New Haven Independent

Some 200 people thronged Anthony’s Ocean View restaurant Friday evening to hear the tributes to Hilda Grace Kilpatrick, the first African-American female detective in city history, or her contributions to community policing over nearly four decades of service. Official proclamations cited Det. Kilpatrick’s awards, dedication, and pioneering work that also included her being the first African-American female officer from the state of Connecticut to graduate from the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia.

But the real action was the spirit that animated the room: Young people and old, black, white, and Latino, many of whom had been helped, mentored, and inspired by the honoree whose humanistic attitude toward her policing craft, she said, was that “I have never let the uniform define who I am. Nor do I ever forget where I come from.”

Memories abounded as well. Former Mayor John Daniels said he recalled that in 1991, shortly before Kilpatrick became a detective, she was sent to him to be his driver for a two-week period when the regulars were away. “She was terrific, efficient and scrupulous,” he said, “and a whole lot better than those other two cowboys by far.”

Retired Sgt. Tony Griego (on right in photo) remembered her as perhaps one of at most three black women on the force in 1970. He said her candor and positive attitude filled up any room she walked into. “A lot of people meander around in their talking. She always got to the point: ‘Hey, Sarge, you’ve just got to rewrite this report.’”

Kilpatrick’s colleague in the burglary and robbery unit, now Deputy Assistant State’s Attorney, Robert Mullins (on left in photo), recalled Kilpatrick as having remarkable social and listening skills; They could charm confessions out of perpetrators and also be the social glue of the department.

Bob McCormack told of how, when Kilpatrick was in the police academy, she flipped a fellow trainee who was twice her size. “It took a long time for the guy to live that one down.”

Above all, Police Chief Francisco Ortiz (pictured at the top with the honoree) noted Kilpatrick’s tremendous listening skills that enabled her not only to solve crimes but also to repair lives especially when she investigated sexual assaults and bias crimes.

Son Rodney Kilpatrick (shown here on the left with Officer Shafiq Abdussabur, the master of the convivial ceremonies) told a reporter he could never go to sleep until she came in the door. But the pride she generated in him was amazing. “‘Hey, man,’ people would say to me at times, ‘your mother just busted me! But, man, she is one great cop. She really tried to help me. Many cops don’t.’”

Between accolades and hugs, Kilpatrick had a chance briefly to reflect on an extraordinary career, and what major unfinished business there still was, in her view, to accomplish in New Haven:

Independent: How did this all come about for you?

Kilpatrick: I took a job when I was 23 as a civilian in the department. I was just a baby up to New Haven from North Carolina. I especially remember the era of the Panther trials in the city. 1970, that time of ‘power to the people’ and raised fists. As a black employee of the police department, even as a civilian as I still was then, I had to be escorted from place to place — there were 20,000 people threatening to destroy New Haven, calling me a pig and traitor to my people. But I wasn’t. I come from a family of strong black women, involved in civil rights. And we were told to vote, not burn down your city down. What does that accomplish? I mean I had an Afro just like Angela Davis, too. My boss, chief of the detective bureau, Steve Ahern, he sensed this moment was a bit of crisis for me, that I was having second thoughts about a police career. He told me to keep a journal because this was history in the making — which I have done. But I decided I was going to work for progress inside the law, not outside.

Independent: What are you especially proud of among the many things you have accomplished?

Kilpatrick: You know, I instituted a course in training for young cops. A humanistic approach. Things simple, basic, but not done before. I tried to show young new officers that when you come into a room and take away from a person her baby, her child, someone she carried inside her for nine months, no matter what deed the person may have committed, what’s the natural human reaction? What would you do? You would strike out, you would try to protect your baby.

Independent: And community policing?

Kilpatrick: Yes, when [former Police Chief] Nick Pastore wanted to hire more black officers, I, of course, helped, recruited. It’s absolutely critical that the police force reflect the people they serve. And that’s another reason why I helped to found the New Haven Guardians [an advocacy group within the NHPD for black officers, which was a co-sponsor of this event].

Independent: If you had another 30 years to give to the force, on what issue would you focus your efforts?

Kilpatrick: We’re losing a generation of black kids. Our kids, our boys, are killing each other. You know the civil rights movement began in black churches and we have so many churches in New Haven, sometimes it seems one on each block. I’d work so that each church would adopt the block, the neighborhood that it’s on. Everyone has a right to survive, to live out their life as best they can.

Kilpatrick is also active in a predecessor African-American organization, the Silver Shields, whose founders back in the 1960s included these officers also on hand to celebrate, (right to left): Odell Cohens, James Dixon, Ruben Huckaby, and Charles Grady.

Cohens said they were going to take credit for recruiting civilian employee Kilpatrick to consider becoming an officer.

“She was very receptive,” he said, proudly.

Kilpatrick’s grandchildren, Rodney and Rochelle, listening to some of the above, said they didn’t know where to begin to praise their grandmother. Rodney said he might consider a similar career, but Rochelle said she didn’t think she had her grandmother’s courage. A quick look from the grandmother, and you knew a conversation on the matter would occur later in the evening.

And what does the future hold for retired Det. Kilpatrick? A tremendous cook (contributing to that social glue for the department), she is considering, said her son Rodney, pursuing her catering business. Shafiq Abdussabur said she should run for office. Apprised of this prospect, former Mayor John Daniels reflected for a moment and said, “Absolutely not. She’s too nice a person.”

The ceremony was also co-sponsored by the National Association of Black Law Enforcement Officers (NABLEO).

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