Markeshia Ricks Photo
When video surfaced of a 15-year-old girl being slammed to the ground by a New Haven police officer near this year’s St. Patrick Day parade tension mounted, but did not explode as it has in other cities around the country.
A network of local clergy members working behind the scenes believe they’re part of the reason.
On Tuesday, more than 20 ministers from that network flanked Police Chief Dean Esserman and Mayor Toni Harp to talk publicly for the first time about their efforts to bridge the gap of distrust between police officers and residents.
Over the last three years, the ministers have met with police to discuss issues in the neighborhoods that they serve. They also discuss recruiting, training and the recent national focus on police shootings of unarmed black men. They meet with Police Chief Dean Esserman once a month.
In fact, Tuesday’s press conference followed a meeting where they discussed upcoming summer activities being offered by the Police Athletic League, and the protests and violence that erupted in the wake of the police killing of an unarmed Baltimore man named Freddie Gray.
When the incident with the 15-year-old and the police officer roiled New Haven, sparking protests at the department’s headquarters at 1 Union Ave. and City Hall, the Rev. Boise Kimber (pictured) said, ministers worked to keep the lines of communication open. (Read more about that here.)
Several of the ministers who attended Tuesday’s press conference also were present at the protest at the police department, urging calm as they awaited the results of an internal affairs investigation in which the officer was ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing.
“We’re working hard to continue to forge relationships with new recruits,” said Kimber, who serves as pastor of the First Calvary Baptist Church. “We insist that neighbors get to know who is patrolling our communities.”
The Rev. Keith King (pictured), pastor of Christian Tabernacle, and Kimber are among the original local ministers who worked to establish a relationship with the police department. King, a former assistant U.S. attorney, said that one of the reasons that New Haven is not Ferguson or Baltimore is that any one of the ministers who participate in the monthly meeting can call Esserman or Harp.
Harp credited the group of ministers with clearing the way for the police and community to come together and get to know each other over the last three years. She said that the relationship has created something that is unique to New Haven.
“I would put our police/community relations against any in this country and feel satisfied that we would be at the top,” she said.
Esserman said that the city is a “safe city, that is getting safer and safer” thanks in part to the trust and support that city leaders including clergy members have invested in the department.