Aliyya Swaby Photo
Martin recruits in Newhallville; the last class had just 1 African-American out of 25 graduates.
Officers Michelle Dobson and Dana Martin headed to Newhallville to convince a group of “unlikely candidates” to become cops.
City of New Haven
They were on a mission that has frustrated the police in recent years — trying to convince African-Americans to join the force.
Dobson and Martin, who are African-American, made their pitch in Lincoln-Bassett School’s cafeteria to the 11 or 12 attendees of Newhallville’s Community Management Team meeting. By the end, a few picked up fliers to show their friends or grandchildren.
The Newhallville recruitment meeting is part of a larger police effort to increase its pool of applicants for the upcoming hiring round, with an eye toward racial minorities and women.
Since the end of August, police have been proselytizing on the ground at dozens of popular city events as well as online using Facebook and Twitter.
Julia Zorthian Photo
Cadets in the most recent class.
The department has been scrambling to refill close to 100 positions of its retirement-depleted ranks, with a number of successive classes at the training academy. Each class has been overwhelmingly white and male, despite the department’s efforts (like this one) to produce a more diverse force as part of its community-policing mission.
“In the past we depended on the job trying to sell itself, but now we’re going out and selling the job,” said Assistant Chief Al Vasquez, who’s overseeing the recruiting effort. He said the department is beginning by scouring New Haven for qualified, interested applicants, before branching out to the rest of the state or even other parts of the country.
The number of applicants has dipped since Vasquez first applied to the force in 1992. He competed with 3,500 candidates. Last year netted fewer than 1,500 applicants at the start of the process.
As of this month, the department is 85 percent male, 56 percent white, and 26 percent African-American. The current academy class of 35 cadets has just four females (11 percent), five African-Americans (14 percent), five Hispanics. The previous class had just a single African-American (4 percent) out of 25 graduates, according to information provided by city human resources chief Stephen Librandi.
Especially since the recent violence in Ferguson, Missouri, public attention has focused on the need nationwide to have police forces reflect the racial make-up of the communities they police. About a third of New Haven’s population is (non-Hispanic) African-American, about a third (non-Hispanic) white.
“Too Perfect”
The previous New Haven police recruitment process, in 2012, was too little, too late, Officer Dobson (pictured) told the Newhallville gathering last Tuesday night. “Last [round’s] standards were not up to the level that they could have been,” she told the group. “But now we’re getting the word out to the unlikely candidates.”
Before the officers arrived at the meeting, the management team read through the materials together. Many expressed surprise at the expanded criteria for job eligibility, especially the lack of an upper age limit for applying. One member expressed worry about a criminal record. Newhallville Alder Delphine Clyburn reassured the group that there were ways to help applicants with criminal pasts but otherwise strong applications.
Officer Dobson confirmed this during her pitch. She said the police department will consider helping people who had served their time for non-violent crimes at least five years ago to expunge their records.
“If you’re too perfect, you’re not good for us anyway,” she said.
City of New Haven
She and Martin perform background checks on academy recruits.
They urged potential applicants to be “real” with them in the interview, instead of lying and then failing the polygraph test — which can sink an application.
“We have individuals crying at interviews,” Dobson said. “It humbles them.”
Recently, a man whom Officer Dobson had arrested six times came to her asking for an application to be a police officer. “I said, ‘Maybe you can’t be a police officer right now, but the goal is get you to want to better yourself,’” she said, to vigorous nods and murmurs from the audience.
She said her experience as a New Haven native helped her police in the city. While patrolling near Kensington Street and Edgewood Avenue, she found a way to get a group of young people to stop loitering on the corner in their neighborhood late at night, she said; negotiation trumped force. “I don’t want to you to get hurt,” she said she told the young people who subsequently agreed to go inside after 1 a.m. “They know I care.”
Other cops tried to hand out tickets en masse and found that their method was less effective. Dobson had already known that way wouldn’t work.
“Years ago, I was the main one saying, ‘I can stand on the corner if I want,’” she said, with a laugh.
A Drive “On Steroids”
Applying to be a police officer is an intense multi-part process. It includes a physical fitness test, a written and oral exam, a background check, polygraph test, psychological exam, and drug test.
As part of its digital outreach plan, the department plans to include a tutorial video on the website to explain the specific expectations, said Assistant Chief Vasquez (pictured). Applicants drop out at each step, especially the physical agility test, which comprises a set of sit-ups, push-ups, flexibility tests and a mile and half run.
“We keep losing people who could be qualified but aren’t prepared,” he said, describing this year’s process so far as “a recruitment drive on steroids.”
The police should be where African-Americans and Latinos are, especially colleges like Gateway Community College, said Doris Dumas, who heads New Haven’s branch of the NAACP. The main problem is that people don’t necessarily know they are eligible for the positions, she said.
Vasquez said his team is focusing efforts specifically on Fair Haven and Newhallville, both with large populations of racial minorities. Recruiters are also heading to colleges, jazz festivals, high schools, and the city’s Marine Corps center, to drum up interest.
Word Spreads
Newhallville Alder Clyburn (middle) with Havyarimana (right) during the pitch
“You could apply,” Officer Martin said, pointing to Oscar Havyarimana, a Newhallville management team co-chair. “There’s no age limit.”
Havyarimana (pictured right), who is 49, looked surprised and browsed more intently through the fliers.
“With no age limit, many people from New Haven, from our neighborhoods, will apply,” he said later, though he was not sure if he himself would.
Martin said she has been spreading the word on foot through the city’s neighborhoods, handing out pamphlets on the streets and convincing people that being a police officer is a feasible career option.
“People are like, ‘Oh no! I don’t want to be no cop,’” she said, but those people are often relying on stereotypes of the job to form their opinion.
Gloria Richardson said she definitely plans to pass the information on to her grandchildren, who have “done little things” and have criminal records.
“They probably think they couldn’t” become police officers, and many in her neighborhood probably have similar misconceptions, she said.
Barbara Vereen, co-chair of the management team, also said she will pass the information to her neighbors. “It makes a difference when we have local officers who live in and grow up in town,” she said.
For more information, contact the New Haven Police Academy at 203 – 946-6309 or check out the Facebook page or website.
City Of New Haven