Ex-Cop Readies Beaver Hills Alder Run

Shafiq Abdussabur, an outspoken advocate for community policing during his two decades as a New Haven cop, has launched an aldermanic campaign centered around public safety and community cohesion in a crime-rattled neighborhood.

The 53-year-old Winthrop Avenue resident’s bid to replace current three-term Beaver Hills Alder Jill Marks as the Ward 28 alder represents the first challenge to a sitting elected official this municipal election season.

Abdussabur officially registered his Democratic candidacy with the State Election Enforcement Commission (SEEC) on Jan. 14. He has been knocking on doors for weeks.

In a Tuesday afternoon interview with the Independent, Abdussabur stood alongside a half-dozen family members and neighborhood supporters in the snow at Ellsworth Avenue and Moreland Road. He pointed to the recent spate of violent crime that has beset the neighborhood — and the city more broadly—as a key motivation for his run for office.

“Safety is at the heart of any community,” he said. ​“If people don’t feel safe, it puts a community in survival mode. Right now, Beaver Hills is in survival mode.”

Marks did not provide a comment by the publication time of this article. She has not filed papers to run for reelection. Now in her third two-year term in office, Marks has championed the cleaning up of Goffe Street Park, getting new speed bumps and other traffic safety infrastructure installed throughout the neighborhood, including a roundabout on Carmel Street, calling for Yale University to increase local hiring, and, more recently, organizing a passionate neighborhood conversation about public safety following a recent spate of violent crime.

Abdussabur stressed over the course of the interview — and while knocking on doors to talk with prospective voters — that crime and policing aren’t the only issues driving his candidacy.

He pledged to advocate for more sidewalk repairs, paved roads, removed tree stumps, brighter street lighting, and better access to construction jobs for young New Haveners, if elected as alder.

But time and again, the 21-and-a-half-year local police veteran — who retired from the department three years ago and now runs a construction/custodial company called Eco-Urban Pioneers and hosts ​“Urban Talk Radio” on WNHH — returned to an issue that has spurred more and more community organizing and pleas for help from residents of the middle-class, multiracial neighborhood.

That is, a sharp increase in violent crime. In recent months Beaver Hills has seen drive-by shootings that occasionally send bullets flying into nearby homes and armed robberies and car thefts that have left some members of the growing local Orthodox Jewish community feeling targeted.

Abdussabur, who has written several books and consulted with law enforcement agencies on community policing, said that these violent crimes have left ​“communities of different cultures and backgrounds fighting for themselves.”

As a former top cop of a district that includes Newhallville and East Rock, he said, ​“I have experience working with diverse communities.” As an appointed member of a state task force on policing, he said, ​“I have a proven track record of being a leader, of hearing what people have to say” and translating that public sentiment into new policies and government actions.

“Engagement is at the heart of” successful community policing, he said. If elected alder, he said, he would push the city to develop a coherent, accessible, inclusive plan for what it wants the police department to look like two years from now, five years from now, and 10 years from now.

Wearing a campaign-branded winter coat, Abdussabur said he believes that should include hiring of more police officers, promoting police-community cooperation through active block watches, and renewing the department’s commitment to community policing through increased engagement by officers in the neighborhoods they patrol.

“We really just don’t have a long-term public safety plan,” he said. ​“It needs to be a plan that involves residents. I believe that people have the insight” and need elected leaders to push for what a safer city can and should look like.

Local artist and racial justice organizer Salwa Abdussabur, Shafiq’s daughter, is serving as his campaign manager. Salwa said that the slogan for their father’s campaign is: ​“A better Beaver Hills.”

That doesn’t just mean more police, they said. It also means more front porch music festivals, like one they organized and helped lead this summer.

“A lack of safety has torn us apart,” they said. ​“Is this about cops? No. This is about people wanting to feel more connected to the people around them.”

Supporters: Knowledge & Experience

Supporters who joined the retired police sergeant for his first campaign interview Tuesday also pointed to the recent uptick in violent crime — and to Abdussabur’s background as a community-engaged former police officer — to explain why they plan on backing his run for office.

“He’s very community-oriented, and involved with many different ethnicities,” said local landlord Mendy Katz. ​“Every time there’s a shooting, he’ll reach out,” ask how someone’s doing, and ask what they need.

“I think the number one thing for everyone is safety,” Katz said when asked what is his and his neighbors’ top issue. ​“Someone who reaches out to all ethnicities. Someone who’s proactive and has real solutions.”

Nan Bartow said that she has known Abdussabur and his family for years, through their volunteering with the Friends of Beaver Pond Park and, more recently, through a neighborhood-wide cleanup led by Salwa. Bartow credited Abdussabur as someone who prioritizes reaching out to all different types of neighbors, regardless of their ethnicity or background, in a bid to bring people together and create a safer community.

“He understands public safety, and he’s very well connected,” said former city police commissioner Greg Smith, who lives in Dwight and traveled up to Beaver Hills Tuesday to show his support for Abdussabur.

“If you want to make a change, then run for office and do it yourself,” retired police detective Hilda Kilpatrick (pictured) of Beaver Hills said about her support for Abdussabur’s decision to run. She has agreed to serve as treasurer for the campaign.

“I’m not supporting Shafiq because he’s a police officer,” added Bellevue Road resident Gary Hogan, a former city neighborhood agency official and leader of the local Elks lodge. ​“I’m supporting him because he has the experience, the knowledge, the intensity, and a practical plan for how he’d like Ward 28 to improve for the general welfare of all of its residents.”

Everyone who spoke to the Independent Tuesday — Abdussabur included — had only kind and respectful words for incumbent Jill Marks. They stressed that they believe Abdussabur is the right person to meet the challenges faced by Beaver Hills at this time.

Charting A Path To Public Safety

As a fresh new layer of snow froze over into ice on the street and sidewalk, Abdussabur, Salwa, and Smith walked down Moreland Road and made a campaign pitch to Millie Grenough and Paul Bloom.

Abdussabur started out by asking if they know who their alder is. Grenough said that she does, and that she’s generally happy with Marks, but that she’s interested in hearing what Abdussabur stands for and why he’s running.

“We’re focusing on this community. We want a better Beaver Hills,” he replied. He said that Moreland is one of the ​“darkest lit streets in the neighborhood,” and promised to advocate for brighter lighting. He said that the area is riddled with potholes and broken sidewalks, and that he would advocate for more paving and repairs.

Grenough added that she would like to see more trash cans placed around the neighborhood to discourage people from throwing garbage in the street.

Noticing a picture from last June’s Black Lives Matter rally outside of police headquarters, this reporter asked Grenough how she would feel being represented on the Board of Alders by a former police officer, and what kinds of public safety-related policies she would like to see Abdussabur advocate for if elected.

Grenough started out by saying she does not agree with the ​“Defund the Police” slogan. ​“I think it’s more: How do we want police to be with the community? How do we want money spent?”

“It’s about restructuring,” Abdussabur chimed in. ​“I think it’s about having a real vision” for what policing should entail.

Grenough argued that police are currently called upon to respond to too many different types of incidents. She said she doesn’t think armed police officers should be directing traffic or working construction sites.

“There’s no vision,” Abdussabur said. ​“There’s no two-year plan for the New Haven Police Department. No five-year public plan. You’ve got to have a plan. What does our police department look like now, and what do we want it to look like 10 years from now?” He said that those are the types of questions he would keep front of mind if elected to be alder.

“I know this man,” Bloom said about Abdussabur. ​“I know he knows how policing works. I trust him in that position” as a police officer. And, he said, he’d trust him in a position on the Board of Alders.