langevin.house.gov
Dean Esserman, who helped establish community policing in New Haven in the 1990s, will return to town to take over as police chief.
Mayor John DeStefano is expected to announce Esserman’s appointment at a press conference Tuesday afternoon, according to a knowledgeable source.
Esserman (pictured), 54, replaces Frank Limon, whose departure from the force became official at a Monday afternoon press conference.
Esserman will begin work Nov. 16. Limon is officially chief until Nov. 15. But he’s on an extended “leave” in Chicago; Assistant Chief John Velleca is running the department in his absence.
After that, Limon (pictured) will receive a $90,000 “consulting” contract over nine months — in effect, a severance payment to avoid a costly lawsuit. The city could not fire Limon under the charter unless it had cause.
“There was no cause here,” DeStefano said Monday.
Esserman, most recently the police chief of Providence, R.I., declined comment when reached by phone Monday.
He arrives back in New Haven at a time of flux for the police department. He will be the fourth chief in three and a half years. Meanwhile, New Haven is on a record-setting pace for murders this year. And many people in New Haven has been consistently demanding — most recently in some of the Sept. 13 Democratic primary elections — a return to the neighborhood-walking-cop style of community-policing that led to dramatic reductions in crime over two decades.
Esserman knows about that. He served as then-Chief Nick Pastore’s deputy as Pastore instituted dramatic reforms in the department: Assigning cops on regular walking beats in neighborhoods; de-emphasizing arrests in favor of problem-solving before crimes occur; negotiating with gang leaders to reduce violence while also amassing massive intelligence from the public to help put several gangs out of business; aggressively recruiting female, black and Hispanic officers, and training them in new ways. Esserman created the present-day neighborhood districts. He also created the state’s first gang task force, in New Haven. Esserman was brought in part to try to soothe tensions between the chief’s office and the rank and file. He was more popular with cops who were resistant to changes in the department; at the same time he began building a national reputation as an apostle of community policing.
A graduate of Dartmouth College and New York University Law School, Esserman left New Haven to take over the M.T.A. Metro North Police Department. After that he went on to serve as police chief in Stamford, where he built bridges to the immigrant community and dramatically cut the crime rate.
Overall crime fell 70 percent under Esserman, according to current Stamford Chief Bob Nivakoff.
“He’s tough on criminals. He’s nice to the community. He’s good to the cops. For me that was a good blend,” Nivakoff, who served as a west side sergeant under Esserman, said Monday.
“He’ll keep you busy, I can tell you that much. You’ll see him all the time.”
Next, Esserman moved up I‑95 to Providence, R.I. He recently left that job after an incident involving underaged drinking at his daughter’s high school graduation party, though people believe his departure had more to do with the election of a new mayor. The police union there had also conducted a no-confidence vote against him.
Murders dropped 50 percent and overall crime around 30 percent in Providence during his tenure.
A heralded national effort to wipe out gang violence — called the National Network for Safe Communities and based on an experiment in High Point, N.C. — was announced in Providence. That’s because the U.S. Justice Department chose Providence’s department, under Esserman, to become the network’s first site city to roll out the program, which has federal and local law enforcement work with gang members and their families with a mixture of carrots and sticks. (Read about High Point, and a failed attempt to bring the program here in the past, here, here, and here.)
Here’s what the Providence Journal wrote about Esserman’s tenure running its city’s department:
“In eight years, Esserman brought community policing to every neighborhood, assigned detectives to investigate the cheating scandal, beefed up units investigating gangs, guns and internal affairs. He introduced computer mapping of crimes, so the police could evaluate what was happening in the city and prevent crimes, and opened the department up to partnerships with other law enforcement agencies, organizations and schools.
“The crime rate began to fall, longstanding drug markets vanished, and even murders plummeted. The department drew national attention for its crime-prevention initiatives and community-centered approach. Last fall, the department and Roger Williams University won a federal grant to establish the first educational institute for law enforcement in New England.
“But the department also endured scandal — four officers were caught up in a state police investigation into a drug ring last year, a detective was convicted of assaulting a handcuffed man this year.
“And Esserman’s temper and brusque style blistered colleagues and underlings, and alienated some city leaders. Some were celebratory when they learned of his resignation. Others were stunned.”
Office Cleared, “Waldo” Game Ensues
Paul Bass File Photo
In New Haven, the police union at one point also held a no-confidence vote against Frank Limon (pictured), who had a rocky 19-month tenure in New Haven.
The news of his departure capped a day of wild speculation, then dueling press conferences, as the turmoil at the top of NHPD became a campaign issue.
Limon abruptly cleared out his office and left town Friday. The mayor announced that he was on an “indefinite” leave.
Word quickly spread that Limon is in fact leaving the job 19 months into his four-year contract. He told associates in the department that he is leaving for a mix of reasons, according to a person familiar with those conversations. Those include the fact that he misses his wife and son, who have remained in Chicago since Limon moved here last year; and tensions with Mayor John DeStefano, who he felt was micromanaging the department. DeStefano has been known to be frustrated with Limon’s leadership of the department as violent crime has risen this year, including 27 homicides since Jan. 1. Limon and his assistant chiefs have attended biweekly meetings in the mayor’s office to discuss progress in the department.
Limon could not be reached for comment Monday.
He came to New Haven 19 months ago to take over the department. He has a four-year contract. He succeeded James Lewis, another chief who came from out of town. Lewis served as chief for 20 months in what was always considered a temporary assignment; Lewis came in with a mandate to clean up a department reeling from a federal corruption investigation.
Paul Bass Photo
Eli Greer & Jeffrey Kerekes: Enough with “Where’s Waldo?”
Speculation about Limon’s departure spiked through the department and throughout town over the weekend. Monday the ante was upped, as police union President Arpad Tolnay, mayoral challenger Jeffrey Kerekes, and Edgewood neighborhood activist Eli Greer (a Kerekes supporter) slammed the mayor at a press conference outside police headquarters. They demanded that the cops and the public know who’s leading the department; Greer called it a game of “Where’s Waldo?” in “Homicide Haven.”
“If our top cop is gone,” the force needs to know, Tolpay, president of AFSCME Council 15 Local 530, said after the conference, which was covered by all three local TV stations. “We’re doing the best we can. We’re facing a lot of issues now. We get to a point where we can’t get any further.” Tolnay expressed his sympathy for Chief Limon: “If someone has to leave their position, they have to leave their position.” But city officials shouldn’t keep the news a “mystery,” Tolnay said.
Then DeStefano held a 3 p.m. City Hall press conference Monday afternoon to announce Limon’s departure and reveal that New Haven is paying Limon the $90,000 “consulting” contract.
DeStefano called Limon “a decent and straightforward partner.” “We’re a better place because of Chief Limon’s contributions,” he said.
The city charter protects Limon from being fired because an elected official disapproves of his performance. He has to commit a crime or some other egregious act to be removed from office. (As other mayors have discovered, termination is not easy even in that case.) Cities face expensive lawsuits if they improperly seek to remove a chief.
So the city and Limon struck a deal that would give him nine months of pay, at $10,000 a month, as a “consultant” in return for his departure. DeStefano said he and Limon had been discussing the details of that package for the past two weeks.
The rampant speculation around town that grew over the weekend hastened that process, DeStefano said.
Officially, Limon will consult with the department for nine months after his departure to “provide expert guidance to continue the progress made in establishing an Intelligence Unit and to continue the work in the Detective Bureau and Narcotics Unit,” according to a mayoral press release.
Mayoral challenger Kerekes, who’s running against Democrat DeStefano as an independent in the Nov. 8 election, told reporters after the press conference that DeStefano shouldn’t be appointing a new chief yet.
“Who’s been included in vetting the new chief?” Kerekes asked. “The people should decide when they elect the new mayor.”
Tolnay addresses press at City Hall.
Police Union President Tolnay (pictured), on the other hand, said he “welcomes the new chief, whoever that might be.”
“I’m hoping it’s someone who’s going to stay … here long enough to see their plans be implemented,” Tolnay said. “It’d be nice to have a chief I can talk to six years from now and say, ‘We tried that, and it didn’t work.’”
What the hell is wrong with this city?