Thomas Breen photo
Acting Chief Renee Dominguez at Friday's presser.
The Elicker administration’s quest to install Renee Dominguez as the next permanent chief of police ended Friday, as Dominguez removed her name from consideration and the mayor moved toward a national search for the position instead.
Dominguez personally delivered the news to “A Squad” cops Friday at morning lineup.
Dominguez, who is in her 20th year on the force, announced she will retire from the force but has agreed to remain in charge of the department until the city finds a new police chief through a national search.
Questions now will focus on the city charter. The charter allows a mayor to designate a person to “act” as police chief for no more than six months “without being submitted for confirmation by the” Board of Alders. Mayor Justin Elicker appointed Dominguez as “interim chief” to run the department beginning last March when then-Chief Otoniel Reyes retired but hadn’t yet left the building as he collected accumulated unpaid time off. Dominguez became “acting chief” in June, and the clock started ticking. That six-month period would end at the end of December.
Mayor Elicker asked the alders to confirm Dominguez as permanent chief for the final two months of the term that ends Jan. 31, 2022. He had planned to submit her name again for confirmation for a full four-year term beginning in February.
However, Dominguez lost the first vote Monday to finish out the term.
"I've Had A Blessed Career"
“I’m disappointed that I do not get to lead this department as the permanent chief as I have in an acting capacity for the past nine months,” Dominguez said at a press conference held Friday afternoon at police headquarters.
“I am thankful for the almost 20 years that I’ve had here. I’ve had a blessed career. And I have fantastic men and women who are going to continue to work just as hard because that’s what we do. Because we are the finest police department in the country.” (Watch the press conference here.)
Dominguez would have been the first woman to serve as permanent chief of a major Connecticut city. She was asked if her rejection by the alders this week is “an affront to women.”
“I see it as a setback,” she responded.
“I don’t want to say I was not selected because I’m a woman. That is not the case. To be able to be the first female police chief would have been amazing. It would have been historic. ..
“There will be a woman police chief in a big city in the state of Connecticut.”
“I’m not in it for the politics,” she said as part of the explanation for why the alders rejected her nomination.
She said she will “stay in law enforcement” and is open to working for another department after her mission in New Haven ends.
The Issues Behind The Rejection
Thomas Breen Photo
Acting Chief Renee Dominguez watches the Board of Alders vote down her permanent appointment Monday night.
The vote against Acting Chief Dominguez followed weeks of intense lobbying by both supporters of Dominguez, including the mayor, who said she earned the right to the job through her performance this year as acting chief; and opponents, who decried fraying community-police ties. The vote marked the culmination of months’ worth of public debate about the direction of the police department, the disappearance of nonwhite cops from the top ranks for the first time since 1993, Dominguez’s embrace of controversial “Thin Blue Line” imagery, and the department’s failure to solve over two-thirds of the city’s homicides. That debate intensified after Mayor Elicker officially tapped Dominguez for the top role in early November.
In his email statement sent out Monday night after the vote, Elicker dismissed the opposition as a slap to“the women and men of the department that strap on a vest each night and head out to patrol our streets.”
Elicker offered an interpretation of the charter that would allow her to remain as chief through January as long as he resubmitted Dominguez’s name to the alders for a second vote to reconsider her as permanent chief. The first meeting with alder leadership was scheduled for Wednesday night.
But the next morning Dominguez canceled a scheduled press conference (on gun buybacks) for “unforeseen circumstances,” according to a release.
And on Friday morning, in response to a request for comment from the Independent, Elicker sent over the following statement. In it, he offers an interpretation of the charter that would allow Dominguez to continue leading the department even after she hits the six-month-cap for an acting chief.
Elicker’s statement reads:
“(1) The charter states that “no person may hold such a position for more than six months without being submitted for confirmation by the board.” Chief Dominguez’s name has been submitted. The charter separately references a director should remain in the position until a replacement is made. We have a solid plan of action for filling the position of chief and the City deserves stability while we do so. (2) I have not changed my mind about the wisdom of a search. We had a highly qualified candidate that had been tested as chief for five months before our eyes. If we had not had that person, I would have done a search. I hope we are able to find a person for the position with as solid credentials as Chief Dominguez. (3) We have been leaders on policing, both historically and in recent years — because we prioritize public safety over policing. Our Police Department has worked closely with all departments and partner organizations to implement innovative strategies to address gun violence and other public safety challenges in our community. I’m very proud of the work that we all have done together and that Chief Dominguez has been a major part of those efforts. It’s unfortunate when the politics disrupts the good work being done by city workers.
Public figures, including two of Elicker’s own appointments to the Board of Police Commissioners, had originally urged him to conduct a national search instead of hiring Dominguez. Click here to read a story about Commissioner Tracey Meares and Alder-Elect Shafiq Abdussabur, a retired police sergeant, making that case.
On Friday afternoon, the Board of Alders leadership sent out an email statement saying, “We look forward to engaging with the community in the process to ensure the new Chief of Police shares our core values toward diversity, community policing, law enforcement and violence reduction.”
Tom Breen contributed reporting.