Paul Bass Photo
Esserman promises activists Jewu Richardson and John Lugo he’ll meet with them to discuss brutality concerns.
In what felt more like a wedding or a bar mitzvah than a swearing-in, hundreds of well-wishers from near and far jammed City Hall to welcome new Police Chief Dean Esserman — and erupted into applause when he declared a return to community policing.
From top police brass to the rank and file, from elected officials to neighborhood activists and street outreach workers, New Haveners Friday afternoon made a collective leap of faith — that a dynamic new chief can finally help the city get control of the violence that has claimed 30 lives already this year. They allowed themselves to believe that cops can return to walking beats and rebuild trust with neighbors. They allowed themselves to believe that a long-rudderless department will have strong leadership that lasts more than a year or two.
“I’m inspired,” said longtime police critic Barbara Fair. “I feel good about him.”
“He seems to have a genuine concern about hearing” from the cops, said Arpad Tolnay (pictured huddling with Esserman Friday), who heads the police union, which voted no-confidence in Esserman’s predecessor.
Hill Alderman Jorge Perez observed that the outpouring of support stemmed from Esserman’s past history with New Haven — he served as assistant chief from 1991 to 1993, when the city successfully launched community policing and drastically cut violent crime —as well as from the fact that he’s the fourth chief in four years (not counting acting chiefs) to take the helm.
“This one needs to work,” Perez said. “For all our sakes. This average person in the city really wants this to work.”
Well-wishers, including the head of Connecticut’s FBI and police chiefs from Yale, Providence, Stamford, and New York City, filled the 300 folding chairs set up in the main lobby of City Hall. Others spilled out toward the main stairwell, where an elaborate deli spread was arrayed.
In brief remarks to the assembled, before an hour of schmoozing and noshing began, Esserman promised to restore walking beats to all parts of town as part of a larger strategy to reconnect cops and citizens and to prevent crime before it occurs, rather than chase after it later.
“The New Haven police department is returning fully to the neighborhoods of our city,” Esserman said. “The walking beat is returning.”
“It’s good to be home.”
Esserman, who’s 54, said every neighborhood will have a dedicated walking-beat cop. He said in previous jobs he has had rookies wait a year before spending any time patrolling in cars, so they could get used to the community on foot.
“There is one neighborhood I’ll target and empty of officers,” Esserman said later in remarks to the press. “And that will be police headquarters.”
Esserman made a point in his remarks during his swearing in of slipping a copy of the constitution into his uniform. He said he has done that in every job.
“We are a land of laws. The police are not above it,” he said. “The constitution is the only rule book I need it.” (Click on the play arrow to watch him discuss the subject.)
The day’s celebrity guest was William J. Bratton, former New York, Los Angeles, and Boston police chief. Cops hustled to have their photos taken with him before and after the swearing-in Friday afternoon.
In his remarks, Bratton (pictured) congratulated Mayor John DeStefano for bringing Esserman to Hartford. Later he congratulated him for bringing Esserman to L.A. Then he corrected himself, and made it New Haven.
In between, he put Esserman’s arrival in context: The national shift in policing philosophy. In the 1970s and 1980s, as cities like New Haven declined, police focused on responding to crime, while addressing the roots of crime were deemed other professions’ concerns. In the 1990s, cities like New Haven birthed community policing, focusing on “partnerships” with neighbors and social workers and federal and state law enforcement; and putting cops on walking beats where they got to know people. Cities started coming back.
Esserman left New Haven to develop that philosophy further in Stamford and Providence, which saw dramatic drops in crime, Bratton noted.
He didn’t mention the subtext of the event: That New Haven lost its community-policing mojo, and the violence came back.
DeStefano swears in Esserman Friday.
Mayor John DeStefano sought to acknowledge that sentiment in remarks before he swore in Esserman. He noted the “urgency” in New Haven as “homicides have soared” the past two years.
“Violence is terrifying a lot of our neighborhoods. It’s sucking optimism from a lot of the good things we are doing. And,” DeStefano noted, “it is killing our children.
“Does anyone ever want to think that 30 homicides [a year] are a normal thing? Have we had enough? I know we all have.”
Ultimately, while he’s excited about Esserman’s arrival, Friday’s event wasn’t “about” the new chief, DeStefano said. “It is about us. It is about what kind of community we want to be.”
Then he drew on arguments in a new book about stopping urban violence, by David Kennedy, whom the federal government has sent to cities around the country to help introduce a new idea about how to stop gang-related and drug-market-related shootings. Kennedy worked with Esserman in Providence, and violent crime dropped more than 50 percent. Kennedy was in attendance at City Hall for Friday’s swearing-in; he plans to work with Esserman here, too.
“The police and the community have to change the way we see each other, how we treat one another, and how we act toward one another,” DeStefano said, summarizing one of Kennedy’s main arguments. “Enough is enough. Let’s do something about it. Not just this chief. All of us.”
Esserman praised John Velleca (seated next to him) for his stewardship as acting chief, and promised to work closely with fellow assistant chiefs Tobin Hensgen, Petisia Adger and (not pictured) Pat Redding.
Thomas MacMillan contributed reporting.
Wow.William Bratton.I remember him when he was police commissioner in new york back in 1994. He bust some police officers call the Dirty 30 in harlem.They would rob drug dealers and take pay offer.My bet is that this New Chief like the others will be gone within two years.