Hearing Q: Who Should Monitor Cops?

One man spent three decades working as a police officer. Another man was shot in the chest by a police officer.

At a passionate public hearing Monday night, activists declared the latter fit for service, and the former not, to investigate alleged police misconduct as members of the city’s new Civilian Review Board (CRB).

Former West Haven Police Captain Robert Proto and police accountability activist Jewu Richardson were two of 10 CRB candidates interviewed by the Aldermanic Affairs Committee during the five-hour-plus hearing in the Aldermanic Chambers on the second floor of City Hall. One of the mayor’s CRB nominees, Ryan Knox, did not attend Monday night’s meeting.

In their testimonies to the alders on why they want to serve on the new version of the police conduct review board, what kinds of interactions they’ve had with the police, and how they think community policing should work in 2019, Proto and Richardson revealed a deep divide between officer and activist understandings of how to assess and improve upon city law enforcement.

The former, Proto, who retired just a year ago from his job as the head of West Haven PD’s internal affairs division, advocated for better training, open lines of communication between officers and parents and clergy and community leaders, and ​“deescalation, deescalation, deescalation.”

“It’s the one percent of police that make all police look bad,” Proto said. He described the rest as well-intentioned public servants in stressful and demanding jobs who need proper training in order to best protect the public.

The latter candidate, Richardson, along with the dozen police accountability activists who testified in support of him and against Proto, reinforced the importance of having city police officers and CRB members look like and come from the majority low-income, black and brown communities they serve.

Richardson described in vivid detail not just the physical trauma of being shot in the chest nine years ago, but also the psychological devastation of being shaken down, harassed, and manipulated by police officers for most of his life.

“I’m just a black guy from the Hill, from Congress Ave,” he said in describing the helplessness he has felt during most of his interactions with the police. ​“Who’s gonna listen to me?” His serving on the CRB would represent one big step, he and his supporters said, towards letting people from similar backgrounds know that they too have a voice in how law enforcement works in New Haven.

All 11 of the mayor’s nominees are still technically in the running to serve on the review board because the committee passed on voting on the candidates on Monday night. Instead, the committee discharged the nominees’ names to the full Board of Alders so that the legislative body can vote to approve or deny the candidates at its Aug. 5 meeting.

That’s the last chance the alders have to vote up or down on the nominations within the 60-day time frame between when the mayor first submitted the candidates’ names and when the alders have to hold a vote.

If the committee had voted to recommend approval or denial of the candidates, then the full board would have been procedurally required to wait two more meetings before taking a vote, thereby passing the 60-day threshold and letting the nominations go into effect by default.

Deescalation Report ​“Enlightening”

The most controversial nominee interviewed Monday night, and the one whom a group called CRB Advocates pressed the alders to reject during a half-hour presser before the committee hearing even began, was Proto.

As he answered the dozen rote questions that the committee alders asked to every nominee they spoke with, Proto ascribed his interest in being on the CRB to a revelation he had late in his law enforcement career that defusing tensions and avoiding the use of force is the often the best way for officers to respond when on high-intensity calls.

He credited that revelation to a 130-plus page Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) 2016 use of force report, which the West Haven police chief assigned him to read in his role as the head of internal affairs and training.

“It was eye opening,” Proto said about the report. ​“It was enlightening.” He said its focus on not rushing to end a potentially violent situation as quickly as possible made him feel as if ​“we had been failing for a lot of years. The principles of deescalation that were put forth in this report were astonishing to me.” He said he quickly developed a deescalation training program for the West Haven force and had every officer in the department go through it.

As an officer himself, he said, he would release his frustration with having to go to late night or difficult calls by reminding himself that the person calling for police help may be in the most difficult moment of their lives, and their entire impression of the police may be determined by this one interaction.

What does community policing mean? Fair Haven Alder Kenneth Reveiz asked. And how should it work in 2019?

“It is community input,” Proto said. ​“It’s small things, like providing the beat officer with a cell phone, and the beat officer providing that to people on his beat so they can call him directly.”

Quinnipiac Meadows Alder Gerald Antunes, a retired New Haven police captain, asked Proto when police should be allowed to use force. You should be able to ​“knock this one out of the park,” Antunes said as he teed up the question.

“I’m a believer in time and distance,” Proto said. Force should be used only when absolutely necessary to protect the lives of the public, the person interacting with the officers, or the officers themselves. ​“I don’t care if it takes you an hour to talk somebody down. I’d rather you use an hour than use force.”

“Not OK For Taxpaying Residents To Hear That”

After Proto’s testimony, which was only the second of the night, the committee opened the floor for public comment before resuming with the interviews of the next eight nominees.

For the following hour-and-a-half, over a dozen police accountability activists took the mic to lambast Proto and the process that earned him the nomination at all.

Kerry Ellington, one of the leader organizers of CRB Advocates and People against Police Brutality, shook in her seat as she expressed just how upset she was that Antunes had offered the chummy ​“knock this one out of the park” comment to a fellow retired police officer vying to review potential allegations of police abuse of force.

“It’s not OK for taxpaying residents to hear that,” she said. ​“It doesn’t show that there’s neutrality in this effort.”

Proto left out of his testimony that he was a co-defendant along with retired New Haven detective Billy White in an alleged civil rights violation case ultimately settled by the city, Ellington said. White separately was the target of a federal corruption investigation and served time in prison as a result.

How can someone so connected to police communities be expected to provide adequate civilian oversight? Ellington asked.

Sade Billing criticized Proto’s praise for community policing in action in New Haven as being when downtown officers hand out free books to homeless people.

“We can got to the library and get free books,” said Sade, who herself is homeless. ​“We need food and clothing. I don’t need your books.”

“The way you get close with your community,” she continued, ​“is through speaking with us through an open mind and open eyes and open ears and not calling us all criminals and drug addicts.”

East Rock resident Chris Garaffa laid into Proto for answering a question about the importance of strict confidentiality for matters brought before the CRB by saying that he was involved in undercover wiretapping operations in New Haven for 11 years.

How can participating in a program sullied by a long history of civil rights violations qualify as an adequate appreciation for confidentiality? Garaffa asked.

Many more protesters, both during the hearing and at a press conference outside the mayor’s office before the hearing, criticized the mayor for not laying out clear criteria before making her nominations about who she would select and why based on the CRB candidate recommendations made by the city’s different community management teams.

“This is supposed to be a collaborative process,” Ellington said in her calls on the alders to delay any nominee confirmations until activists have an opportunity to sit down and talk with the mayor about CRB member qualifications.

“Without transparency, consistency, or points for public input,” turned-down CRB applicant Elizabeth Larkin said during the presser, ​“this is where bias enters. This is where institutional power is consolidated and trust between government and governed is loss.”

“No Choice But To Do This”

Richardson’s testimony elicited the exact opposite reactions from the CRB Advocates, and painted a very different picture of what community policing and law enforcement oversight should look like.

Born and raised in the Hill, Richardson said, he and many people he grew up with have faced unfair treatment from the police department for much of their lives.

“I feel that those voices have been silenced for a long time,” he said. ​“I feel that me coming to the table would contribute to these voices being heard.”

Have you ever been the victim of poor treatment by the police? Antunes asked.

Yes, Richardson said. In 1999, he was arrested and harassed by former Officer White and the infamous ​“Beat Down Posse.” Then in 2008, he said, officers planted drugs on him when he refused to act as an undercover informant. And in 2010, after allegedly driving a car at an officer, he was shot point blank in the chest, just two inches from his heart.

“So I have experience with it,” he said.

Have you ever been arrested? Yale Alder Hacibey Catalbasoglu asked.

“Yes I have,” Richardson replied. ​“Being arrested for those crimes have humbled me. I got arrested, did my time, and through that experience I’ve learned that sometimes everything’s not always what it seems. Sometimes people go to jail, sometimes they learn from those experiences, sometimes they don’t. I’m fortunate. I’ve learned from those experiences. I’m here, and I’m contributing to my community in a positive way.”

Have you ever filed a complaint with internal affairs against a police officer? Alder Marks asked.

Several times, Richardson said, but that never resulted in any discipline for any officers involved.

“One of the things I have experienced was having a hopeless feeling,” he said, ​“that nobody was listening to me. I kept fighting. I kept going, and I found other people who support me. I met people who stood by my side and supported me through what I went through. And I feel I have an obligation to speak for the people and inspire other people that are going through that stuff too.”

What could and should police be doing better? Edgewood Alder Evette Hamilton asked.

“The police should definitely have people from the community on the force,” Richardson said. People from the Hill, people from Newhallville, people from black and brown communities that have felt heavy police presence all their lives and know firsthand the many complex factors that contribute to someone committing a crime in the first place.

Do you think you’ll have enough time to dedicate to the CRB if your candidacy is approved? Rodriguez asked.

“I have no choice but to do this,” Richardson said. ​“I’ll probably be doing this for the rest of my life.”

When time came for public testimony on Richardson’s nomination, nearly everyone who spoke out against Proto took the mic to praise Richardson. (Click here to read about a dramatic court case involving Richardson that was decided based on police misconduct.)

“Jewu Richardson is one of the most compassionate and resilient individuals I know,” Ellington said. ​“He is a strong and invested leader in the New Haven community.”

“If we could have 15 Jewus on the board,” Garaffa said, ​“it would be a perfect board.”

Emma Jones, the mother of Malik Jones, whose violent death at the hands of East Haven police officers in 1997 prompted the movement for New Haven to form a CRB with subpoena power that culminated this January, said that Richardson has dutifully studied at her side for the two decades she has traveled the country and the city learning about and advocating for police accountability.

Richardson, though not perfect, is trying to live a good life, she said. He shows respect and consideration for others. He is a survivor of police violence. He is from and of the community he serves. ​“He is the epitome of the kind of human being that we need to start out sitting on this review board.”

And Jones said that, as for the process, Mayor Toni Harp’s administration has been more open and considerate to her calls for a CRB than the previous mayor ever was.

“If we don’t take that into consideration,” she said, ​“we make a horrible mistake with the history.”

In a speech that left all in the room silent in awe before standing to their feet to applaud, Jones crystallized what she and her allies have been fighting for for 22 years ever since her son was killed.

“How do we build a structure that offers the opportunities for there to be compassion and humanity and some spirituality, and some morality,” she said. ​“That’s what we’re talking about here.”

The eight other nominees interviewed for spots on the CRB on Monday night included Fair Haven landlord Jayuan Carter, Wooster Square-based documentary filmmaker and freelance journalist Steve Hamm, Newhallville Community Management Team Secretary and accountant Nina Faucett, Yale engineer and union shop steward Donald Spencer, Connecticut College Associate Professor of Art Chris Barnard, West Rock labor organizer and Democratic Party committee co-chair Iva Johnson, Yale neuroscience PhD student Richard Crouse, and Gateway Community College early childhood education student Jean Jenkins.

Click on the video below to watch the pre-hearing press conference.