Paul Bass Photo
Clara Hill at City Hall after her swearing in: Ready to “be the change.”
The path to a swearing-in Tuesday for one of New Haven’s 20 new cops-in-training began during national protests over race and policing.
Clara Hill remembered watching those protests four years ago — and resolving to become a cop.
Dominguez addresses cadets (with the portrait of ex-Mayor Frank Logue, who went to war with his first police chief in 1977, looking on).
“I wanted to be the kind of change I wanted to see. I wanted to see cops in the community who are kind and fair and just,” Hill, 31, said after she and 19 fellow members of police academy Class XXV took an oath in unison on City Hall’s second floor Tuesday afternoon to become New Haven police officers. They begin training at the academy on Wednesday, then, if they make it through, become patrol officers next summer.
“You are my first class,” Acting Chief Renee Dominguez told the recruits and their families before Mayor Justin Elicker administered their oath. “This is the best job there is.”
Elicker also addressed the group, stressing the importance of “compassionate” community-focused policing.
The ghosts (or portraits) of former Mayors John Daniels and John DeStefano gaze down on recruits as they take the oath at City Hall.
Jaymie Morales: On a unifying mission.
Recruits like Hill and Jaymie Morales echoed that idealism when asked why they decided to pursue the badge.
Morales said he made the decision when he watched news coverage of the Sandy Hook massacre.
“I wanted to be part of the force to make the world a better place,” said Morales, who’s 28.
He said he also aims to be part of a solution to “the current animosity” dividing different groups in society.
“I don’t think we should be bickering. We are all one,” Morales said. “We need to work together.”
The class reflects the department’s efforts to increase diversity in the ranks. Of the 20 cadets sworn in Tuesday, 12, or 65 percent are nonwhite, according to Dominguez. The group includes two Black females, three Black males, five Hispanic males, one Hispanic female, and one Asian-American male. Three of the 20 live in New Haven.
The city recently swore in a separate group of eight officers (including these five) being trained offsite. One of those eight is white, the rest Black and Latino, according to Dominguez.
The members of Class XXV include Jake Dobosz, Heriberto Rodriguez, Trevor Brown, Jaymie Morales, Stacey Villone, Stephen Blake, Jacob D’Ascanio, Isiah Whiting, David Colan, Daniels McLawrence, Jamie Lytle, Batlazar Rivera, Hector Rosado, Alan Nevells Jr, Jurge Reci, Christopher Nguyen, Maxine Wright, Michael Limauro, Kyle Cogliati, and Clara Hill. Three live in New Haven.