Dan Renzetti Photo
Dynamic duo: Anthony Campbell and Ronnell Higgins.
Cops will call Anthony Campbell “chief” in New Haven again — this time on the Yale campus.
Yale announced Tuesday that it has named Campbell the new chief of its police department.
Campbell succeeds Ronnell Higgins, who has served as chief of the department since 2011. Higgins was promoted to a new campus position called associate vice president for public safety and community engagement. The job entails “working in close partnership with campus colleagues responsible for student life and campus health, as well as with deans and other Yale leaders, to match the most appropriate campus resources with specific public safety situations” and “serv[ing] as a key liaison to the broader New Haven community by identifying points of intersection among campus safety, community safety, and community engagement,” according to a Yale release.
Anthony Campbell came to New Haven to attend Yale as an undergraduate in 1995, and has remained an active member of the community since. He joined the city police department in the early years of community policing — and nearly lost his life when hit by a driver fleeing the police. (He pleaded for mercy for the driver at his court sentencing. Read about that here.) Along the way, Campbell earned a master’s degree from Yale Divinity School.
Campbell rose to the position of New Haven police chief, earning widespread respect with the department and establishing a close working relationship with federal law enforcement on a violence-prevention program called Project Longevity. Campbell retired from the city police force in March 2019, and, after a stint with the state’s attorney’s office, became Yale’s assistant police chief.
He told the Independent Tuesday that he feels “honored and privileged” to take the helm of the Yale PD.
“It is a rare situation to have come here 31 years ago as an undergraduate, to graduate in 1995, ultimately to rise through the ranks and become chief of police for the City of New Haven, and then come back to campus and now to become chief of police for the Yale Police Department,” Campbell said. “I feel truly blessed to be back at my alma mater in this new capacity, where I can give back to a place who has given me so much.”
Both good men and assets to the University and the community. Young men of all ethnicities would do well to emulate the struggle they waged to get to the top of their professions. Kudos to Yale for making these appointments.