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Union spokesman Segar: We're going to get to the bottom of this leak.
New Haven’s police union has filed a labor complaint to hold off the city’s long-delayed initiative to dispatch social workers instead of cops in response to certain 911 calls.
The union has submitted a complaint to the state’s Board of Labor Relations alleging that the city has been negotiating with the union in bad faith, and requesting that the city cease and desist its implementation of the forthcoming social worker emergency response team.
The complaint is a part of broader maneuvering going on between the city administration and the police union over negotiations on a new contract.
The program, called Compassionate Allies Serving our Streets (also known as COMPASS), aims to provide trained social workers and community members to help police respond to calls related to homelessness, mental health, and substance use.
The city first pitched COMPASS after the wave of Black Lives Matter protests during the summer of 2020 as an effort to overhaul police interactions with vulnerable civilians. The program’s rollout has been delayed for over a year, and the city had planned to start up the program on Oct. 3.
Now that updated start date is again on pause. The city has filed an answer to the labor board “defending the city’s position vigorously,” Mayor Justin Elicker told the Independent.
Jack Tebes, a Yale psychologist who has been serving as the city’s project manager, said that while the program’s start date has been delayed, planning and training for the program will continue for the time being. “We want to continue to do all the preparations to get ready for launching COMPASS so that when his issue is resolved, we’re ready,” he said.
According to Elicker, the city has established operating procedures, hired most of the team, and started training COMPASS members, police officers, and firefighters.
“It’s very disappointing that the union submitted the complaint,” said Elicker. He said he did not understand the union’s allegations of bad faith negotiations. “They could have submitted it any time over the many months we’ve been talking about this program. … I’m concerned that this isn’t about COMPASS, but more about contract negotiations.”
Elicker maintained that assistance from social workers would benefit police officers by reducing the need for officers to “do something outside the scope of their work.”
Marshall Segar, the attorney representing the police union, offered the following statement: “It is truly disheartening to learn that following our first negotiation session for a successor contract, that someone would ‘leak’ the Labor Board complaint to the press. The ground rules for such negotiations prohibit press releases and the discussions are confidential. Without revealing the substance of our discussions with the City, COMPASS has been and will continue to be a negotiable item between the City and the Union. The Union will not comment any further and plans to investigate this ‘leak’ fully.”