New Haven Independent

Redding attended East Rock’s management team meeting Monday night as part of a department effort to reach out to neighborhoods in the wake of the scandal.

Redding said the two officers arrested in the narcotics unit scandal were just individuals who made bad decisions, and do not reflect the entire department.

“Hopefully we won’t be judged on the actions if a few officers who made very bad decisions,” Redding said. “We have given a lot of our lives to the police force.”

Redding noted Chief Francisco Ortiz’s yearlong cooperation with the FBI, and said the fact that White was caught means the system for overseeing police is working.

“People were watching him, that’s how he got caught,” Redding said. “He’ll have his day in court, and if he is found guilty, he is going to do hard federal time.”

Although there is no way to revoke the pensions of the narcotics unit officers accused of bribery and theft, the mayor’s office is looking into revoking some of the retirement benefits, such as accumulated sick time, Redding noted.

“It’s never been done before,” Redding said. “In the past, people have been allowed to retire and then deal with their legal issues.”

When asked by East Rock resident Peter Stein which news reports were untrue, Redding said she had issues with two high-profile allegations in the Register. First, she said the Internal Affairs unit is “not ‘snared’ in any way.”

Second, she said she had not heard any reliable information to substantiate reports that more arrests are on the way.

“If they are investigating more people we don’t know about it,” Redding said.

East Rock Alderman Edward Mattison asked if the vacancy in the narcotics unit could signal a new approach to New Haven’s approach to the War on Drugs.

Redding said the city will continue with a “three- and four-pronged approach to the drug war,” in cooperation with state and federal law enforcement agencies.

In fact, an arrest was made in the neighborhood the very same day as the meeting, according to Sgt. Rebecca Sweeney. She said she got a call about somebody in the Cedar Hill section of East Rock for what she called “small-scale” drug dealing.

Other units, such as the statewide taskforce, which uses intelligence to trace the sources of drugs, often out of the city and into different towns, are still alive and well, Redding said.

Ronan-Edgehill activist Frank Chapman (pictured) said taxes are too high in the city to have to pay additional damages for police misconduct. He cited an incident in Fair Haven in which police allegedly busted into an evangelical church on a Sunday to handle a noise complaint — which wound up costing the city $3 million in a subsequent lawsuit.

Susan Frew (pictured with Chapman) wanted to know how residents should go about requesting more bike cops. With the current budget crunch, Redding said it was a pursuit likely to get rejected.

East Rock Alderman Roland Lemar asked if the department could implement “safeguards” against future incidents by keeping high-ranking officials from staying in one position for too long.

Redding said PERF, the consulting firm hired to investigate the department, will make recommendations after a thorough investigation. But with some of the city’s most qualified officers moving on to different departments, including East Rock’s own bicycle patrol officer — who recently transferred to Yale PD — the city should be thinking of ways to keep good officers, Redding said.

A shortage of detectives and new recruits could undermine the department’s efforts to keep control of the streets in the coming summer, Redding said.

“We really need to do promotional exams,” Redding said. “We need to figure out how to keep our officers.”

Redding said the department is short 16 detectives, and 24 officers. Although 33 recruits initially enrolled in police academy, 6 have dropped out so far, Redding said, and there is no guarantee that all of the remaining 27 will pass the written portion of their exams.

Her concerns were shared by residents as well.

“The way I see it, we’re in a deep hole going into the summer,” said East Rocker David Cameron.

Click Here to read about NHPD recruiting woes.

Sgt. Sweeney, who is in charge of East Rock, Cedar Hill, and Newhallville, introduced Youth At Risk, a program in the mayor’s proposed budget that will assign two officers to monitor 86 teenagers from the neighborhood.

“Some have arrest records. Some are just problems in school, or are hanging out with a crowd that is known to cause trouble,” Sweeney said. “These are the kids we’re most worried about.”

The program assigns two officers to keep an eye on the teens, and make home visits to talk with parents. Sweeney said the program will likely be a partnership between the NHPD, the Board of Education, probation services, and Yale Child Study.

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