Laura Glesby / Thomas Breen file photos
New Haven's four district managers (clockwise from top left): Sgt. Jasmine Sanders, Lt. Michael Fumiatti, Lt. Brendan Borer, Lt. Brian McDermott.
Fair Haven’s top neighborhood cop will now also oversee the East Shore, Fair Haven Heights, and Quinnipiac Meadows. Downtown’s top cop will drop Westville / West Hills from his purview and take on Newhallville, Dixwell, East Rock, and Cedar Hill.
Those changes come as the city’s police chief has reshuffled and reduced the number of district managers — a neighborhood-based position key to community policing — in the face of supervisor retirements and an expired police union contract.
Police Chief Karl Jacobson made those moves last week as he reassigned the sergeants and lieutenants responsible for overseeing the city’s 10 policing districts while cutting back on the total number of district managers from six to four.
“The community policing-based model is one [district manager] for each district,” Jacobson said in a recent interview with the Independent. That would mean 10 district managers citywide, as opposed to now only four. “I made a pledge to uphold that model. I’m disappointed that I have to temporarily put it on hold,” at least in regards to fully staffing district manager positions, as a wave of retirements among high-ranking officers has caused him to move around who’s responsible for which neighborhoods.
Per the latest district manager shakeup, the following cops are now assigned to lead the following districts:
• Lt. Michael Fumiatti — who for years has led Fair Haven’s Police District 8 — will now also be the top neighborhood cop for the far east side-spanning Police District 9.
• Lt. Brian McDermott — who previously served as the top cop for the East Shore’s Police District 9, and who is currently a defendant in an alder-car-crash-focused lawsuit — will now serve as district manager for Westville/West Hills’ Police District 2, Dwight/West River’s Police District 4, and Beaver Hills/Edgewood’s Police District 10.
• Lt. Brendan Borer — who has served as the district manager for Downtown’s Police District 1 and Westville/West Hills’ Police District 2 — will remain as the top cop for downtown’s District 1 and will also take on Dixwell’s Police District 6 and Newhallville/East Rock/Cedar Hill’s District 7.
• Sgt. Jasmine Sanders will remain as district manager for the Hill’s Police Districts 3 and 5.
Two previous district managers who will no longer serve in their respective roles: Sgt. Jarell Lowery, who previously served as the top cop for Dixwell’s Police District 6 and Newhallville/East Rock/Cedar Hill’s District 7 and who has now been moved back to a supervisor position in patrol. And Lt. Ryan Przybylski, who previously served as the top cop for Dwight/West River’s Police District 4 and Beaver Hills/Edgewood’s Police District 10, will replace the retiring Lt. Jason Rentkowicz as the head of the police department’s training academy.
Thomas Breen file photo
Police Chief Karl Jacobson: Shuffling a deck with fewer cards.
New Haven's 10 police districts.
Jacobson told the Independent that this district manager shuffle and cutback comes after more supervisors than expected put in their retirement papers by the deadline of Oct. 31. He said that the department has lost seven supervisors in just the past six months.
What has he heard from soon-to-depart officers about why they’re retiring, and why now?
“Most of them are saying the uncertainty of the contract” is a primary reason, Jacobson said, along with better pay and benefits elsewhere.
The police chief was referencing the police union contract, which expired back on June 30, 2022.
Jacobson said that the department will have a sergeants test in the “next couple months, which will allow me to refill patrol” and then refill district manager slots.
However, he cautioned, as the department “makes” new sergeants, “that leaves less officers” in patrol.
As for the police union contract, Jacobson declined to comment about any specific items still under negotiation between the Elicker administration and the union.
“I think that we’re close at some points,” he said. “I think we’re getting to a crucial time, because we really need a contract.”
He said the expired contract is affecting the department’s recruitment efforts as well. On Dec. 1, he said, a class of 20 to 25 new police recruits should begin. “Two of those people [have already] made it known to us they are going to other departments,” in Hartford and Milford, he said.
Jacobson said that the police department currently has around 330 police officers on staff, with roughly 65 full-time vacancies.
Police Union Contract Negotiations Stretch On
New Haven police union Tweets, accusing Elicker of engaging in "delaying tactics."
Thomas Breen file photo
Mayor Elicker: Accusations are "just false."
The city’s police union took up the subject of its long-expired contract in a series of Tweets last Thursday.
“Only eleven months into the year, and Mayor Elicker is already checked out. We have been out of a contract for 16 months and bargaining for just under a year, and what I have seen from Mayor Elicker’s team are delaying tactics, unreasonable demands and a complete unwillingness to engage in the process,” the police union’s social media posts read.
Those posts continue: “Underpaying and diluting current benefits of police officers hurts our ability to retain and recruit the Finest, and ultimately has a negative impact on public safety. That should be a serious concern for Mayor Elicker, but he is clearly not focused on running the city. Instead, he’s focused on his own future political ambitions. That’s not the job he was elected to do. New Haven police officers show up and do their jobs every single day, because that’s what Elm City residents expect of us. It’s time for Mayor Elicker to start doing the same. The New Haven police union’s current contract, which was retroactive to 2016, expired on June 30th of last year. In the previous months of increasingly unreasonable demands and position on the part of the city, this union ‘MAY’ have no other choice to enter the arbitration process.”
In a Monday afternoon phone interview, Elicker disputed the police union’s social media posts as “inaccurate” and unhelpful “name-calling.”
“We’ve been diligently working with and engaging the union to settle on a contract,” he said. He said it is “just false” to claim his administration has delayed negotiations or been unwilling to engage.
As for the reduction in district managers citywide, Elicker stressed that this drop in the number of neighborhood top cops from six to four is “temporary” as the city works through a sergeants promotional exam.
“Big picture, cities around the nation have really been struggling to hire for police departments,” he said. “We are deeply committed to the district manager model, and want to get back to district managers in all 10 districts.” He said that on Sunday he signed a contract with the company that will facilitate the sergeants promotional exam.
Elicker praised district managers as cops whom community members know to call and meet at community management team meetings, and who are deeply knowledgeable about issues in any neighborhood.
From the local legislative side, Fair Haven Alders Sarah Miller and Claudia Herrera — who recently co-wrote an opinion essay for the Independent lamenting police department vacancies and a corresponding impact on public safety – have called for their colleagues to host a workshop with the city’s police chief, police union president, “and all relevant officials to discuss the New Haven Police Department’s staff shortages.”
Their opinion essay called out how, under the current contract, a starting New Haven officer earns $50,745, a starting officer in Bridgeport earns $69,118; a starting officer in Hartford earns $63,591, and a starting officer in Waterbury earns $78,654.
Miller’s and Herrera’s proposed order calling for a workshop on police staffing shortages has not yet been assigned to a committee.
“The New Haven Police Department (NHPD) is called upon to respond to various issues in our great city, with ever-increasing demands, and is facing dangerously low staffing levels,” Herrera’s and Miller’s proposal reads. “Also, the one-year absence of a union contract makes hiring and retaining police officers challenging. The NHPD staff shortage negatively impacts our neighborhoods’ safety and quality of life and affects the economic development of our small businesses and lowincome, working-class communities.”
Asked about if and how he thinks the police department staff shortage has impacted public safety in New Haven, Elicker noted that “all of our overall crime in the city is trending down, with the exception, tragically, of homicides, and our officers are doing incredible work. They’ve taken many more guns off the street than last year. They’ve solved more homicides than in recent history. We’re making a lot of progress.”
But, he said, “of course it would be helpful to have more officers on the force,” in no small part because of the very long hours that current officers are working because of the mounting number of vacancies.
I feel for my three close friends that are current New Haven Police Officers. All of them are from the Elm City or a close surrounding town. They chose (along with every other officer) to invest in this city and this community. This Mayor (if you can call him that) has consistently showed how he does NOT respect the sacrifice these officers make on a daily basis. Being understaffed is a far cry from the accuracy of saying the department is depleted and in the red.
Our local politicians, some alders (shoutout to the good alders btw) and Mayor always claim that officers should have more training and better mental health. Can't exactly do that being mandated to work multiple 16-hour shifts with no staffing during those shifts. From Sergeants to the Chiefs, every single supervisor is juggling multiple responsibilities which is NOT sustainable by any stretch of the imagination.
Mayor Elicker you and some of your administration's disdain for the police is evident, through your OWN ACTIONS mind you. Your cowardly hiding, while Black Lives Matters protestors raged for hours, insulting and literally spitting at your officers, all while you stayed comfortable inside of the department was a deplorable act of leadership. All those people wanted to do was address YOU, but you hid and let the officers that were exhausted take that on the chin.
Yes, the community understands pensions are no longer sustainable and the younger officers actually no longer have those glorious pensions of years past. Guess what though? Better schedules such as a 4/3-4/2 or 5/3 - 5/3 schedule rotation, better starting and top salaries, better medical and more resources for these officers is how you retain and bring in more candidates for this dept.
Your police department is dying Mayor, you are losing officers at every level despite the number of years on. Do right by these public servants before you have another major incident on your hands. I'll have the mirror ready for you to look into.