33 New ​“Community” Cops Sworn In

New Haven’s 33 newest cops learned a lot about ​“community” before hitting the streets.

That was the theme of a graduation ceremony Friday for the city’s last class of recruits at Career High School, where Mayor Toni Harp swore in the 33 new cops (shown in video).

As part of their training, the cadets were assigned to read and discuss the newly released 99-page President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing report. The report called for a return to community policing in the wake of unrest across the country driven by incidents of police violence.

The new officers were asked what they took from the report.

“It’s difficult to take one thing from it,” Officer John Moore said. ​“Because so much of it is already being implemented here in the New Haven Police Department.”

“You can’t be a police officer without your community,” said Officer Christopher Festa (pictured). ​“It’s such a huge part of the job.” He said the report explained why community policing matters, not just how to do it.

“That’s why I came to New Haven Police Department,” said Officer John Moore.

Moore, chosen one of the class Leaders, took the stage midway through the ceremony to speak to his fellow recruits. He spoke of how ​“community” policing takes place not just between officers and their neighbors, but among the officers themselves.

Moore said that when his grandmother had passed away during training, he received messages of support from every single one of his team. Later, when a recruit left training one day to meet his newborn daughter, the other recruits continually checked in to hear the news.

“We came as individuals, but we leave as one unit,” Moore said.

Together with Officer Justin Roselle, Moore was awarded a special award for leadership potential. Other awards were bestowed on new officers for recognition of academic achievement and appropriate understanding of firearms.

The newly sworn in members of the department are: Officer Gregory Ammon, Officer Kenneth Cobb, Officer Nicholas Cobbo, Officer Endri Dragoi, Officer Eric Eisenhard, Officer James Feliciano, Officer James Feliciano, Officer Christopher Festa, Officer John Gregorczyk, Officer Michael Hinton, Officer Stephen Jacques, Officer Christopher Landucci, Officer Jeffrey Luis, Officer André Lyew, Officer Anthony Magnano, Officer Javier Montalvo, Officer John Moore, Officer Monique Moore, Officer Brandon Opuszynski, Officer Ruben Parra, Officer Christopher Rinaldi, Officer Jeffrey Rivellini, Officer Jorge Rodrigeuz, Officer Myckol Rodriguez, Officer Justin Roselle, Officer Michael Rubino, Officer Leah Russo, Officer Jasmine Saunders, Officer David Santiago, Officer Joe Santiago, Officer Daniel Stevens, Officer Jeremy Tavares, Officer Kenroy Taylor, Officer Donald White.