Paul Bass Photo
Capts. Bryan Kearney & Joann Peterson.
New Haven’s new police chief placed two captains in charge of revitalizing community policing as part of a command shake-up, and, he said, a new direction.
Chief Frank Limon, who took over the department in March, announced the sweeping top-level shuffle at a press conference Monday morning outside the Newhallville police substation on Winchester Avenue. The changes take effect Aug. 1.
Limon said the changes reflect the mission he agreed to take on in the job: Reviving New Haven’s community policing program, targeting gangs, upgrading technology in order to “work smarter,” and improving internal department management.
Receiving top mention Monday morning was Limon’s appointment of Capt. Bryan Kearney to join Joann Peterson as head of the patrol division. Each will oversee five of the city’s 10 policing districts.
“We want to bring back community policing to the neighborhoods,” Limon (pictured) said, and “close the gap between the community and the police.”
When New Haven introduced community policing in 1990, it emphasized neighborhood-assigned walking beats to help build trust between cops and citizens in order to prevent smaller problems from turning into larger crimes, rather than chasing crimes after they happen. In 2009 Mayor John DeStefano called walking beats “passive,” outdated and sometimes not the best use of resources.
At a press event a month into the job, Limon heard a passionate plea for a return to walking beats and street visibility from two community leaders, Newhallville Alderwoman Alfreda Edwards and retired Dixwell educator Jeffie Frazier.
Monday morning Limon embraced that call.
“I’m sending a message,” he said. “We want our officers out walking.” He said he has instructed officers to start parking their cars more often and walking the street.
Limon did some walking himself this weekend, he said. He visited an 11-year-old boy who was hit by a stray bullet outside a Newhallville market last month. Limon said he took the boy and his mother out to Wendy’s in Hamden for an ice cream float. That shooting has been unresolved; at the time Limon, frustrated by the lack of information, urged community members to “to break their code of silence.”
He said he’s hoping a revival of community policing will encourage people to give the cops information in future cases.
Beach Boys To Elm City Crew?
Meanwhile, Limon made a move geared toward helping local cops advance to top positions in the department. He appointed Lt. Petisia Adger to head a new Management Development and Accountability Section.
Besides “ensuring policy compliance, inspections and audition of existing and future programs,” Adger will be charged with boosting managerial training. Twice in the past two years, New Haven has hired not just a new police chief from out of town, but two out-of-town assistant chiefs, rather than promoting from within. Former Chief James Lewis brought along two colleagues from California (dubbed “The Beach Boys” within the department”); then Limon hired two colleagues from Chicago (no word yet on a nickname).
Limon said he hopes Adger, an FBI Academy grad now attending Harvard’s Senior Management Institute, will help develop supervisors’ skills “so one day they might pick [somebody] within the department” for the chief’s position.
Other moves announced Monday:
• All cops can expect to have voicemail soon as Lt. Robert Muller takes over the Information Management Division, working under IT-focused Assistant Chief Tobin Hensgen. Muller has already been working on upgrading mobile computers for motorcycle cops. (Read about that here.) The department’s mainframe computer system is being overhauled to provide more “real time crime data and analysis” to officers, according to Hensgen. And all dispatchers will soon be civilians instead of sworn officers.
• Lt. John Velleca is moving from the narcotics unit to heading the Major Crimes division. He replaces Lt. Lisa Dadio, who will now assist Chief Limon in department planning.