Grassroots Support Propels Chief Nomination

Two mothers of homicide victims praised his compassion.

A former police chief praised his humility.

A community organizer praised his authenticity.

A young police officer praised his mentorship.

A man he had once arrested praised him for always showing up, and for always caring.

Those were just some of the accolades heaped on Assistant Police Chief Karl Jacobson Monday night during his confirmation hearing to become the city’s next permanent police chief. 

The in-person meeting was hosted by the Aldermanic Affairs Committee in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall.

Twenty people in total came forward to speak during the public testimony section of the meeting to throw their support behind the mayor’s appointment of Jacobson, a 15-year veteran of the New Haven Police Department and the only current assistant chief, to become the city’s next top cop.

Since the committee didn’t take a vote on the matter Monday night, Jacobson’s appointment now advances to the full Board of Alders for an expedited final debate and vote at the local legislature’s next meeting on July 5.

Not a single person spoke out against Jacobson’s appointment Monday.

Instead, the police officers and community organizers and youth outreach workers and family members of crime victims and others who testified Monday all lauded Jacobson for his tireless work ethic, his devotion to the police department and the city it serves, his respect for New Haven’s diverse populations, his ability to listen and learn from others, and — above all else — his showing up and caring for those in need.

“Today, for me, I feel is a great day for the city and for the department,” said Newhallville community activist Rodney Williams. 

“His relationships with community people” make Jacobson a uniquely good fit to lead the NHPD, he continued. ​“Right now, with what this city is going through, and what the city needs, I feel like he’s the right chief for right now.”

Fire Chief John Alston agreed. ​“New Haven as a city, we need to heal with our police department,” he said. Jacobson ​“is the man for a time such as this, a person for a time such as this. He’s a phenomenal human being.”

The confirmation hearing took place at a tumultuous time for the police, as New Haveners reckon with the department’s handling of a 36-year-old arrestee named Richard ​“Randy” Cox, leaving him hospitalized and paralyzed. (Click here, here, here and here to read more and watch video footage from that incident.)

Five officers have already been put on administrative leave in that case, which is being investigated by the state police. A nationally prominent civil rights attorney and the NAACP plan on hosting a morning press conference and an evening roundtable discussion on the matter on Tuesday.

The committee alders declined to ask Jacobson any questions about the Cox incident during Monday’s hearing — ​“because it is an ongoing investigation and we are not obligated to speak on those items,” Committee Chair and Fair Haven Heights Alder Rosa Ferraro-Santana explained at the top of the meeting. The police chief-nominee did answer several questions from reporters on the topic after the hearing had concluded. (See more on that below in the story.)

Jacobson also acknowledged that Monday’s confirmation hearing — which saw him speak with the alders at length about his plans for reinvigorating walking beats, diversifying the upper ranks of the department, and building legitimacy and trust between the police and the community — was ​“overshadowed” by everything going on in the wake of Cox’s severe injury while in police custody.

"Karl Jacobson Shows Up. He Cares"

The bulk of Monday’s hearing consisted of the 20 members of the public testifying in support of Jacobson’s nomination to be the city’s next chief.

One of those who spoke up was 24-year-old New Havener Curtis Ratchford, Jr..

Ratchford recalled meeting Jacobson when he was 16 years old and ​“heading out on a path” of trouble. 

He remembered that Jacobson was ​“always trying to help me” — both before and after Jacobson arrested him on a gun charge that sent Ratchford to prison for years. 

“He was so upset that I had let him down,” Ratchford said Monday night. ​“He said, ​‘I had been trying to help you.’ ” He described how extraordinary it felt to have someone he barely knew, and a police officer at that, ​“actually sit with me and express how much they cared for me.”

Then, Ratchford said, ​“I went away for a little bit. I came back home. And this man was at my door.”

Jacobson persisted in checking in on Ratchford as he adjusted to life back from prison. He’d call him when he needed to talk, bring over gift cards when he needed help with money. 

“Jacobson is one person I personally would bet my bottom dollar on to be there for the community,” Ratchford said. ​“He knows how much I appreciate him. Even though I went away, I feel like that moment there did change me. It made me realize life isn’t a joke.

“He kind of saved my life, in a way.”

Those descriptions of persistence, caring, and community engagement emerged again and again.

“He has the human heart to be chief,” said LaQuvia Jones. She said that she met Jacobson ​“at a rough point in my life,” right after her 18-year-old son Dashown Myers was shot and killed in March 2020.

“Even though he was not the chief, he personally came to pay his condolences. He personally came to the services,” she recalled. And he has stayed in touch ever since.

Tracey Suggs said the same. A random bullet killed her 13-year-old son Justus back in 2006. In the wake of that tragedy, she joined a youth support program started by retired former Sgt. Shafiq Abdussabur. 

She soon found that, whenever her group would host a community event or needed a police officer to show up and talk with a young person, Jacobson ​“was always there. He didn’t hesitate to pick up his phone. … It just took one call, and he was there.”

City Youth and Recreation Department Director Gwen Williams and youth engagement specialist Ronnie Huggins agreed.

“Assistant Chief Jacobson’s resolve to find a better way to support our youth is second to none,” she said. ​“His commitment to their wellbeing can never be questioned. He is present and he is available, which is a testament to his character and to his integrity.”

“Karl Jacobson shows up,” added Huggins. ​“He cares. He’s always in the community.”

West River community leader and Urban League of Southern Connecticut staffer Virginia Spell said she appreciates how ​“authentic” Jacobson is. ​“What you see is really what you get. That is how we as a community know that he’s the real deal.”

She said that the ​“diversity of people” who came out to support Jacobson Monday night speaks to how he cares about a ​“diversity of thought, diversity of experience. … He cares about the diversity of the community that he serves.”

City police officers, retired and active, also showed up to testify Monday night.

“He has never given up on anyone in this community,” Officer Tyler Evans said. ​“Chief Jacobson has been a second father to me.”

Lt. Dana Smith, who is the district manager for East Rock and Newhallville and who is the president of a group of Black cops called the New Haven Guardians — lauded Jacobson for his ​“dependability.”

“You can contact Chief Jacobson at any time, day or night, even 3 in the morning, and he will pick up the phone and respond.” He called Jacobson a ​“fair and impartial leader” and one who is truly committed to the tenets of ​“procedural justice” and community ​“legitimacy.” (See more on that below.)

“This is the type of leader that we need in our city right now,” said Sgt. Cherelle Carr. ​“A person that is dedicated and willing to put the work in and the time in.” 

“Karl Jacobson is an extraordinary leader, but more importantly, he’s an extraordinary man,” former New Haven Police Chief and recently tapped future Yale Police Chief Anthony Campbell said.

“I think he will elevate the department, diversify the department in its leadership, and, most importantly, I know that he will hold officers accountable. … When something wrong happens, you hold people accountable, and you work with the community so that you can heal.” 

He said that Jacobson, if approved to helm the department, will do just that.

Walking Beats, Cop-Community Events

Before the 20 members of the public got a chance to testify in support of Jacobson’s nomination, Jacobson presented to the committee alders on what he hopes to do if confirmed to lead the police department.

He spoke about how he will beef up the NHPD’s walking beats because, he said, they are critical for any department that wants to truly engage with the community it serves.

“We need our officers out there walking,” he said. ​“When they’re walking, nobody knows where they are, and they’re afraid to commit crimes. It helps to enforce laws and clean up the neighborhood.” 

He said he’ll set up a ​“neighborhood engagement unit” consisting of 10 officers and a supervisor. Those walking-beat officers will be deployed to different parts of the city any given day depending on where the need is. ​“We’re going to move it around and have five beats of 10 officers,” he said. ​“The district manager will work with the detail room and get those beats going. We’ll also hire walking beats when we can.”

While the department doesn’t have enough officers to have walking beats in every part of the city on a regular basis right now, Jacobson said, ​“when we do get to full strength, we will have walking beats in every district. Nothing replaces that.”

Jacobson also said that, in his first 100 days as chief, ​“every officer will have a business card” with their name and phone number on it. They’ll hand these cards out to community members while on their walking beats, he said. 

He said he plans to boost the responsibilities, and budgets, of district managers, New Haven’s neighborhood top cops. They’ll be in charge of not just officer overtime assignments for their districts, he said, but they’ll also be required to host ​“one community-police event a month.”

“Those community policing events can be anything they think up,” he said, ideally with their neighborhood’s community management team.

“Some of the best nights I’ve had our community nights out in Newhallville,” Jacobson said. ​“They’re great times. Why aren’t we doing them now? People will come.”

And he said he plans on beefing up the department’s Police Athletic League (PAL) programs, as well as its numbers of school resource officers (SROs).

Legitimacy

Jacobson closed out his opening remarks to the alders by describing his commitment to ​“procedural justice,” which is a criminal justice theory that argues that fairness and dispute resolution are key to successful, legitimate law enforcement.

“We will build legitimacy with this community again,” he promised. ​“We will build legitimacy as officers with the community, and the command staff will build legitimacy with our officers so that we retain our officers.”

The tenets of procedural justice are relatively simple, he said.

“You must give people a voice. You must treat everyone with dignity. You must be neutral in decision making. … Then you create trust.”

“This may seem very simple, but it’s very hard,” he continued. ​“When this breaks down is when we have incidents. When this breaks down is when we have complacency and officers not doing what they need to do, and we have problems in the community.”

Jacobson added that police-community legitimacy also encourages people to follow the law, and to come forward and talk with police officers to help them solve crimes. 

“This is a tough time,” he said. ​“But I’ve got to say, trust me. I’m willing to listen to the community. I’m willing to teach cops to listen to the community. I care about this community.”

Downtown/Yale Alder Alex Guzhnay asked Jacobson to elaborate on that concept of procedural justice. How will it make the city safer? How does it fit in with local, statewide, and national conversations about rethinking the roles that police play in public safety?

Jacobson said that, when he began his career as a police officer in Rhode Island 24 years ago, ​“all people knew how to do was arrest.”

Over his decades in law enforcement, and in particular during his 15-year tenure with the NHPD, he said, he has learned that ​“when we made less arrests and focused more on legitimacy and building relationships, we made the right arrests. We got the help we needed from community. And we got the people who were creating the violence” — a relatively small number, he said — ​“off the streets.”

That said, officers also need the support of mental health and substance abuse experts, like those slated to work with the city’s still-not-yet-launched community crisis response team. ​“We need the experts,” Jacobson said. ​“Arrest, arrest, arrest is no good anymore.”

Describe ​“the most challenging situations you’ll face as chief of New Haven,” Quinnipiac Meadows Alder and retired former police Capt. Gerald Antunes said.

Jacobson paused and took a breath. ​“Last week,” he said in response to Antunes’s prompt.

“I think when it comes down to it, any incident where the officers, where we lose community trust,” he continued. ​“Where we officers feel that the community doesn’t want them, and the community feels that officers don’t want them, or the perception of that.”

“The people in this community want to be policed,” Jacobson said. ​“They want to be policed in the right way.”

What About The Cox Case?

After Monday’s meeting had concluded, the Independent asked Jacobson several questions about Cox’s injury while in police custody — a topic the committee alders expressly decided not to broach during the confirmation hearing.

In his answers, Jacobson generally declined to go into too much detail on the case itself, and referred back to his presentation to the committee about the importance of procedural justice.

What has he learned so far from this incident, particularly in regards to how he hopes to lead the department?

“Accountability, transparency, and legitimacy,” Jacobson replied. Within a day of Cox’s sustaining such a severe injury while in police custody, police brass and the mayor alerted the public and the press. The next day, the police department released hours of body cam and other video footage, and put two of the officers involved on leave. Later that week, the department put the remaining three involved officers on leave as well. 

“In any situation, if somebody is given a voice, treated with dignity, either one of those two things, a lot of bad situations can be avoided,” Jacobson said.

How does he hope to build legitimacy between the police and community after such a trust-shattering event?

“Giving people a voice. Neutrality in decision making. Treatment with dignity. And building trust,” Jacobson said. ​“Those four simple things have to be applied over and over again by the police to the community. Since it’s something where this young man was hurt in our custody, we’re going to have to reach out and rebuild that trust.”

What does he say to concerns that Independent readers have raised about how the police officers at the 1 Union Ave. detention center who pulled Cox’s crumpled body out of the van, processed him in a wheelchair, dragged him into a holding cell, and then cuffed his ankles — all while he told the officers time and again that he couldn’t move — treated him as less than human?

“All I’m going to say is what I said when I came out” during the initial press conference and review of police body cam footage on Tuesday, Jacobson said. ​“That it’s troubling. And that the police are here to help people. That’s all I’m going to say, because I think it’s very clear what I mean by that.”