Thomas Breen photo
Dominguez, tapped as acting chief, at Thursday announcement.
Stability. Continuity. Competent and tested leadership.
Those themes came up again and again as the mayor, the outgoing police chief, and the head of the police commission symbolically handed over the reins of the New Haven Police Department to current Assistant Chief — and soon-to-be Acting Chief — Renee Dominguez.
Mayor Justin Elicker, Police Chief Otoniel Reyes, and Police Commission Chair Anthony Dawson joined dozens of uniformed city police officers on the front steps of the department’s headquarters Thursday afternoon to endorse that upcoming transition in leadership.
Dominguez will step into the role of acting chief in March, when Reyes starts using up his remaining vacation time before formally retiring in June. Reyes has led the department for two years, and has worked for the NHPD for 21 years. He has taken a job as head of security of Quinnipiac University.
“The department needs stability. The community needs stability. It’s always difficult when there’s a transition,” Dominguez said during Thursday’s presser. “I know that together we will be able to make it a smooth transition, and then to move on.”
Mayor Elicker at Thursday’s presser.
Every official speaker at the half-hour press conference cited the importance of promoting a NHPD veteran to its lead role in a bid to maintain organizational and operational stability at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic, mass protests against police brutality, and a nationwide surge in violent crime have caused so much social unrest.
Dominguez, who is 41, has worked for the NHPD for 18 years. Currently the assistant chief in charge of patrol, she also has served as a patrol cop, detective, K‑9 keeper, district manager, and head of the special victims unit, among other posts. She led the department’s training of officers to avoid arresting victims involved in domestic-violence calls. As a supervisor in the field, she earned the fierce loyalty of beat cops and developed relationships throughout the community.
“There is a lot of good talent in the department,” Elicker said Thursday. “I think it is vital that we have stability as we go through this transition period. It is also important that we have tested leadership.”
Dawson (pictured) agreed. “The mayor is on point,” he said. “We just have to use the consistency of what talent we have already. We have a lot of talent in the department. Picking the assistant chief to replace Chief Reyes is a good situation.”
Once appointed acting chief, Dominguez could fill that role until Reyes’s current term expires in January 2022. Then the mayor would have appoint a new permanent chief, who would have to be confirmed by the Board of Alders.
“As a leader of this city, what brings me the greatest joy is that I can pass the baton to a leader within the department who can continue the work that we are doing here in New Haven,” said Reyes (pictured).
He said that there is “no one more dedicated, not just to police work, but to the men and women of this department.”
Dominguez was asked for her vision for the department and her assessment of the state of community policing in New Haven more broadly. In response, Dominguez recalled walking the beat when she first joined the force nearly two decades ago.
“While that may have changed, we have not lost the essence of community policing, in what we want to deliver to the community,” she said. “We believe in that collaboration. We believe in knowing our officers. And we believe in doing everything we can together. We’re not in this alone. We’re in this together as a community.”
Elicker chose Dominguez after interviewing both her and Capt. Anthony Duff about the chief’s position.
New Haven has never had a female permanent chief. Stephanie Redding served as interim chief for five weeks in 2010 after Chief James Lewis left town and before Chief Frank Limon came to town to replace him. (Redding did not apply for the permanent position.)
Dominguez had wanted to be cop since she was 8 years old. She began working on the Newtown police force while she was still in college, juggling night classes and finishing a degree in criminal justice at the University of New Haven while attending police academy. She transferred to New Haven two years later to be closer to her family.
In addition to providing continuity, Dominguez will be auditioning, in a sense, for the permanent chief position. If she takes on the chief’s job on a more permanent basis in 2022, she would need to move into the city.
Williams: What About The Community?
Halfway through the presser, community activist and small business construction contractor Rodney Williams (pictured) pressed the mayor and police chiefs about what the revolving door at the top of the department. The next chief will be the sixth since 2008.
“When you say this department is about community policing, and we keep getting chief after chief, we keep trying to establishing relationships with a chief … and then you just leave us,” those true community bonds with the leadership of the department can’t be formed, Williams argued.
Williams added that the mayor should have hosted Zoom community conversations about the next chief before announcing his pick.
“The community needs to be involved in decisions with the future of the New Haven PD, or let’s not call it community policing,” he said.
Elicker (pictured) acknowledged that the NHPD has had much change in leadership over the past decade.
“Ideally, we’d have a police chief who is there for a very, very long time,” he said. “We don’t live in a perfect world. I’ll do what I can to make sure we have a police chief there for as long as possible.”
As for community input, Elicker said, “At the end of the day, the community did have a voice in electing me, and I need to own the decision about the success of the department in the end. I felt that this has happened very fast, and that it’s important at this time, with so much transition going on, for me to be clear about this acting position and announce that very quickly.”
Reyes added that his own dedication to the city did not begin two years ago when he ascended to the role of chief. “I’ve been providing my heart and soul to the city for 21 years” since joining the department.
The same is true for Dominguez, he said. “She didn’t start yesterday. There’s been continuity for almost 20 years of her serving the men and women of New Haven.”
Dawson said that naming Dominguez as acting chief fulfills the requirements of the city charter, which identifies the assistant chief in charge of patrol as next in line.
“She’s been doing a good job” as assistant chief, Dawson said. “She can manage it; she’s qualified.”