Markeshia Ricks File Photo
Esserman at a recent announcement about crime drops.
Paul Bass Photo
Antunes: Campbell’s ready.
It’s official: Dean Esserman will no longer run the New Haven police department.
Esserman summoned at least 40 on-duty cops at police headquarters Monday afternoon to a fourth-floor meeting to inform them that he will not be returning as their chief.
In recent days he has been finalizing negotiations with Harp administration officials on a deal to leave his office even though his contract runs through January 2018.
The administration did not release terms of the final agreement. Mayor Toni Harp said in an interview that for now she will leave it to the chief about whether to disclose those terms. The resignation was effective as of Sept. 2.
Esserman has been on leave, first a forced paid leave and then a sick leave, since July 26, following a series of incidents in which he lost his temper in public and threatened to withdraw security for the First Lady of the United States.
Anthony Campbell is to continue serving as interim chief.
In an interview with the Independent, Esserman, who served almost five years as chief and brought community policing back to New Haven, said he wanted to let the cops at 1 Union Ave. Tuesday know he was leaving before they heard it elsewhere.
“I went to police headquarters because I wanted to speak to them before the press release came out, out of respect. I wanted to tell them the story of the New Haven police department is not about me. It’s about them. The New Haven police department is a remarkable organization with remarkable people,” Esserman said.
“I feel such gratitude to New Haven for bringing me here 25 years ago, where I started my family, and bringing me back five years ago. I love New Haven. I was proud to serve here for all these years.”
He declined to discuss the terms of his agreement with the city. He said he plans now to “keep commitments” he has to teach this fall while he “explores options” for his next career move.
Mayor Harp praised Chief Esserman’s tenure, noting that the crime rate plummeted for five years under his watch.
Long-Term Plan Unclear
Campbell .
Harp said that she hasn’t decided on a permanent replacement for Esserman. Nor has she decided how long Campbell will serve as interim chief.
She noted that department policy calls for the assistant chief in charge of patrol to fill in for a chief, which is why Campbell originally played that role. Harp said she wants him to continue playing that role now.
“There needs to be stability right now,” she said. “There has been stability since [Esserman] has been out on leave. I’d like to continue that stability.”
The “interim” in Campbell’s title is important because the charter limits the tenure of “acting” department heads.
Also, officials have to figure out whether Campbell, or other existing top cops, meet charter requirements for a police chief. The charter requires that the chief have a college degree. (Campbell has an undergraduate and a graduate degree from Yale.) It also states that the chief must “have had experience of at least five (5) years in the management and direction of supervisors of operations of a police department with at least two hundred (200) employees serving a population of at least one hundred (100,000) thousand residents.” At issue is how to define “supervisors” whom the chief will have had to supervise for five years.
Steven Mednick, an attorney who specializes in municipal law and oversaw New Haven’s most recent charter revision, said that term is vague. So it requires interpretation.
For instance, would district managers qualify for having supervised other “supervisors,” if some of the people under the command had authority over other officers?
“You’d have to look at the specific job descriptions to see whether they have supervisory funcitons. Then you determine if they have supervisory functions over people” who have supervisory functions, Mednick said.
Before becoming assistant chief two years ago, in which position he oversaw numerous supervisors, Campbell ran the training academy and oversaw internal affairs. (Click here for a background story on a defining moment in his career.)
New Haven Union President Craig Miller praised the job Campbell has done shepherding the department in Esserman’s absence. “I think he’d be a good choice to be chief,” Miller said. “He and I had issues where we butted heads a little bit, and we worked them out. We treated each other fairly.” He also noted that at the training academy, which he began overseeing in 2012, Campbell “had sergeants working underneath him, and they were in charge of officers.”
Quinnipiac Meadows Alder Gerald Antunes, a retired city police captain, said he hopes Campbell gets the job permanently.
“I know his work ethic. He seems to be a good manager. Officers like him. That means the morale will pick up,” Antunes said of Campbell, with whom he worked in the police department.
Appreciation Amid The Controversy
Officer David Hartman, who worked closely with the chief as director of department communications, said Tuesday that he “will not soon forget my working with Chief Esserman these past five years. I’ve learned a lot from that man and owe him a debt of gratitude. His position is not just a figurehead. It is that of a working, thinking, planning, strategizing man who has the great responsibility of assuring the safety of all that live and visit the Elm City.
“I’ve seen the pressures he allowed himself to be under and know few people who’ve shouldered such pressure without difficulty. Everyone thinks they know better – and they don’t. Everyone has a different plan and they’re sure it’ll work – it won’t. The life of a city police chief is sometimes a lonely and thankless one. You’re at the top. Who does a chief turn to for advice? How do you maintain stoic when there are things that distress you”?
“The chief has had difficulty from time to time. His transgressions are just those – transgressions. We all have moments we’re not proud of but I can say this without question; That man never woke up planning to be curt or rude toward anyone. He truly cared about those he worked with and recognized his need to be apologetic to those he’d crossed.”
A release issued by the mayor’s office quoted Esserman as saying: “It has been a privilege to serve Mayor Harp and work alongside the remarkable men and women of the New Haven Department of Police Service, who no doubt have earned the title, ‘New Haven’s Finest,.’ Last and certainly not least, it has been my privilege to serve the wonderful people of New Haven – I am so very grateful for having had this opportunity to do so.
“I am confident in the future of the New Haven Police Department because of the excellent leadership, command staff, supervisors, detectives, and patrol officers who serve; day and night they earn the respect and gratitude of those who live in and visit New Haven.”
Union President Miller said Tuesday’s announcement by Esserman will now enable the cops “finally [to] focus on doing what we’re supposed to be doing — working with the community and doing police work without any distractions.”
WOW ! ! Never saw that coming - <sarc/OFF>
Maybe I should go play the Lotto, if this is a day of unexpected surprises...
No, never mind - if it took THAT LONG to 'negotiate his settlement' he is the one who just hit the Lotto...