Planned Parenthood Makes A Sharp Snag

The chief was in France. No one could find the assistant chiefs or the on-duty supervisors. Chanting protesters blocked traffic outside the police station, refusing to budge until someone talked to them.

Lt. Herb Sharp had an idea. He’d talk to them.

Sharp, the top cop in New Haven’s combined Newhallville and East Rock district, was on his way home at the end of his shift last year when the protesters massed outside police headquarters to demand answers about a viral video of a white cop slamming a handcuffed 15-year-old girl to the pavement during an arrest. A full week of public outrage had gone by with police brass hiding out from the public and withholding basic information about the incident, inflaming tensions.

“Could you do me a favor?” a top supervisor upstairs inside headquarters asked Sharp on his way out. ​“Could you stand by [the police captain outside] to see if you can help with the protesters?”

“Yes, sir,” Sharp replied.

Unbeknownst to him at the time, Sharp was about to be thrown into a test of how to handle a passionate crowd of protesters — a test that will come in handy as he prepares to retire from the New Haven Police Department to take a job as director of security for Planned Parenthood of Southern New England.

Sharp went outside to find the mass of picketers blocking the road.

Sharp hadn’t known about the protest. It wasn’t his bailiwick. The incident hadn’t occurred in his district. He didn’t know what the protesters were asking for.

“We’ll come out of the street if you talk to us,” a protester said.

“What was I going to say? No?” Sharp remembered thinking.

So he waded into the crowd. He fielded questions. He didn’t have a lot of answers; he wasn’t in the loop. But he heard people out. Some screamed at him. He kept his cool. (Click on the video to watch.)

“I understood. They were upset. They wanted to be heard. I’m accustomed to keeping my composure. I said to myself, ​‘their argument is not directed at you. I am here to listen. To give them an opportunity to express themselves.’”

After Sharp heard them out, he recalled, ​“they kept their promise.”

May 31 will be Sharp’s last day as Newhallville’s and East Rock’s top cop. Sharp — a 50-year-old father of three who lives his wife, an FBI agent, in Cheshire — is retiring after 20 years on the force. He’s the latest in a series of top police talent leaving a department with a thin bench of high-ranking experienced cops and potential future chiefs and assistant chiefs. Sharp oversaw a sharp drop in violence in recent years in Newhallville, where neighborhood leaders reacted with sadness to learn this week about his impending departure.

Sharp’s new mission of overseeing security at 18 Planned Parenthood offices in Connecticut and Rhode Island will have him based in New Haven. There, protesters mass outside a clinic three days a week to confront women coming in for abortions, and pro-choice and pro-life picketers clash outside the Whitney Avenue headquarters each Saturday.

“God has put things before me in my life that allowed me to grow,” Sharp said over coffee in an interview this week. ​“I was put in that position for a reason that led me to the job I will have now, where you have to deal effectively with crowds.”

Community Cop

Sharp quickly discovered a reason for being put in a position 20 years ago walking a beat in New Haven’s Hill neighborhood.

Sharp was assigned to patrol Truman and West streets from 4 to midnight along with fellow rookie Officer Jose Silva. He noticed that kids weren’t coming outside to play.

He knew the reason: a spate of shootings in the neighborhood. That’s what prompted the department to put walking cops in the area.

He also knew how that felt for kids in the neighborhood. Growing up on Quimby Avenue on Cleveland’s east side, Sharp heard gunfire all the time. ​“I was always concerned as a child that something could happen” when he played outside, he recalled. ​“You always had to be aware of your surroundings. You always had to pick up if there was an argument.”

Sharp and Silva knocked on every door in the area. They introduced themselves, chatted, handed out business cards.

Within a couple of months, the kids were playing outside again.

“That was one of the most profound times in my career,” Sharp said. ​“I truly knew I was helping people.”

He walked the beat for two years. He advanced to other assignments in the department, including investigating domestic violence and sexual assault cases, financial crimes, and burglaries. In 2013 he was named the top cop in District 7, New Haven’s most diverse policing area. It included million-dollar homes on St. Ronan Street as well as crumbling absentee landlord-owned Section 8 subsidized apartments in Newhallville.

At weekly Compstat data-sharing meetings at headquarters, he waited for the day when the map of his district would show zero major crimes over a seven-day period. He almost made it one week, but for one car break-in reported in East Rock.

“I started thinking: You can’t measure your success by those statistics,” Sharp recalled. ​“You measure your success by people becoming part of change.”

He made a point of working closely with neighbors on both sides of the Prospect Street hill dividing ​“upstairs” and ​“downstairs” New Haven. And while his map never came up blank, the icons marking major crimes — especially shootings — became fewer and fewer, thanks both to his and the neighbors’ work, as well as special police initiatives like Project Longevity.

“He has been consistent and wholehearted in giving his talents and skills to our community,” Newhallville Management Team Co-Chair Kenneth Cousar said when his group honored Sharp with an award for outstanding service. ​“Things aren’t perfect, but because of Lt. Sharp, we live in a safer environment in our community.”

Assistant Chief Al Vazquez called Sharp’s imminent departure ​“a big loss” for the department and the community. ​“Newhallville has been a district that has had a great deal of violence in the area. I can honestly say that since he took it over, not only has he helped to reduce the amount of violent crimes in that district, he has also created a positive alliance with community members.” Vazquez said the department has not yet chosen Sharp’s replacement as District 7 manager.

“I’m going to miss him greatly,” Newhallville Alder Delphine Clyburn said in an interview this week. ​“He cared for the people. He had a heart, a flesh for us. He understood the people.”

Clyburn spoke of how Sharp accompanied her door to door in order to speak with neighbors, how he hung out at senior complexes to listen to the concerns of the elderly. She said she would call or text him whenever a crime or other problem occurred, and that he got right back to her with information, no matter how late at night.

Sharp said he discovered in District 7 that ​“no matter if I was in East Rock or Newhallville, everybody has the same exact concern. They want to feel safe in their neighborhood, to live in a crime-free community.” And that the cops can’t do it alone.

Staying Put

Sharp begins his Planned Parenthood job on July 5. He’ll have a twofold mission: to keep employees safe as they come into and out of work, and to stay on top of security concerns about protests outside all the facilities in Connecticut and Rhode Island.

“I’m excited” about the job, he said. ​“I love working with people. [Planned Parenthood’s] mission is all about helping people. The New Haven Police Department’s mission statement is all about helping people.”

Planned Parenthood of Southern New England Judy Tabar cited Sharp’s bridge-building record in commenting on why the organization hired him. ​“Throughout his distinguished career with the New Haven Police Department, Herbert developed strong community relations, built strong collaborations, and acted as community liaison to city government officials and state-wide legislators,” Tabor stated. ​“His wealth of knowledge, experience and expertise will greatly contribute to our efforts to ensure our health centers are safe, supportive, welcoming environments.”

Sharp will work with law enforcement agencies in all the towns that have Planned Parenthood offices, building on relationships he has developed in New Haven, where the cops have extensive partnerships with state, federal, and other municipal departments.

He also plans to continue attending Compstat meetings (where his ever-present half-smile and sense of humor leaven the atmosphere) and East Rock management team meetings to stay on top of crime trends in the vicinity of the Whitney Avenue Planned Parenthood headquarters. Which means he’s staying in District 7 after all. Where he can expect to learn and grow from more unexpected opportunities.

Read other installments in the Independent’s ​“Cop of the Week” series: 

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