Stephanie Addenbrooke Photo
From across the auditorium at Hillhouse High School, one male student asked why the cops had arrested him. A top cop was there to give an answer: Because you ran away.
The explanation came from one of eight top New Haven neighborhood cops.
The eight managers took time out together to make the trip to Hillhouse, a follow-up to a similar recent visit to Wilbur Cross High School aimed at connecting with young people as the school year winds down and more teens will be spending more time on the streets.
Speaking to around 30 students gathered in the Hillhouse auditorium, Westville/West Hills District Manager Sgt. Renee Dominguez told students no question was off-limits.
“We don’t want those misunderstandings,” she said. “We don’t want to see happen here in New Haven what happened in Baltimore.”
The male student took her up on it and described his recent arrest. She asked him to describe the situation.
He said he was out on the street when he heard shooting. “I was nervous, and I ran,” he said.
An officer chased him, caught up with him. They told him to get on the ground. He asked why. “Shut the fuck up,” he said the officer responded.
“A lot of times you have a negative interaction with the police, something has happened before which leads to that,” Dominguez said.
When a cop arrives at the scene and see a teen running, the officer doesn’t know if that is an eyewitness — or even the person who fired the gun. The officer’s instinct is to pursue the person.
“Imagine if you were a cop in that situation,” she said.
He said he doesn’t know what he would do.
Others joined the conversation when Lt. Makiem Miller, who heads the Whalley/Edgewood/Beaver Hills district, asked the students when they believe a police officer should be able to shoot a gun. The auditorium went quiet.
Then students shared times when they felt cops had been rude to them. “Cops are human too” and not always able to brush off rudeness, Dominguez responded.
The conversation returned to use of force.
“Why not shoot him in the leg? Why does every shot seem to end in death?” one student asked.
Miller explained that even though TV shows sometimes depict cops shooting at other body parts, in reality the primary purpose of using force is to stop a threat. Even the concept of a threat is subjective, the officers explained. A smaller officer might be more at risk from a larger physical threat. Dominguez said one of her colleagues is an expert in martial arts, and therefore has a very different understanding of a threat.
Therefore, when a weapon is used appropriately, it is when the officer fears for their life or the life of another officer, the cops said. Shooting forcefully toward a point of potentially serious impact is sometimes the only option to fully stop a threat.
“Bullets don’t stop you as easily as people think,” Brown said.
Acknowledging that cops make mistakes, the officers asked the students present as a final thought to try and imagine how they would feel in the same situation.
“All we ask is that you give us the opportunity to correct these things that are wrong,” top Newhallville cop Lt. Herbert Sharp told the students. “So, you should feel comfortable introducing yourself to us or another officer. We’re here to help you.”
Other district managers who participated in the event were Dixwell’s Lt. Sam Brown, East Shore’s Sgt. Wilfredo Cruz, Dwight’s Sgt. Stephan Torquati, Hill North’s Lt. Brendan Hosey, and Hill South’s Lt. Jason Minardi.
My suggestion is to not run from the cops, obey their lawful orders and do not do anything that will make the cop feel that you are a threat. Cops do what they are trained to do, they very rarely adlib. Most times the reaction to a situations is based on their training that is pounded into them. They do not have time to think out alternative solutions in the heat of the moment, they follow the training manual. They do not always analyze the situation they are facing correctly because of having to process a lot of data very quickly, and therefore react incorrectly. I believe that the vast majority of New Haven cops are trying to do the right thing.