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<p>HAZLETON &#8212; As a former New York Police Department officer who worked undercover in the dangerous world of drug trafficking, Hazleton Police Chief Jerry Speziale has feared for his life before.</p><p>He didn&#8217;t think it would happen again on Alter Street.</p><p>In the wee hours of July 5, Speziale and several of his officers were confronted by an &#8220;out-of-control&#8221; mob of about 75 people, some intent on fighting police.</p><p>Others were throwing lit fireworks, including explosives known as &#8220;blockbusters&#8221; that resemble quarter sticks of dynamite.</p><p>Officers found themselves badly outnumbered. Backup was a few miles away in the Heights section of the city, where a raging fire had just gutted several homes.</p><p>Then it got worse. Someone went for the chief&#8217;s gun.</p><p>&#8220;I was wrestling with people,&#8221; Speziale recalled. &#8220;And I was holding my gun in my holster. They were tugging on my gun.&#8221;</p><p>Hazleton Mayor Jeff Cusat, who lives about 10 blocks farther down Alter, was returning home from the fire when he encountered the chaos.</p><p>He joined the fray, doing all he could to help Speziale and other officers.</p><p>&#8220;If it wasn&#8217;t for Jeff Cusat, I could&#8217;ve really got hurt,&#8221; the chief said.</p><p>Holding onto his gun and fighting for his life, Speziale yelled to Cusat: &#8220;Get on my radio and just call for help.&#8221;</p><p>As Cusat did so, someone lobbed a blockbuster firework underneath the chief&#8217;s car door. The blast charred the vehicle.</p><p>&#8220;It went off underneath the car,&#8221; said Speziale. &#8220;Had that gone into the door where (Cusat) was, he would be embedded with glass.&#8221;</p><p>Surrounding departments, including state troopers, began to arrive and helped get the situation under control.</p><p>Police, though, weren&#8217;t able to arrest many that night because of the sheer number of people involved.</p><p>&#8220;We couldn&#8217;t get them. It was impossible,&#8221; Speziale said. &#8220;We ended up going back the next night and we took them on again.&#8221;</p><p>Cusat had to go to the hospital for X-rays, but they found nothing was broken. However, he did suffer tendon damage in his wrist and a bloody nose.</p><p>It wasn&#8217;t the only time this summer that he ran into a problem on Alter Street.</p><p>The mayor, who has lived on Alter for years and whose family runs a popular bar/restaurant there, sometimes takes a 15-minute walk to City Hall to start his day.</p><p>On one of those walks, someone threw a water bottle at him.</p><p><strong>&#8216;Not going to stop&#8217;</strong></p><p>Speziale says Alter has been a concern since he took the chief&#8217;s job at the start of 2016.</p><p>Just months prior, a man was murdered in a nearby alleyway due to a dispute over a drug deal.</p><p>Rafael Mora-Polanco was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for shooting Jorge Marrero in what authorities called an execution-style slaying.</p><p>Such incidents have contributed to the street&#8217;s notorious reputation, specifically a five-block area from Diamond Avenue to Fifth Street.</p><p>After the incident over the Fourth of July holiday, the chief says Alter has earned a renewed focus that includes flooding the area during saturation patrols, undercover operations, and bringing in an expert who is teaching new strategies for police work in &#8220;hot spots.&#8221;</p><p>During one recent sting, police nabbed a wanted fugitive from the Philadelphia area and made arrests for crystal meth and heroin. One suspect allegedly had heroin hidden in the lining of his sneakers.</p><p>&#8220;We just keep hitting and hitting and hitting,&#8221; said Speziale. &#8220;It&#8217;s not going to stop &#8230; until they realize they got to go. We&#8217;ve been getting a pretty good handle on it.&#8221;</p><p>In light of the experience with the mob, the department also has acquired large mace canisters with pistol grips. They give police the ability to knock down dozens of people at once if required.</p><p>For now, Speziale and his force are focused on the illegal drug sales and quality-of-life issues, which include large crowds congregating on street corners and dirt-bike racing that interferes with vehicle traffic on the street. In recent weeks, several of the bike racers have been arrested.</p><p>The chief says the problems on Alter are not necessarily related to a gang, though he hears some of the troublemakers are associated with gangs such as the Trinitarios, Bloods or Crips.</p><p>&#8220;If you look at that Alter Street group, I think they&#8217;re nothing more than a community cluster. They&#8217;re a loosely based gang. There&#8217;s a hierarchy. But they&#8217;re community clusters that are criminal based,&#8221; Speziale says.</p><p>Through his data-driven approach to police work, he&#8217;s discovered most of the problems on Alter and throughout the city are stemming from a select few.</p><p>&#8220;Five to 10 are the real violent pull-the-trigger, &#8216;I&#8217;m going to shoot you&#8217; guy,&#8221; the chief says. &#8220;And we&#8217;re all going after them.&#8221;</p><p>That means no breaks.</p><p>If they are parked illegally, their car gets towed.</p><p>If they are loitering on Alter Street, police can clear the street and issue citations for blocking a public passageway.</p><p>It&#8217;s all part of what the chief calls a focused deterrent to push out the worst of the criminal element.</p><p><strong>Intervention strategies</strong></p><p>Via a grant, Hazleton is bringing in an expert to train officers further on these tactics.</p><p>Dr. Richard Reyes is a retired New Jersey police detective who now works with a company called Police Science Innovation and is a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City.</p><p>Like Speziale, Reyes preaches &#8220;hot spot&#8221; policing.</p><p>Of Hazleton&#8217;s hundreds of streets and alleys, fewer than 10 &#8220;are where 50 percent of the calls for service are occurring,&#8221; he said.</p><p>That could be due to a bar that&#8217;s become a hangout for undesirable individuals, such as what police believe was happening on Alter Street.</p><p>That bar has since been closed for code violations, according to Mayor Cusat.</p><p>Reyes also teaches group violence intervention, which involves much more than making arrests and sending people to jail.</p><p>&#8220;What research has shown over many years is that most violent crime involves less than half of a percent (of people),&#8221; said Reyes.</p><p>The intervention strategy calls for a three-pronged approach.</p><p>First, law enforcement works to identify the main criminal element and to make them aware that authorities know who they are and are watching closely. This could even involve going to those people&#8217;s homes, says Reyes.</p><p>The whole idea is to eliminate anonymity.</p><p>&#8220;Anonymity tends to be one of the factors that allows people to commit crimes,&#8221; he says.</p><p>He compares it to a crowd of protesters, some wearing masks and others in plain sight. Reyes points out the protesters with the masks are much more likely to be the ones who throw rocks or cause other trouble because they cannot be easily identified.</p><p>Second, instead of just simply locking people up, police can offer help through partnerships with social service agencies.</p><p>&#8220;Because there are certain people who need help. They want to get out of the lifestyle,&#8221; says Reyes. That could involve drug treatment or even employment services.</p><p>Lastly, Reyes says police need to reach out to community leaders and faith-based groups &#8220;so the community sees what the city and police are doing is a positive, not a negative way of enforcing the law.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a very positive city strategy,&#8221; he says. &#8220;It&#8217;s not just the police department doing this. It&#8217;s every aspect of city government and the community has to be involved as well.&#8221;</p><p>Reyes used to work in Paterson, N.J., a city of about 150,000. Reports show there were 23 murders there last year, but Reyes notes that total is only 10 so far this year. He credits the intervention strategy with helping contribute to that decline.</p><p>Boston has been using the approach as well, he says, along with segments of NYPD.</p><p>And he believes it will make a difference in Hazleton.</p><p>&#8220;This is all evidence-based policing,&#8221; says Reyes. &#8220;There&#8217;s a lot of research on it. It&#8217;s been tried and proven effective.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_TTL11XX18police1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Hazleton Police Chief Jerry Speziale and Hazleton officers approach Alter Street from a side street during a recent sweep of the area. Police have launched a crackdown on Alter due to its reputation for drugs and other trouble. In 2015, a man was killed in a nearby alley after an argument over drugs started on Alter. In July, the chief and Mayor Jeff Cusat were confronted by an angry mob on the street. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_TTL11XX18police1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Hazleton Police Chief Jerry Speziale and Hazleton officers approach Alter Street from a side street during a recent sweep of the area. Police have launched a crackdown on Alter due to its reputation for drugs and other trouble. In 2015, a man was killed in a nearby alley after an argument over drugs started on Alter. In July, the chief and Mayor Jeff Cusat were confronted by an angry mob on the street. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_TTL11XX18police7.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Hazleton Police Chief Jerry Speziale and Cpl. Keith McAlarney investigate a pickup truck parked behind an Alter Street business. A man regularly sleeps in the truck. Speziale and Hazleton Mayor Jeff Cusat are focused on cleaning up a troubled stretch of Alter and improving the quality of life there. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_TTL11XX18police7.jpg</photo1><caption1>Hazleton Police Chief Jerry Speziale and Cpl. Keith McAlarney investigate a pickup truck parked behind an Alter Street business. A man regularly sleeps in the truck. Speziale and Hazleton Mayor Jeff Cusat are focused on cleaning up a troubled stretch of Alter and improving the quality of life there. </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_TTL11XX18police11.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">A Hazleton Police SUV is shown at an intersection of Alter Street while officers swept the area synonymous with drugs and other crime. Police Chief Jerry Speziale and Mayor Jeff Cusat are determined to make a difference in the area through aggresive patrols, undercover stings and other policing strategies. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_TTL11XX18police11.jpg</photo2><caption2>A Hazleton Police SUV is shown at an intersection of Alter Street while officers swept the area synonymous with drugs and other crime. Police Chief Jerry Speziale and Mayor Jeff Cusat are determined to make a difference in the area through aggresive patrols, undercover stings and other policing strategies. </caption2><photoCredit2></photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_TTL11XX18police10.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Hazleton Police officers walk right down the center of Alter Street during a recent sweep of the area. The city&#8217;s police force is cracking down on a notorious section of Alter between Diamond Avenue and Fifth Street, where the police chief and mayor were confronted by an &#8216;out-of-control&#8217; mob in July. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/web1_TTL11XX18police10.jpg</photo3><caption3>Hazleton Police officers walk right down the center of Alter Street during a recent sweep of the area. The city&#8217;s police force is cracking down on a notorious section of Alter between Diamond Avenue and Fifth Street, where the police chief and mayor were confronted by an &#8216;out-of-control&#8217; mob in July. </caption3><photoCredit3></photoCredit3></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Chief, mayor attacked on troubled stretch that&#8217;s become focus</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Michael Reich</p><p>mreich@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>Taking back the streets</strong></p><p><strong>&#8226; Sunday: </strong>TL journalists ride with Hazleton officers during an aggressive patrol operation. Find the stories at timesleader.com.</p><p>&#8226; <strong>Today</strong>: The police chief and mayor found themselves in a fight for their lives on a troubled street this summer. Now, they are focused on cleaning up problems there through a variety of strategies.</p></factboxMeta></div>

Battle for Alter Street: Hazleton Police focused on troubled stretch where chief, mayor attacked