Markeshia Ricks Photo
Activist Fair and Police Chief Campbell at Stetson.
The New Haven Police Department is closer to being at full staff than it has been in years and gets national recognition for its efforts at community policing.
But it also does not perform regular mental health evaluations after an officer gets on the job, doesn’t use performance evaluations in its decision-making for promotions, and doesn’t really know if its implicit bias training has any impact.
Nearly 50 neighbors who attended a two-hour community meeting learned that and more at the first of a planned series of meetings with top cops aimed at improving community relations.
The meeting, held last week at the Stetson Branch Library, was organized in the wake of a clash that pitted white supremacists and neo-Nazis against anti-racism and antifascist groups in Charlottlesville, Virginia. A follow-up community meeting is planned for next week.
The catalyst for the meeting was the July 8 demonstration on the Green by a group known as the “Proud Boys” and the subsequent arrest of four of 150 counter-protesters who showed up that day. Longtime New Haven activist Barbara Fair was one of the counterdemonstrators arrested.
But for many in attendance, the Aug. 16 meeting reached back to a string of controversial incidents over the past two years, including the arrests of activists like Norman Clement, Nate Blair and John Lugo, the body-slamming arrest of a handcuffed 15-year-old girl, and the promotion of cops who have violated department rules.
“It’s about us having a conversation,” Fair said. “Sometimes I know the emotions can get a little crazy, and to be honest, I really tried to postpone this because I didn’t know if I was ready emotionally but I am, so I need your support in keeping this above emotions.”
Things did get emotional briefly when neighbors — along with Police Chief Anthony Campbell, new Assistant Chief Racheal Cain, Internal Affairs (IA) head and former Dixwell top cop Capt. Tony Duff, new Dixwell District Manager Lt. Ray Tenant, and Sgt. John Wolcheski, a former Whalley/Edgewood/Beaver Hills district manager now assigned to IA — watched videos from the day Fair was arrested.
State Rep. Robyn Porter and State Sen. Gary Winfield also both stopped by to update the neighbors on the opposition they faced at the statehouse from police unions and associations to bills that would have held officers accountable for misconduct and let people know that it takes good officers who believe in accountability to get such a bill passed.
Campbell thanked Fair for having the courage to participate in the meeting and those in attendance for being willing to start a conversation.
“I think more people should be here, truth be told, given what’s happening in our country,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity for us to have a dialogue.”
Brass Tacks On Mental Health, Job Performance
People didn’t waste time. They asked about how police handled themselves in recent arrests like the July 8 demonstration. Campbell told the audience that because that case remains before the court — Fair is fighting her interfering charge — he couldn’t comment on that event.
So the audience peppered the police with questions about what they could talk about: arrest protocol and procedure, what compliance means to police officers. One audience member asked two pointed questions: Do officers have to have regular mental health check-ins? And do they receive performance evaluations?
“No,” Campbell replied.
The chief said that before an officer comes on the job, the officer has a thorough evaluation that includes a long questionnaire as well as a sit down with a psychologist. But once a person becomes an officer, there are no required check-ins unless the officer experiences a traumatic incident such as shooting of a person or being personally shot.
“We may require the officer to go through what we call a fitness for duty [evaluation], where they would be screened,” Campbell said. “But one of the things that we have found across the board is that officers do not have to go through continued psychological testing.”
Performance evaluations of officers were done years ago, then the department stopped doing them as a result of a concession in union contract negotiations, he said. Now it’s up to supervisors to look out for changes in their subordinates and to monitor their use of sick time and how many IA complaints have been filed them.
“We have peer counseling. We also have peer review, and EAP, which is the employee assistance program,” Campbell said. “That’s how we try to keep track of the wellness of our officers.”
Red Flags?
Asst. Chief Racheal Cain.
Another audience member raised questions about how much implicit bias training police officers receive. Assistant Chief Cain, who spent a year at the helm of the department’s police academy, said that that’s among the 80-plus hours of training that all the department’s officers receive each year. And all officers had had the training recently.
“How effective is this implicit bias training?” Fair asked. “Is it to be able to check off a box and say, ‘I did it’?”
Lewis: looking for red flags.
Cain acknowledged that the department has done no study of the impact of its training. She said the training is designed to help all officers be aware of their biases and to work on them on an individual basis.
“The key is that we identify this as a problem and we are taking steps to correct it,” she said. “It might not be perfect, but we, as the New Haven Police Department command staff, have identified it as something that we have to work on, and we probably have to work on it more.”
Pastor John Lewis asked if officers are flagged in some way so that higher-ups know if, say, a cop from outside New Haven needs to be monitored or even reassigned because of biased behavior.
“I have had that happen, where an officer addressed me in a particular way and that officer had to be removed, because I wasn’t the only one,” Lewis said.
“When we do get something, one of the things we look at are the policies and procedures, but also the feedback from the community,” Cain said. “But it’s not just about discipline, because discipline doesn’t always solve the problem. We want them to correct the behavior, so we send them back for retraining. We monitor them.”
Her response raised more questions about whether an officer exhibiting a strong bias should be disqualified from being an officer in New Haven. It also brought forth the suggestion that the police department take advantage of town-gown relationships to have experts examine the effectiveness of implicit bias training and mental-health efforts.
Diane Brown.
Stetson Librarian Diane Brown had a suggestion: keep talking.
“I’ve heard people say that what happened in Charlottesville will never happen in my town. But guess what?” she said. “It almost did. So what I want to say is: This should be the beginning of an ongoing dialogue once a month at Stetson library.”
“Why do we have to wait until there is a problem on either side?” she asked. “We should not wait until someone is wrongfully detained, or beat, or whatever the situation may be. I think we need to get to know each other as human beings.”
Police departments like to hire veterans for their experience and discipline, but over the years I have seen several suffering with untreated PTSD (post traumatic syndrome disorder). They are volatile individuals and should not be in uniform and given a gun. The lack of screening is just one issue.
The lack of performance evaluation on an annual basis is another one. The union contract has to be changed to there is more protection given to the public than presently exists.<br /> The Internal Affairs process is similarly in need of a major update. Asst. Chief Caine said she never gives a complainant's statement to an officer before the officer has submitted his statement, but an attorney from the ACLU said complaints are routinely given to officers in advance of their making a statement to IA. It is too easy for an officer to read a complaint and then tailor a statement to the accusations. This is just egregious that this is the standard operating procedure throughout the state.<br /> Finally, the Board of Police Commissioners has significant oversight responsibilities for the police, but when was the last time the public saw a report summarizing the number and kind of complaints passed on by the Chief and their dispositions? <br /> Chief Campbell, when asked how many police had been disciplined or discharged in recent years, had NO answer. This is unacceptable. As Chief of Police he is quick to bring in charts showing how many shots have been fired each quarter of each year, but when it comes to accountability for his officers, he claims to be clueless.<br /> This is a good conversation Barbara Fair has organized and Chief Campbell is responding by showing up and answering questions. He would be well advised, however, to drop his rote responses that amount to infomercials and focus on the deficits in the NHPD and what he plans to do to address them.<br /> Do attend the next meeting on 8/31, Stetson Library, 200 Dixwell Ave. 5:30 PM.