FBI-Certified

Tony Reyes is a top notch police officer. He is a man of impeccable integrity. He will excel in his role and move the department forward.

Top Level Leadership in the NHPD is all "green". They do not have a single AC or Chief who has been there done that before at level of leadership this significant. I believe sending all of them for as much training and experience as possible can only help the department and the forward progress of the future leadership capabilities. With that being said, I have a few concerns, first being as a newly minted patrol AC, how do you leave for 10 weeks during your first summer at the helm? You can use the classic, I have great people around me who can run my division while I am gone, but you cannot get back the respect, buy-in and moral of the officers that could have been gained being there with them. Officer's see what goes on around them, they see who and when their leaders are there, but more importantly, they see when they are not. You can be an amazing leader, a man or women of forward thinking and utmost integrity, but if you are not there to present that to your officer's it doesn't much matter.

I admire the self drive and dedication to attend and GRADUATE this extremely difficult and extensive school. Very few leaders in the policing profession receive this opportunity. I applaud AC Reyes for his accomplishment. Now I ask, will you take a moment to use those learned lessons, look at prior decisions, future opportunity, and right a ship of poor choices and bad personnel implementations . Will you choose to believe the leadership lessons and really make the moves to push the NHPD to the top? Best of luck we are all waiting to see.

Concerned: NHPD's Assistant Chiefs are not "green" by any stretch of the imagination. While two may be new at their positions, all are accomplished police officers with established reputations and accomplishments in policing. The FBINA is a world reknown training acsdemy and a once in a lifetime opportunity. Perhaps Tony should have been sent years ago by another Chief but I've known several sitting Chiefs of Police who've attended the NA. If the Chief can leave for 12 weeks, the AC certainly can. The NA is worthwhile both from the standpoint of the Training it provides and the ongoing networking opportunities and resources which become available. Ask anyone about AC Reyes. He is a known commodity and his reputation is well established.

Speaking of Assistant Chief's, what is the status of the investigations in to AC Casanova?

[Ed.: http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/luiz_casanova_probe/]

ABC: As I re-read my last comment, I must clarify first: I was not inferring that AC Reyes has made poor choices or personnel implementations, but there is clear documentation of these being true over the years by past leadership at the NHPD. I by no means was insulting anyone at the NHPD, but being reputable officers and having great law enforcement accomplishments do not correlate to how you perform as a leader. Leadership is not just actions of the past, but also visions of the future, ability to create buy-in, and move a majority of the group in the direction in which you as the leader envision. I simply wonder if at the moment of time, was it the right time to leave and take on as you stated "a once in a life time opportunity". I agree that AC Reyes does have a remarkable reputation, and is absolutely a commodity for the NHPD, I just hope he has the strength, resilience, and available resources to put his new training to work.

Fortunately, leadership Training is a huge component of the NA curriculum. He has the tools. I'm confident he'll use them.

New Haven is very fortunate to have several highly motivated and very well educated police and fire officers who quietly perform their work without fanfare. There are folks doing these jobs with advanced college degrees which were earned on their own time and paid for with zero help from the city. We hear about police officers and firefighters who have and are problems, but we do not hear about the really good ones who quietly perform to high levels for the citizens of New Haven. It would be great to see a story about these men and women for a change. They rarely make headlines, but I think it would be a good story that most of the Independent readers would feel good about.