HOLYOKE — In 2009, Massachusetts state trooper and recently returned U.S. Green Beret Mike Cutone pitched a new idea to the Springfield Police Department to combat crime in the city: deploy the same counter-insurgency tactics he used in Iraq.
From those conversations was born Counter Criminal Continuum Policing, or C3, a counter-insurgency program that the city’s police began deploying in the North End neighborhood and later expanded to other parts of the city. The program relies on intelligence gathering and winning the trust of the local community in order to target alleged drug dealers and gang members.
On Wednesday evening, Cutone — together with Holyoke’s police chief and another Holyoke police officer — is slated to attend the Holyoke City Council’s Public Safety Committee meeting to discuss the potential establishment of a C3 program for the South Holyoke and Churchill neighborhoods.
“My ultimate goal would be to make it identical to what Springfield did,” said City Councilor Terence Murphy, whose Ward 2 includes both the South Holyoke and Churchill neighborhoods. “But I need to know what’s holding it up and trying to go from there.”
In Springfield, the C3 program included regular meetings with residents and community leaders, as well as building relationships in neighborhoods and encouraging residents to tip off police to criminal activity.
Proponents of the program in Springfield have pointed to significant drops in crime in the North End after C3 was implemented.
Murphy pointed to several recent shootings, as well as drug dealing in the city, as examples of the kind of crime he is hoping to fight with a C3 program. He said he recently had a 10-year-old resident of his ward ask him to make the area safer so he can go out on the street. He said the C3 program would involve the “whole community” — businesses, renters, homeowners, churches, police, the Department of Public Works and others.
“If you can work with us, we can make your life better,” he said. “We can make that 10-year-old kid’s life a little better.”
C3 policing does have its detractors, however, who point to the increasing militarization of police departments as a dangerous development that disproportionately impacts people of color.
In 2014, the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts obtained Springfield’s grant application for $1 million from the federal government to expand its C3 program. In that application, the ACLU notes, the C3 model is described as focusing resources on “increased misdemeanor arrests/intensive law enforcement” involving “aggressive order maintenance techniques, including making arrests for public order violations, arresting drug dealers, conducting ‘stop and frisks.’”
“The focus on low-level, non-violent offenders and heightened use of ‘stop and frisk’ tactics is notable, particularly at a time when stop and frisk policies are coming under fire nationwide for their disparate racial impact,” the ACLU’s report read.
Murphy acknowledged that the C3 program faced skepticism from some in Springfield. He encouraged Holyoke residents who might be skeptical to talk to people from the communities in Springfield where C3 was implemented.
“I’m not trying to take away people’s rights, if anything I’m looking to give people the right to a decent life,” he said, adding that the goal of the program is not a “police state” but a “safe state.”
The Public Safety Committee meeting will be held at City Hall in the Council Chamber on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.
Dusty Christensen can be reached at dchristensen@gazettenet.com.