Paul Bass Photo
As James Lewis prepares to hand off the police chief’s badge, he has some unfinished business to go along with it.
Lewis (pictured) ends his 20-month term as police chief Friday. He returns to his home outside Black Creek, Wisconsin, where he can “only see two or three neighbors,” but where he and his wife will be close to their son, daughter, and grandchildren.
Assistant Chief Stephanie Redding will take over as acting chief. Mayor John DeStefano said Wednesday he has identified a few finalists for the permanent job, but he doesn’t expect to name a successor over the next week or to have someone start work before April.
New Haven has treated Lewis this week to continual thank-yous and farewell bashes for turning around a once scandal-plagued department — slashing crime 10 percent, disciplining wayward officers, undertaking a detailed reorganization designed by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), and in general restoring pride and credibility to the force. Click here and here to read about Lewis’s accomplishments.
Reflecting on his tenure here in an interview in his third-floor 1 Union Ave. office, Lewis said he enjoyed his time here. He called both the rank and file as well as the community enthusiastic partners in helping him and two temporary assistant chiefs make the city safer during what was always intended to be a short-term gig.
“This was an easy 20 months,” he said. Ninety percent of the employees knew the problems. They used PERF as their mechanism to get people [to pay attention]. People treated us well inside the police department and outside the police department.” He said he met “no resistance.”
That doesn’t mean New Haven put all its public-safety or departmental challenges behind it, Lewis said. The next chief has work to do that he didn’t get around to.
“There’s a lot of stuff we haven’t touched,” Lewis said. He ticked off examples:
• Developing a bench. Two assistant chiefs who came with Lewis from California, Roy Brown and Kenneth Gillespie, are leaving with him. A third assistant chief, Pete Reichard, retired Feb. 1. That leaves only Stephanie Redding, the assistant chief about to become acting chief, handling what used to be five people’s jobs. And she didn’t apply to become chief. All the finalists come from out of town. The department still lacks a deep A team.
“We haven’t spent the money to develop our managers like we should,” Lewis said.
He said he has started trying to do that. Five managers went to a PERF training seminar, another to an FBI course. District managers and other lieutenants went to a community policing seminar in Boston. “We wanted to expose them to something other than New Haven” in terms of how departments operate, Lewis said.
• Reaching the small number of teens responsible for causing most of the mayhem in town. With the help in part of drug forfeiture money, Lewis boosted the department’s support for programs the keep kids off the street and in productive places: He kept a Saturday YMCA program open, expanded the Police Athletic League, boosted the number of cops in schools. But the hard-core kids already in trouble haven’t been reached, he said. The cops need to do more, he said — and so do others in town.
“We’re not effective at identifying the kids who are in trouble,” he said. “I attended a lot of meetings where people talked about doing things for kids. There wasn’t a lot of follow-through. That is New Haven — not a lot of follow-through” with kids.
• Case-tracking. The department has been slow to put software into place to keep on top of investigations, Lewis said.
• Tracking citizen complaints. Similarly, Lewis said, the department needs to get software up and working to keep on top of internal affairs cases. The department recently trained people to use it. The idea is to catch “red flags” for potential problem officers.
• Video cameras in patrol cars. Most departments New Haven’s size have them, Lewis said. It’ll cost $400,000 to $500,000 to fully equip New Haven’s fleet, he said, but it needs to be done.
• Wrestle with budget realities. New Haven has protected the police and fire departments from budget cuts. That can’t last forever, Lewis noted: Cities across the country are slashing their budgets. And you can cut libraries and parks only so much before looking at previously protected portions of city government, he noted.
Mayor DeStefano Wednesday noted another challenge he’s putting on the next chief’s to-do list: strengthen the department’s detective unit, aka the Investigative Services Division (ISD).
That’s the umbrella for four sub-units: major crimes, special investigations, tactical narcotics, and investigative support.
Those four all reported to Assistant Chief Reichard.
Strengthening ISD wasn’t a priority in the PERF report. Now it’s time to focus on it, DeStefano said.
Chief Lewis said he has met with “all” the finalists for his job, including having “lunch or dinner” with the candidates “and their wives.”
DeStefano said he hopes to begin a background check on a finalist “within the next one to two weeks.” After that check, a chosen candidate would need some time to finish up his current job.
Neither he nor Lewis would identify the finalists. One is believed to be a former New York City precinct captain. Lewis said they all have strong backgrounds. He said he’s confident his successor will be up to the task of continuing the progress New Haven has made.
Lewis was asked what most surprised him about New Haven.
Answer: the shootings.
Not just the number but the type. New Haven had 149 reported shootings in 2009. It had 12 reported murders.
In other cities, especially those with more formal gangs, a far higher percentage of shootings are homicides, he said. Here, plugging a bullet in someone’s body can almost be an afterthought.
“In east L.A. [where he previously worked] we didn’t have kids riding bicycles shooting people,” Lewis said.
Shaking his head, he told the story of one New Haven man who was shot by a bike-riding teen.
“He gives up his wallet. He doesn’t fight the guy. [The teen] shoots him in the leg anyway. He said, ‘I got this out anyway. I might as well use it.’ It’s almost a joke.”
I hope that New Haven takes Chief Lewis's To-Do list seriously and sets to work accomplishing the tasks that our departing chief has laid out.
Do so will honor him and thank him for the serious work that he has accomplished. It will make New Haveners safer and happier, and all of us, including Chief Lewis, will be proud.