "absent" or missing witness and victim involvement. "These aren't random. These are individuals we are aware of, and we're going to do everything we can to keep the community safe."

King's presentation focused heavily on data showing changes in crime trends, which outlined that aggravated assault and weapon offenses are up in the last three years while robberies and drug-related offenses have decreased. Fraud and identity theft are also up, all attributed to how crime is impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, King argued.

The presentation also showed data from other communities, an effort to show cities like Salem are going through the same increase in activity.

Still, there was a sense that each incident is too much. Domingo Dominguez, the City Council's lone Hispanic or Latino voice, said King's presentation had "clarified a lot of valid points," but "I feel the same explanation needs to be given to the public, and it isn't getting there."

"In Salem, we've never seen five weekends that I remember — five consecutive weekends, five shootings; not a minor crime, shootings in which a few people I know have been shot," Dominguez said. "There's a lot of worry, even though we have the data. I have my children living here, and every weekend, I have to go to bed worried about what happens next."

But the meeting also focused heavily on misinformation impacting police work. King used Dominguez' comment — five shootings across five weekends, when really there were two shootings in four incidents across five weekends — as an example.

"Especially the incidents we're talking about, we're the responders that are equipped and have the ability to address these situations, and we'd never ask the public's support on that unless it's needed," King said. "If we're talking about incidents where there are potential threats to other members of society, that's our job — and I ask that you leave that to us in general."

In other words, councilors should only share official information released from the police department — and nothing else.

Several of the councilors took shots at a recent incident involving an unnamed public official sharing information about an active police incident that didn't come from police. Three councilors reached for comment after the meeting declined to identify the context of their comments. The Salem News is aware of one such incident taking place this past weekend involving a public official sharing information from a non-police source on social media.

"Our job isn't to go on Facebook and to post about an incident that's actively going on. It's short-sighted and irresponsible to think that someone posting on Facebook when an incident is going on is going to help the matter," said Ward 1 City Councilor Bob McCarthy. "Posting pictures of how they're deploying themselves and how they're organizing themselves to combat a threat is irresponsible and totally, totally not in the realm of what a councilor should be doing."

Similar remarks were shared by at-large Councilor Conrad Prosniewski, who recently retired as a Salem police captain after more than 40 years on the force and 25 serving as its public information officer.

"In this day and age, with the Internet and Facebook, things run rampant, and all of the sudden people are starting to fear things that aren't even happening," Prosniewski said. "There was no shooting on Boston Street that was reported — that was a stabbing. The shooting on Highland Avenue, from what I understand, was a BB gun shot at a piece of heavy equipment.

"It's misinformation. It's jumping to conclusions. It's making the police detract from what they're doing in order to stop the spread of misinformation," Prosniewski continued. "We should be looking at exactly what happened — let the police do their job and put out information that's correct, not spreading any fear."

To respond to this story or suggest another, contact Dustin Luca at 978-338-2523 or DLuca@salemnews.com. Follow him at facebook.com/dustinluca or on Twitter @DustinLucaSN.

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