Cop Conundrum: Hire Jamarr Daniels?

Jamarr Daniels teared up as he told how his father died running the streets when Jamarr was 12. His five older brothers all followed their dad into the streets. Jamarr determined one day to become a cop.

Thwarted in that quest, he made a last-ditch appeal to commissioners who would decide his fate.

Daniels was one of eight candidates for the cop academy who had their cases come up one last time for reconsideration Tuesday night before the Board of Police Commissioners. They had passed written and oral and agility tests to qualify as potential cops. But then Police Chief Anthony Campbell recommended to the board that they be eliminated from the list of potential recruits because of information that emerged during background checks about, among other issues, drug and criminal histories.

The commissioners sustained seven of Campell’s eight recommendations for removal from the list after hearing from some of the candidates.

The commissioners also heard from Daniels. He had a story to tell. The commissioners were all ears.

Before deciding whether to follow Campbell’s recommendation, or whether to allow Daniels to continue through the application process, the commissioners wrestled with tough questions about how to weigh the pros and cons of applciations from New Haveners in the quest to build a more local and diverse police force.

After hearing his story, two commissioners voted to remove his name from the list. Two voted to let him remain on the list. Since a majority voted is required to remove a candidate from the list, Daniels skated by. For now.

Daniels is 25 years old. Like other candidates recommended for elimination Tuesday night, Daniels had a choice of making his case to the commissioners either in private or out in public. He chose to speak in public.

He spoke of how, as a teen, he was one of earliest participants in the Police ​“Explorers” program for aspiring cops. He attended Police Athletic League camp; he later served as a counselor. (Click here to read a story about that and his police dreams at the time. And here about his participation in a 2017 cop-recruitment effort.) Daniels is now a young father struggling for custody of his 4‑year-old son and how to manage anger, he said.

Daniels also recalled working as an intern helping the police department upgrade its databases,with an eye on becoming an officer himself. He graduated from Wilbur Cross High School

“I want to be an example for my son,” Daniels concluded.

“We appreciate all you’ve done,” responded time-pressed Commissioner Stephen Garcia. (He had five other stories to listen to.) ​“But what did you take issue with in the file?”

Daniels quickly listed some of the issues that were flagged in his file: A fight with his mom’s husband when he was 16; a 2011 fight with his girlfriend; a shoplifting incident at Walmart in 2014; and this year a custody dispute with his wife in which he was arrested on Father’s Day.

“What is your relationship with the child’s mother?” asked Commissioner Greg Smith.

“It’s OK.”

“So if you became a police officer, how would you handle it?” asked Commission Chair Anthony Dawson.

“We’re striving to be cordial,” said Daniels, ​“for our son’s sake.”

“And if you couldn’t be cordial?” Smith followed up.

Daniels said his ex-wife’s mother is a counselor. At present she is the referee and go-between in the clearly fraught situation. He and his wife have not yet gone to more formal, objective counseling.

“How will you deal with conflict?” Smith pressed.

“I become hot-headed only [about] my son. I’m not an angry person,” Daniels replied in a soft and measured voice.

The last issue brought up was Daniels application for a pistol permit. He was disqualified when he applied to get one in New Haven based on psychological criteria, he said. Then he went to Hamden and received a permit there.

“Were you living in Hamden?” asked Smith.

Daniels: ​“No.”

“Isn’t that required for a permit?”

“Yes,” said Daniels,

The commissioners thanked Daniels. Then he vacated his seat for the others to follow.

Later, in an interview in the hallway outside of the commissioners’ board room where deliberations were taking place, Daniels said that this is the fourth time he has applied to become a New Haven police officer.

Nearby, also awaiting the outcome of the vote, was retired New Haven police Captain Odell Cohens, a 34-year veteran of the force (1963 – 1997). Cohens came to support Daniels.

“I’ve known him since he was a kid and was enamored of the police uniform,” he said. ​“He scored high on the test. He has no [criminal] convictions. Every officer on this force, everyone has problems.”

Cohens, who during his long career was involved in vetting potential officers, expressed skepticism about current methods for screening candidates, including the background checks and psychological tests, which he said tend unfairly to knock especially African-Americans out of the process.

“We did polygraphs, but not psychological tests. We did background checks, but not credit checks. We hired you for your character. I don’t like the psychological evaluation. They are systematically eliminating blacks from this job,” he concluded.

When told of Cohens’s criticism, Chief Campbell noted that state law now requires psychological testing.

After working with a consultant, the department is on the verge of hiring a new company, which will be announced in the coming days, he said.

Daniels and the current crop of candidates on the list will have to undergo that psychological test before being asked to join an academy class.

Campbell was at pains to point out his efforts to ensure fairness in the hiring process. ​“We’ve been addressing Cohens’s point for a long time,” he said.

He called attention to a system of checks and balances in the process. During background checks, for example, each candidate is now asked the same questions. The sessions are taped and recorded. This had never before been the case.

Campbell also said that the background check officer’s work is reviewed by a supervisor. Then he looks at each case with an eye to consistency and checks and balances. And now candidates can review their files in advance of making pitches like Tuesday night’s. ​“In the past there was none of this,” Campbell said.

“We recruit from the human race,” Commission Chair Dawson noted, ​“so you know emotions are there.

“However, we’ve been asked by the citizens of New Haven to find the best candidates.”