Christopher Peak Photo
Acting Polcie Chief Otoniel Reyes with Fire Chief John Alston Jr. at the Diyanet Mosque.
New Haven can use its declining police ranks as an opportunity to craft “hybrid” walking-driving beats.
It can also help more New Haveners become cops by refraining from jamming up young people with specious “interfering” and “disorderly conduct” records.
Two experienced top New Haven cops, among those seeking to become the city’s next chief, offered those ideas in discussions about how to tackle some of the department’s current challenges.
One of those challenges: Cops have been fleeing by the dozens to suburban departments that offer higher pay and benefits.
That may not be the crisis it at first appears to be, suggested Acting Chief Otoniel Reyes, who has been interviewing the officers before they leave.
It turns out many of them had been planning to work elsewhere even before stalled contract talks raised fears about health care givebacks, Reyes said. Three officers recently left New Haven’s department for Stamford, for instance; they told Reyes in exit interviews that they had family there and had intended to make the move for that reason.
New Haven does need to pay its officers well for the work they do, Reyes said during an interview on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program. But instead of focusing on the cops who are leaving, he suggested, “let’s focus on the people who are here. Let’s give them good benefits. Let’s give them every reason to stay here.”
“The cops who are here want to be here,” and that’s a strength to build on, he argued. “You don’t get into policing to become wealthy.”
New Haven has 429 budgeted police positions, down from a high of 498. Thanks to a wave of retirements and resignations over the past year, the number of actual officers on the force is 388.
Reyes noted that those numbers reflect a “new normal” and a “national challenge”: Unlike in the past, cops no longer tend to stay with one department for 30 or 40 years. They change employers, or professions, numerous times over their careers, a new reality in other industries as well.
As a result, New Haven’s department needs to gear up to recruit and train more officers more often, Reyes said.
He noted that even at 388 officers, New Haven has about twice as many cops per capita as many other cities, Reyes noted. That’s because of its commitment to community policing with a focus on walking beats. He suggested that going forward — with New Haven facing budget constraints but also a need to improve officers’ pay and benefits — the department could look toward “hybrid” beats that combine some walking patrol with car patrols, in order both to build relationships on the street and respond to emergencies. “We’re not abandoning walking beats,” he said, but the department does need to adjust its strategy to changing times.
Velleca: Cut Out “Nonsense Arrests”
John Velleca.
Reyes is one of a pool of current and former New Haven cops applying to become the next permanent police chief, including retired Assistant Chiefs John Velleca and Thaddeus Reddish, retired Lt. Kenny Howell (who also served as chief of Millbury, Mass. police); as well as cops from Baltimore and Chicago. The first round of interviews with the candidates took place this week.
Velleca, meanwhile, offered some other ideas for updating community policing, in a separate appearance on WNHH’s “Dateline.”
Asked by a caller about how to help more New Haveners become cops, Velleca spoke of thinking twice before charging young people in the city with vague minor offenses like “interfering” and “disorderly conduct.”
He also called for working with the state’s attorney’s office to review such cases already on file with an eye to dropping them.
Velleca said he embraces the idea of a “second-chance society” for ex-offenders. But what not also pursue a “first-chance society” as well for urban youth caught making minor mistakes?
“In the suburbs, a lot of times a young guy will get a break from the local police, who say, ‘I don’t want to wreck your life,’” Velleca said.
“How many times do they do that with a Yale kid [as well]? ‘Listen. You have a good life ahead of you…’
“We don’t seem to do that with kids in impoverished neighborhoods. We just lock them up. We don’t care if they get charged. If we stop that, then when they go to take the police test, they won’t have that nonsense to deal with.”
The WNHH “Dateline New Haven” interviews with Reyes and Velleca appear in the Facebook Live video below: