Police and Fire Department representatives meet with community at North End gathering

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Manchester Police Department Chief Allen Aldenberg on Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2021. Photo/Andrew Sylvia

MANCHESTER, N.H. – Leaders from the Manchester Police Department and Manchester Fire Department gathered at Webster Street’s Fire Station Number Five on Tuesday night to answer questions and receive comments from around a dozen community members regarding the state of public safety in the city.

The evening touched upon a variety of topics, with most attached by the common theme of seeking to build more communication between the Manchester Police and Fire Departments and the residents of Manchester.

Manchester Police Department Chief Allen Aldenberg and other police leaders praised members of the Rimmon Heights community group that were in attendance, hoping that comparable groups that can build ties among members of neighborhoods as well as neighbors and police officers can be established in other parts of the city.

Aldenberg was also pleased with the dialogue that arose from the event and hopes for comparable events in the future.

“Anytime we can interact with the community and hear what they have to say, good bad or indifferent, we want to hear it,” he said.

Outside of questions regarding the city’s homeless situation, where Manchester Fire Department Chief Andre Parent and Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig provided updates on the relationships being cultivated by Manchester Director of Homeless Initiatives Schonna Green, the majority of the event’s questions were addressed to the police.

Manchester Police Department Lieutenant Michael Barter provided a series of statistics, stating that year-over-year robberies in the city have reduced by 30 percent and Manchester is seeing a reduction on sexual assault. He added aggravated assault levels are holding steady and that recent spikes in shootings are common during the summer time.

Barter, Aldenberg and other officers noted that much of the violence in the city stems from a handful of connected individuals and that increased efforts by state, federal and other local law enforcement agencies have been increased to monitor the activities of these individuals when they are suspected of violent activity.

Alderman At-Large Dan O’Neil was at the event and says he was pleased with the information provided, adding that he believes most Manchester residents believe the police are doing a good job.

“What I hear from people is that they say they feel safe, but they worry when there are spikes of violence and it’s hard to explain to them that the police are working on the issue and the violence won’t end up in the neighborhood. It’s important to know that many of the people causing the problems know each other and the incidents are often not isolated,” said O’Neil. “Every now and then I will get letters from people not stating their addresses asking to defund the police, but I think on the whole, people across the city stand with police.”

Building on the overarching theme of building dialogue between police and the community, Aldenberg also asked the audience to come forward to police with any suspicious activity they may see, noting that often the Manchester Police Department has high certainty of an individual who may have committed a crime, but are unable to press charges due to a lack of corroborating evidence from witnesses.

Increased communication can also help prevent crime before it happens, with Police Commissioner Manny Content noting a recent situation on North Adams Street where an individual from Rochester, NH parked a suspicious trailer illegally it was moved after residents brought the matter to the attention of police.

Content said that as an African American and near life-long resident of Manchester, he has experienced racism and injustice in his life but not from the Manchester Police Department, citing their professionalism during last year’s Black Lives Matter rally in the city.

“That day, this department did nothing but huddle with the participants of that march beforehand and tell them ‘We’re not here to hover over you, we’re here to make sure everyone is safe,” said Content. “Before that march, there was dialogue. The department showed respect and most participants in the event showed respect back.”

Content went on to praise the Manchester Police Department for its transparency and said that the level of communication between police and the community is better than many parts of the country.

Aldenberg said that Manchester’s police have largely escaped the negative perception of police that has festered elsewhere in the country due to various instances of police malfeasance such as the murder of George Floyd. Although Manchester’s police officers had no role in that and many other incidents across the country, he understands that it impacts the perception of residents on the profession of law enforcement as a whole and he says his department accepts that perception and aims to due its part to rebuild trust locally, adding that the Manchester Police Department is not perfect but its officers will strive to do the best they can every day.

One example of that imperfection came in the form of a recent Facebook post where the Manchester Police Department listed qualified immunity as a benefit of obtaining employment as a police officer in the city.

Aldenberg said that comment stemmed from a communication breakdown within the department and accepted full responsibility for the negative reaction that followed. He added that recruitment and qualified immunity are two separate issues, but the topic of qualified immunity is something that potential recruits consider when applying to police departments.

He added that qualified immunity applies to other civil servants such as judges and is only applied when an individual is acting within the law. He also said that if police officers in New Hampshire could no longer rely upon qualified immunity while performing their duties, the Manchester Police Department would suffer a significant retention problem due to officers fearing that their actions could result in lawsuits regardless of whether those lawsuits are warranted.

Aldenberg told the audience that it has become harder to recruit police officers and new tactics such as online certification tests have been used to adapt to a new generation of recruits.

Aldenberg said that the Manchester Police Department’s maximum compliment of officers is 267, but there are currently 21 vacancies waiting to be filled.

Tuesday’s event marked the first of what Aldenberg hopes to be a series of community events throughout the city in each ward, noting that the location for this event took place on Webster Street due to the fact that it’s in Ward 1, with subsequent events expected to be held in Ward 2, Ward 3 and so on.

About this Author

Andrew Sylvia

Assistant EditorManchester Ink Link

Born and raised in the Granite State, Andrew Sylvia has written approximately 10,000 pieces over his career for outlets across Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. On top of that, he's a licensed notary and licensed to sell property, casualty and life insurance, he's been a USSF trained youth soccer and futsal referee for the past six years and he can name over 60 national flags in under 60 seconds according to that flag game app he has on his phone, which makes sense because he also has a bachelor's degree in geography (like Michael Jordan). He can also type over 100 words a minute on a good day.