Crime & Safety

Trends at St. Vincent's Hospital Concern Police

Police say they have noticed an increase in unruly patients, assaults and other crimes at the hospital and treatment facility on North Street.

Harrison Police are currently working with officials from St. Vincent's Hospital to reverse an up-tick in criminal activity and violent behavior that police say has become more apparent over the last year.

Crime on the campus and in the St. Vincent's has been on the rise, police say, and now frequent trips to the hospital are becoming a drain on town resources. Police Chief Anthony Marraccini said the town has been sending police, fire or EMS resources to the hospital on an almost daily basis. A problem he says did not exist years ago.

"It seems like we are called more often than we have been in the past," said Marraccini, who said he met with hospital leadership Tuesday morning.

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The police chief said the trend began to escalate about a year ago, when after it had filed for bankruptcy. At the time, St. Joseph administrators to the hospital moving forward. But police say they have noticed a change in the campus' atmosphere over that time.

"We are concerned about the potential that the patient clientele has changed," said Marraccini. "My belief is they are probably transporting more people from their Yonkers or their city facilities to our Harrison facility." 

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St. Vincent's provides inpatient and outpatient mental health and chemical dependency tests for children and adults. Police have been responding more frequently to assaults and other violent crimes in recent years, possibly because of an increasingly "violent and disturbing" clientele, Marraccini said.

A  on the hospital's campus Saturday has also raised new concerns. The hospital is currently investigating the incident and must report to the state Office of Mental Health. The Journal News is reporting that former hospital employees had voiced past complaints about low staffing levels on weekends, along with other internal issues.

Calls to St. Vincent's seeking comment were not immediately returned Tuesday evening. Marraccini said hospital leadership has been cooperative and has been meeting with police to discuss the issue. He also said that the security staff on the campus has been very helpful during any on-campus incidents.

"They are committed to trying to remediate some of these issues at hand," Marraccini said, citing talks that involve moving the North Street bus stop to a different location, staggered release times from hospital programs and new landscaping that would further buffer the hospital from nearby homes.

But any in criminal activity is a major concern for Harrison residents in the area. The hospital is located near several residential homes and neighborhoods along North Street in Harrison, something Marraccini calls "problematic". 

Although St. Vincent's has been in Harrison for more than 120 years, Marraccini said the hospital is trending from the "premier" facility it once was and that the clients in the facility are now more violent than they were years ago. 

"Whether the treatments are different, whether the clientele is different—something is different," Marraccini said. "It's my belief that the population is different than it was years ago, which has caused these issues."


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