New Haven Independent

But when Stephanie Redding returned a phone call Thursday, she slipped into the past and possible future tense. She said “Assistant Chief Redding” was on the line.

Even though she’s currently the chief of police, on a temporary basis.

“It’s habit,” Redding explained. “Chief. Assistant chief. Acting chief.

“It’s lucky I didn’t say ‘lieutenant.’”

Titles don’t much concern Redding, the first woman ever to command the New Haven force. The work is what’s on her mind. And while she never sought to become chief, and isn’t looking to become the permanent chief, she’s diving into the job for now. She has much she wants to get done. For however long she remains at the helm.

According to the original plan, and the revised plan, Stephanie Redding was supposed to be New Haven’s assistant police chief again on Thursday. She has been filling in as “acting chief” since April 11 as New Haven undertook a secretive outsourced national search for a new top cop to overhaul the corruption-plagued 397-member department.

City Hall originally vowed to have a new chief in place by the end of April. Then mid-May. But on Wednesday, the city’s choice, Mark Pawlina, turned down the offer. The national search began all over again.

That means Redding could well be running the department for at least a few more months. She could conceivably run it for another year and a half. Because of a rule inserted in New Haven’s charter in 2003, New Haven can’t offer a full four-year term to the next chief yet. It has to wait until the current term expires, in 18 months. That makes it harder to lure someone to uproot a family and move here; indeed, Pawlina cited that as one reason he ultimately decided not to take the job,.

Stephanie Redding, who’s 46, reacted to the new development with a shrug Thursday. She said she’s ready to fill in as long as it takes, and tackle some big challenges. (Click here for a previous “Cop of the Week” profile of her.)

Redding assumed control last month of a demoralized department battered not only by a high-profile federal corruption investigation, but also by high-level departures. Chief Francisco Ortiz resigned. So did Redding’s fellow assistant chief, Herman Badger.

The prospect of up to a year and a half in the chief’s chair doesn’t fluster Redding — although she’s physically staying put in the chair in her old assistant chief’s office, leaving the chief’s office vacant to await its permanent occupant.

“It’s fine. I’m not worried about it,” Redding said in an interview in her office Thursday, from behind a desk topped with three photos of her 19-year-old son Patrick. “I’m very happy to do this. I love this department. I have been here 23 years. I know what needs to be done here. I know what I want to do.”

High on that to-do list: overseeing the training of 45 new cops beginning the training academy.

She’s also overseeing the beginning of a long-awaited plan based on an innovative High Point, N.C., community-policing program that enlists federal prosecutors, local cops, and grandmothers in the community to lock up or redirect hard-core young felons rather than simply chase dealers off the street. (Click here and here to read about that.)

She’s handling negotiations with the police union, whose current contract expires June 30.

And she’s working with City Hall on the police department’s share of the emergency cuts announced for the upcoming fiscal year’s budget. Three neighborhood substations — an original backbone of community policing — are scheduled to be closed or combined with other public facilities.

Redding said she would prefer not to have to close any substations, but that she understands the rationale given competing priorities.

“Nothing is written in stone” yet about which, if any, substations, will close she insisted. “Substations are important. They’re a very visible sign of community policing… I’d rather not close them.

“But if I had to balance the cost of the substations versus my class [or new cops], I would sacrifice buildings for people.”

About those substation buildings — they’re aging and in some cases in sorry shape, Redding observed. Broken gutters. Leaking roofs. Bathrooms needing major repairs. One of her goals over the next year is to find money to fix them up, she said.

Another goal: Get more cops back on horses. Redding patrolled on horseback in the early ’90s, downtown, at Eastern Circle, Kensington Street, McConaughy Terrace. She loved it, felt it was part of true community policing.

The force had six or seven horse-riding officers then, she said. Now the number’s around four (depending on the month). One reason: The department relies on donations of horses. it has two horses available now, and another two donated horses which may or may not end up being viable for the beat. Redding said she’d like to explore whether city money can be found to buy horses, as in some other cities.

Her first month as acting chief brought few surprises, she said. Her 23 years in the job, plus a close working relationship with Chief Ortiz and Assistant Chief Badger, prepared her for the routine. It was as assistant chief that she learned skills she hadn’t developed previously in the department, such as preparing budgets and grant applications.

One difference in her new acting post: She’s the one comforting families of homicide victims at the hospital. She has done that two times, with thee different victims’ families, over the past month. (She said investigations in those homicides are progressing. No arrests yet.)

Re-Assess The Search?

City Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts said the city is re-advertising the chief’s position in the wake of Mark Pawlina’s rejection of the offer this week. He said the city does “have a couple of irons in the fire” in terms of other potential chiefs. But he called it “a decent chance” that Redding would would remain in the position for months more.

Hill Alderman Jorge Perez said it might make sense to change the strategy, given the limitation of an 18-month contract. He suggested the department do what former Mayor John Daniels did — offer the job to a retired New Haven cop. (In 1990 that cop was Nick Pastore.) Then, if the it doesn’t work out 18 months later, resume the national search.

Perez said it is “too early” to assess Redding’s performance as top cop.

“I haven’t seen anything worse or better under her; the jury is still out on her,” Perez said. “She hasn’t been in there that long, Perez said. I think she is overall doing a good job in holding the department together.”

“She’s always seemed to me to be very smart and level-headed,” said Board of Aldermen President Carl Goldfield. “But honestly, she hasn’t had enough experience running the department for me to pass judgment on the job she’s doing.

“I haven’t heard any bad things. I suppose that’s a good sign.”

Redding was adamant Thursday in her assertion that she does not want the permanent chief’s job, period. So she won’t be adding the first female face to a new gallery that has appeared on the wall of the department’s third-floor executive suite: framed photos of the last 10 chiefs, including, most recently, the first African-American and the first Latino. (Actually, the gallery has 10 of the last 11 chiefs. Nick Pastore, who introduced community policing in the ’90s, is missing. That’s because the department had trouble finding a photo of him, Redding said; she said his photo will be up there shortly.)

“I made a personal decision” not to seek the permanent chief’s job, Redding said. Asked repeatedly, she declined to elaborate on that personal decision. But she made it clear that while she’s in charge — for however long that will be, with whatever title is thrust upon her — the New Haven department will get an experienced cop’s 100-plus percent attention.

Sign Up for Email AlertsEmail This Story Email the Author

Your Email:

Recipient's Email:
Your Email:
Message (optional):

Your Name:
Your Email:
Message: