CRB Suggests Fewer Punches, Friendlier Lobby

Punches to the head and stomach likely won’t be taken out of New Haven cops’ use-of-force toolbox anytime soon.

But some design changes to make the police department lobby less intimidating may be on the way — along with better and more comprehensive body-cam video.

Police Chief Chief Karl Jacobson previewed some of those likely changes and not-changes to police policy and department infrastructure during Monday night’s latest online meeting of the Civilian Review Board (CRB).

Jacobson offered those takes in response to a slate of proposed modifications to the department’s use of force policy, body camera protocol, and physical station layout that the city’s cop accountability board has compiled over the past two years while meeting publicly to review police conduct.

CRB members shared that five page write-up of suggestions — which can be read in full here — during Monday’s meeting. Jacobson, who has been the city’s top cop for just three of the 24 months the board has been operating, joined the Zoom call to reply to those CRB suggestions and to discuss publicly how the department can improve. 

“To remove punches completely — I’m not gonna lie to you, I don’t see that,” Jacobson replied to a proposal by the CRB that the chief and board of police commissioners, to quote directly from the CRB’s recommendation list, ​“remove punches to the head, face, or other body parts that could injure your internal organs from the list of permitted use of force, except in rare and extreme circumstances.”

Jacobson said that forceful fists are often necessary in avoiding more violent interventions, such as using a taser, while on the job. ​“I think you need to see it from the officer’s perspective,” he said.

“As for changing the face of the lobby — to be perfectly honest, I never thought about it,” the police chief reflected while reading over another paragraph considering alterations to the lighting, color and signage of the police department’s 1 Union Ave. entryway. ​“Anything to make it better and more presentable and citizen friendly would be good,” he said, so long as it’s within budget.

Police Roll With The Punches

Of the many suggestions made by the CRB and heard by Jacobson on Monday night, a plea to eliminate punches to the head was the only recommendation the police chief actively challenged.

That disagreement mirrored a recent moment of dissent between Jacobson and the board. In August, the CRB found that New Haven Officer Mark Salvati’s decision to kick a man, Steven Freytes-Rivera, who had just been injured in a car crash — after that same man had run from shots he’d fired and was holding a shard of glass as the officer approached — was excessive. Jacobson defended Salvati, asserting that Salvati chose a path of lesser harm to control an individual who was overtly dangerous.

The no-head-punches also comes more than a year after city police investigators under the last chief found that then-Officer, now-Sgt., Justin Cole acted appropriately when he punched a troubled man in the head three times after that man kicked him during an arrest at a Church Street office tower. Meanwhile, last December, the Board of Police Commissioners updated the city’s use of force policy to emphasize that officers may use force only when ​“necessary,” and not simply because it’s legally justified.

At Monday night’s meeting, CRB Chair AnneMarie Rivera-Berrios led a larger discussion about banning physical force to certain parts of the body. 

“I understand your comment about: ​‘Put yourself in the perspective of a police officer,’” she said to Jacobson. ​“But there have been times when I see videos and it’s very hard for me,” she continued, to focus on anything other than the harm done to a person at the other end of a police officer’s fist.

“Because you think to yourself — could you have kicked to the leg? Could they have kicked to the side? Why the head? Why the stomach?” she asked.

“Because there’s certain organs that’s in your head,” Rivera-Berrios reasoned. ​“Such as your brain. … If you’re putting trauma to those organs to the point where that person has to be hospitalized, are we really being the most productive?”

After Salvati kicked Freytes-Rivera in the stomach, it was found that the man had a broken leg and ribs — as a result of the car crash.

“The kick to the stomach is gonna make him come inward and drop the glass,” Jacobson said Monday night, referencing Salvati’s response as an example where manual force was appropriate and useful. ​“The kick wasn’t just to kick him in the stomach,” he said. Rather, it was ​“an action that causes a reaction.” 

“Force gets escalated a little quicker in that scenario,” where a man is a suspect in a fresh shooting scene, Jacobson said, then in an alternative situation where ​“a guy that stole a candy bar from Walmart was drunk and homeless.”

Plus, he said, ​“I would rather see an officer punch somebody than tase them in certain circumstances.”

Jacobson suggested he schedule times for CRB members to attend police training in order to better understand what dangers officers navigate on the job. ​“I think it’s truly important not only for the citizens to be protected, but also the officer,” he stated. 

He added that training officers to act with caution rather than out of fear was key in avoiding unfounded or excessive violent behavior. Jacobson has grown the number and variety of de-escalation programs for officers since becoming chief. Read more about that here.

But, ​“to remove punches completely… I’m not gonna lie to you, I don’t see that,” he concluded.

Lights. Color. Signage

Other than the continued debate around what constitutes acceptable forms of police force, Jacobson applauded recommendations by the CRB to build a more inviting and modern police station. That included not just physical but technological design and equipment interventions to softly decentralize the department to protect civilian privacy while building up surveillance of police practices.

“The department should consider exploring other police department lobbies and determine what could be done to make New Haven’s lobby more inviting,” the CRB wrote in its recommendation list, while also pushing for friendlier and less profanity-prone interactions with officers across the board.

“And when an individual comes in to make a report (which could be private and emotional and related to assault) they should be able to speak to someone in private rather than needing to give a report publicly in the lobby,” the CRB recommendation list continues. 

The CRB emphasized the importance of allowing individuals to discreetly file complaints while pushing for better documentation and transparency of officer interactions. For example, the board stated that officers should turn on their body cameras while engaging with civilians in the lobby — as well as activate their cameras upon taking any service call, rather than waiting to encounter residents.

Jacobson applauded the suggestions, sharing that the department is currently working on implementing some of those changes. He said he’s open to starting on projects they otherwise haven’t considered.

For example, he and Asst. Chief Bertram Ettienne noted that the department already has online portals to submit civilian complaints as well as in-person drop boxes at several public libraries. There could be more drop boxes added across additional libraries, community spots across the city, or other police substations, Jacobson said.

CRB members also suggested creating QR codes to place on posters around New Haven linking to the online complaint portal so residents could jump online with their smart phones.

“The online reporting has been very successful and I think that’s the wave of the future,” Jacobson agreed.

As for a brighter and less hostile lobby inside the police department’s Brutalist building, Jacobson said he was not only interested in allotting some funds towards new lighting and warmer colors, but that also he wanted to continue an ongoing conversation about moving the Internal Affairs investigative center away from 1 Union Ave. and possibly to an off-site location. 

“We talked numerous times about moving internal affairs off-site… and whether that would be more inviting,” Jacobson recalled. ​“Talk among yourself and give suggestions on that.”

“Anything to make it better and more presentable and citizen friendly would be good,” he said.

When it come to changes to body camera protocol, Jacobson did express hesitancy regarding how often body cameras are turned on, such as during mundane interactions within the police lobby, noting that the department must ​“set parameters” because they may only be able to hold such footage for ​“a week or two weeks or we’d burn through all our memory.”

He shared that he had recently expanded a contract with Axon, the company from which the police department secures body cameras, to ensure that when cops are going to a hot call their lights and dashboard cameras go on automatically.

“That’s a great feature that’s gonna pick up a lot of video we didn’t have before,” Jacobson said. He also said he is working with Axon to attempt to eliminate a technological problem that stops police body cameras from recording up to 30 seconds after they’re first activated.

Though he did not clarify exactly how written policy may change down the line, Jacobson also noted that he is shifting cop trainings to focus on turning on body cameras upon leaving for a call, rather than upon after arriving at the scene they are driving to.

He referenced a recent instance in which New Haven cop Chad Curry was shot through his windshield while responding to a crash scene.

Because Curry had turned on his camera before leaving for the call, despite not knowing whether the situation would even be violent, the department had footage that helped explain the situation after the fact.

Curry was ​“just going to an accident… not thinking he’s gonna get shot at,” Jacobson said. ​“We’re gonna use that as an example and push the officers, this is why you need to turn it on.

“God forbid something really bad happens,” Jacobson concluded, ​“it’s all on video.”