Colon Sworn In As New Asst. Police Chief

Surrounded by dozens of friends, family members, city workers, and police colleagues, Lt. Manmeet Colon raised her right hand and took the oath of office to become the city’s third assistant police chief — and the department’s first ever second-in-command of Asian descent.

That was the scene Friday afternoon during for a crowded and celebratory swearing in ceremony that marked Colon’s official ascension to the role of assistant police chief in charge of patrol.

She joins fellow assistant chiefs David Zannelli and Bertram Ettienne in what Board of Police Commissioners Chair Evelise Ribeiro described on Friday as the ​“dream team” that Police Chief Karl Jacobson has surrounded himself with at the top of the department.

Friday’s ceremony marked ​“another glass ceiling being broken,” Ribeiro said, noting how Colon — a 15-year NHPD veteran who was born in Mumbai, India and immigrated to the United States with her family when she was 11 years old — is now the department’s second ever female assistant chief of color and its first Indian assistant chief.

Colon has risen the ranks and served in a wide variety of roles during her tenure with the NHPD, Ribeiro and Jacobson said with praise, describing how Colon has worked in patrol, as a detective in the special victims unit, as a sergeant supervising the robbery and burglary unit, as a lieutenant and district manager for Newhallville and Dixwell, and most recently as the head of the Internal Affairs division.

“She was tough, but she was also very kind,” Jacobson said as he recalled working in patrol in the Hill at the same as when Colon joined the force a decade and a half ago. He said they both learned about what community policing truly looks like under the mentorship of the Hill’s top cop at the time, now-retired Lt. Holly Wasilewski. 

Jacobson also noted how he brought his own daughter, who is studying criminal justice at University of New Haven, to Friday’s ceremony to be inspired by and take note of such an accomplished female police officer as Colon.

“I brought her here because I want her to look up to you,” he said, pushing back tears as he looked over at Colon.

Colon’s older daughter Milan joined Colon’s brother Prabhjyot Singh in pinning Colon’s new assistant chief badge on her uniform, as Mayor Justin Elicker then administered the oath of office.

“You mom has done great things. She will do so many great things” to come, Elicker said through near-tears of his own as he looked over at Milan and her sister, Maya.

Colon thanked her colleagues — and her family and friends — before closing out Friday’s ceremony. She urged her colleagues, especially on bad days, to ​“remind yourself of how privileged you are to be part of such a rewarding and strong profession.”

“With great power comes great responsibility,” she said, ​“and ever greater accountability.”