(Updated 12:09 p.m.) New Haven said: Please stay. Then Police Chief James Lewis checked his email.
He received a message from his 30-year-old daughter Melissa in Wisconsin.
“There was a great story in the Independent, with a lot of blogging [about Lewis’s plans to leave the city when his current contract expires]. It was very positive. Frankly it made me feel good,” Lewis recalled at a press conference at police headquarters Wednesday morning.
“But I got an email from my daughter. And she said, ‘I just read that story in the paper.’ She said, ‘The wrong people are voting.’
“‘I vote: Time to come home.’”
That sealed the deal. Once New Haven finds a new police chief, Lewis is leaving the city he swooped into in July of 2008.
Lewis announced to his top staff Wednesday morning that he’s leaving at the end of his contract, which expires Jan. 31, but he’s willing to stay on until the city finds a replacement. He repeated that announcement at a press conference at 10 a.m.
Officials then announced the launch of a nationwide search for his replacement. The search should take two to four months, Mayor John DeStefano said. Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts will lead the search in consultation with Police Commission head Rick Epstein.
The city has also asked the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) to help with the search. It helped find Chief Lewis in the previous search.
Asked what the city plans to do if the search takes longer than four months and Lewis departs, DeStefano responded, “I don’t have any reason to believe it will take more than two to four months.” Both he and Lewis spoke of how the department is in stronger shape than when Lewis arrived — and therefore the chief’s job is a more attractive lure to potential candidates. The city had trouble filling the job last time around. Then, it had only an 18-month contract open (the remainder of previous Chief Francisco Ortiz’s term). This time a full four-year contract is available, and a new pact with the police union is in place, along with a strengthened department.
Lewis offered advice Wednesday for his successor: Trust your cops.
“I trusted them 18 months ago,” he said. “I trust them even more today.”
The press conference at police headquarters ended weeks of speculation about whether Lewis would agree to extend his contract a full year, or even longer, as some in town have urged. Read about that here.
Lewis currently makes $150,000 a year. The salary range for the job maxes out at $160,000.
While the city will look nationally for Lewis’s replacement, it will also consider internal candidates.
Assistant Chief Peter Reichard (at right in photo) is considered a serious candidate for the job. Reichard said he is considering applying for the job and is discussing the decision with his family. Another assistant chief, Stephanie Redding (at left), declined comment after the press conference when asked about her intentions.
The two other assistant chiefs — dubbed the “Beach Boys” when they accompanied Lewis to New Haven to help him with his 18-month mission — appear ready to leave with him.
Assistant Chief Roy Brown (pictured at the press conference with mayoral spokeswoman Jessica Mayorga) plans to leave on Jan. 31. Assistant Chief Ken Gillespie said that “at this point in time I don’t have any intention of applying for the job.”
Unlike the other assistants, Gillespie did not attend Wednesday’s press conference. “There’s been no discussion between me and the city regarding my taking over for Chief Lewis. I hadn’t really considered applying,” Gillespie said later. He said he has enjoyed working here.
Lewis’s replacement will be under pressure to build on the accomplishments of a chief who many believe turned around the force. He cut crime and rebuilt public confidence in the police, removing the epithet “scandal-plagued” from the department’s moniker.
The city drafted Lewis to come to New Haven in July of 2008 to spend 18 months overseeing a shake-up of the department — instituting broad new rules, rebuilding the narcotics division, developing new leadership, carrying out a reorganization designed by an outside panel of experts. A 40-year-old “hold-down” system, in which private clubowners hire cops to control extra-duty work assignments, is on its way out. Wayward cops have been disciplined. A traffic enforcement initiative is underway. For the first time in memory New Haven is joining most other cities in reporting crime statistics to the FBI. Lewis himself has been all over town getting to know people and responding to complaints. The department’s handling of the high-pressure Annie Le murder case received particularly high marks. (Click on the play arrow to watch snippets from his announcement about the arrest of a suspect.)
After the press conference, Lewis got a congratulatory send-off from Police Union Lou Cavaliere (pictured). Cavaliere has worked, and butted heads, with nine chiefs. He proclaimed Lewis among the best.
Cavaliere and Lewis were on different sides of some controversial issues, including discipline of officers accused of wrongdoing and the elimination of extra-duty “hold-downs” at nightclubs.
Throughout, Cavaliere said, Lewis was a good person to work with.
“I’m going to miss him,” the union chief said. “He demanded a lot from the members [of the force]. They respected him. I’m sad to see him leave.”