nothin Exit “Moses,” Enter “Joshua” | New Haven Independent

Exit Moses,” Enter Joshua”

Clockwise from top left: Esserman; Moses; Joshua; Campbell.

New Haven’s just-resigned police chief brought us to a promised land of community policing. His successor will have a different task, akin to that of Joshua — keeping that progress going.

So said Mayor Toni Harp, who has the job of selecting that successor.

Harp offered that biblically-inspired analogy Monday when asked about last week’s resignation of New Haven Police Chief Dean Esserman and her plans for a permanent replacement. She spoke with me and fellow guest host Joshua Mamis on the latest Mayor Monday” program on WNHH radio.

Harp was asked what she learned from the debates, protests, and bitter discussions surrounding the resignation of Esserman from the New Haven Police Department last week.

Sometimes what we learn is that the person who can come in and create the change — I would call it the Moses-Joshua effect — isn’t the person who can maintain the change,” she said. Change is tough for human beings. We are more willing to be familiar with bad outcomes because it’s familiar to us than actually changing things because it upsets the apple cart. Who has the power in the overall system? So it takes a really strong person to want to come in and do that. That’s what we’ve had in Chief Esserman.

But we need now to continue that and to deal with the fact that we’ve created the change, and now it’s got to be sustained, and maybe that requires a different personality.”

You’ve got to take a look at what you’re really trying to do,” she added. When you’re really trying to create change and it’s substantial change, it’s probably better to use an outsider. Somebody who can come in, see the whole picture, recognize where you’ve gotta change … But once you really change things to the point that you think things need to be changed, then someone from inside likely is the appropriate person.” 

In response to a caller’s question, Harp said the Esserman affair had pushed her to think about how she wants the police department, and its nationally-recognized approach to community policing, to operate going forward — and whom she wants to lead that charge.

We have made progress when almost every other urban area in America has seen more death and destruction on the streets through gun violence … and if you look at every measure that the federal government requires us to measure, on every measure we’re down five years in a row,” she said. So we should be very grateful to him [Esserman] and to the New Haven Police Department.”

On the issue … [Anthony] Campbell, he will be the interim chief. I’m going to be meeting with [Chief Administrative Officer] Mike Carter, with [Chief of Staff] Tommy Reyes, probably talking to Board of Alders [President] Tyisha Walker … and others in the community to see whether or not they would like for us to do a national search. Now, what I know is that we are ahead of the nation in terms of policing. I would not want to bring a police officer in here who doesn’t understand the way in which we police, how important the community-police relationship is, and so that is something that I’m going to be looking at very carefully.”

He [Campbell] will stay for a while until we figure out where we’re going,” she added, explaining that the city is constrained by its charter that the police chief needed to have both a Bachelor’s Degree and five years’ experience supervising supervisors of a police force that is 200 police members or more. We’ve got to think about all of these things as we make our plan to move forward.”

Harp also revealed that the resignation settlement reached with Esserman does not reach the $100,000 threshold that would require approval by the Board of Alders.

During the program, Harp touched on the city’s recent initiative to equip every New Haven Police Department patrol officer with a city-linked cell phone so that they can give out their phone numbers, and people can have a personal relationship with those officers who are walking the beat and in their cars.”

When something happens in their neighborhood, they can call immediately,” she sad of the phones.

NHFD Needs A Moses?

During the program Harp also spoke on the move to hire a new fire chief, and what pushed her to think far outside of the city’s boundaries.

We did a national search for that,” she said. The two highest scored folks [New Jersey’s John Alston, and Kansas’ James Garrett] were from outside … and I think it’s time for someone from outside to come to fire. So we’ll see how that works out. But honestly, we are constantly changing … You’ve got to have leadership that can actually move the ball down the road or down the field.”

Harp is expected to announce Alston’s hiring in coming days, assuming negotiations over terms of his employment have been ironed out.

We have a fantastic fire department,” she added, But there is so much infighting going on in that department between groups of people. We’re human beings, we form families, or teams, or groups … and I’m hoping that we have a leader that can say: Professional first, and let’s figure out a way to get beyond these little spats that we have inside the department.”

New Haven Fire Fighters Union president Frank Ricci subsequently responded with a reference to a press conference he organized Monday against a Harp administration plan to replace a fire engine with an ambulance at the Ellsworth Avenue firehouse: In 19 years I have never witnessed the department this unified. Yesterday demonstrated that the members and the neighborhood will stand for public safety.”

High-Five

One place Harp did not see infighting this past week — Hill Center School, where she joined a group greeting pint-sized New Haveners on their first day of school.

The kids were all so gorgeous in their uniforms with their barrettes in their hair … The boys had their little backpacks and their lunches and they were, like, strutting in. They were so excited to be back,” she said.

There was one little boy who was walking with his mother. He seemed a little bit reluctant, but then when he saw all of us, he came up before we even did and gave us all hi-fives. He seemed so happy once he saw all of us, so we were excited too!” 

To listen to the entirety of Mayor Monday,” click on or download the audio above, or check out Dateline New Haven on Soundcloud or iTunes. The episode also includes a discussion of parking garages, New Haven’s latest bike races and biking initiatives, and Yale’s latest developments in the city.

Today’s episode was made possible with the support of Gateway Community College and Berchem, Moses & Devlin, P.C.

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