Allan Appel Photo
Ettienne under questioning from the commissioners.
Charlie Otero got the bug to be a police officer when he patrolled nuclear sites in Europe with the U.S. Air Force.
Seth Hershman said he’s an Eagle Scout kind of a guy, whose father’s been an attorney in New Haven for decades. He has seen the Elm City come back and flourish, and he wants to be part of keeping things moving in that direction also by joining the Yale P.D.
Detective Bertram Ettienne, who scored near the top on the city sergeants’ promotional exam, said that after 16 years on the force, the time is right for him to inspire and help lead a new generation of officers.
Those were some of the stories and thumbnail self-profiles heard by New Haven’s police commissioners at their regular monthly meeting meeting Tuesday night at police headquarters at 1 Union Ave.
The commissioners voted to approve all 15 promotions to sergeant recommended by Chief Anthony Campbell. Only 12 will be promoted at this time, reported the chief’s assistant Ramona Davis, after the meeting. If there are three more sergeant retirements before the expected promotion ceremonies at the end of June or in July, then all 15 will be promoted, she added.
By city ordinance the commissioners approve each hire and promotion and often follow the police chief’s recommendation. There’s no requirement that the commissioners, who study individual candidates’ dossiers, meet the future officers and promotees in person. However, these commissioners — Chairman Anthony Dawson, Evelise Ribeiro, Gregory Smith, Stephen Garcia, and Kevin Diaz — like to meet the folks in person, and the police are complying.
On Tuesday night, two Yale Police Department future rookies — new Yale hires by memorandum of understanding with the city must also be approved by the commissioners — and the 15 NHPD officers and detectives hoping to be promoted to sergeant each had five to 10 minutes of gentle but serious questioning by the commissioners.
On a hot night, they assembled in the chief’s conference room while their colleagues looked on, and commissioners tried to match the face with the background dossier.
By their questioning, it was clear the commissioners wanted to get to know the officers’ characters a bit more, and maybe even give them some advice at these junctures in their careers.
Yale Cops Approved First
Hershman, Otero, Narcisse.
The two Yale P.D. candidates were first up, introduced by Yale P.D. Lt. Von Narcisse.
Commissioner Ribeiro is often to first to offer a question at these gatherings. On Tuesday she asked Otero and Hershman why they decided to make a leap to a job “vastly different” from what the young men were doing.
Otero cited his experience in the military, where he was a policeman, and the sense of the importance of his work helping to maintain security at nuclear sites overseas.
Hershman, a 2011 graduate of Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania, who is leaving a current job in real estate sales, began at the beginning. He cited his Boy Scout participation and values, but also growing up in a large family one of six kids — being part of a larger group and knowing how to get along.
Commission Chair Dawson, left, and Diaz.
Commissioner Diaz looked at the dossier in front of him and asked Otero why, if he is becoming a Yale P.D. officer, it appeared that his driver’s license was from Florida. Otero assured him that since the dossier was provided, the license had been changed to Connecticut.
Dawson wanted to know if Otero had met any area officers. Otero said that his Air Force National Guard unit trains at Bradley International Airport, and, yes, he has met state police, firefighters, and other officers there.
Diaz commended Narcisse on complying with the commissioners’ request to bring in the future officers for these face-to-face encounters.
“We think it’s good for them to come in,” Narcisse said, and pledged to continue the practice.
Commissioners Stephen Garcia and Evelise Ribeiro.
Then came the vote. Otero and Hershman were unanimously approved to join the force. Their addition brings the Yale P.D. up to its full complement of 89 officers. However, after July 1, when the Yale. P.D. has been approved to grow its force to 93, there will be more hiring, said Yale P.D. Chief Ronnell Higgins, who also attended the meeting.
The Yale P.D. officers go through the identical training and background checks as city officers. When they graduate this basic training, however, they continue to get additional and specialized training in areas pertinent to the higher education environment in which they operate — course work, for example, on issues pertaining to stalking, violence against women, sexual assault, and suicide prevention, Higgins added.
Otero and Hershman trooped out and Chief Anthony Campbell then invited in the 15 top-scoring candidates on the recent sergeants’ exam.
In his chief’s report, a regular item on the agenda, Campbell announced that next month there will be a promotion ceremony as the department staffs up its supervisory officers with 11 new lieutenants, approximately 12 to 15 new sergeants, five detectives, and one assistant chief.
Tuesday was future sergeants night, as the top 15 candidates for promotion — 61 of 62 taking the exam passed and were certified in March — lined up behind the commissioners, Campbell, Assistant Chief Otoniel Reyes, and Assistant Corporation Counsel Michael Wolak. They awaited their turns in the interview chair.
“What experience has most prepared you to be a sergeant?” Ribeiro asked the top sergeant exam’s scorer, Detective Bertram Ettienne.
“My years on patrol,” Ettienne answered, citing the wide range of experiences an officer is exposed to. After graduating from the academy in 2001, Ettienne served in the Beaver Hill section, the night shift in Fair Haven, and then became a detective.
When Ettienne further said that he’d reached the stage in his career where he aspires, as a sergeant, to educate younger officers in how to do the job, Commissioner Diaz took the opportunity to emphasize a theme that had been percolating throughout the evening’s discussions: that the police department is a paramilitary organization and officers need to comport themselves that way, respecting the chain of command at each stage.
“Protocol is important,” Diaz said. Ettienne concurred.
Fumiatti and Ettienne.
Next up was second scorer Officer Michael Fumiatti II, who has spent his career patrolling on foot, bike, and car largely in Fair Haven. He’s also on the hostage negotiating team and the department’s peer support team.
Commissioner Gregory Smith wanted to know if Fumiatti, with all that experience, had come to know the Fair Haven area alders.
Fumiatti said he did not think so.
“I encourage you to do so,” Smith.
Asst. Chief Reyes and Chief Campbell.
“He [Fumiatti] has received a lot of praise,” from residents for his work, Diaz said. “There are complaints he’s leaving,” he added, by way of praise.
Ribeiro asked about Fumiatti’s experience on the peer support team. Fumiatti replied that the officers meet informally, once a month, and the issues can be about the contract, or focus on an officer who is injured and needs some kind of attention.
The peer support team has gotten attention from police forces outside of New Haven, Fumiatti said. “Since Newtown, a lot of departments have sought out the program,” he said.
The others whose promotions were approved by the commissioners included Brendan Borer, Louis DeCrescenzo, David Portella, Terrance McNeil, James Evarts, Jarrod Boyce, Vincent Rawlinson, Jose Miranda, Matthew Abbate, Lucille Roach, Justin Marshall, Robert Clark, and Pedro Colon.