4 Police Recruits Sworn In

Four police recruits with cops in their families and roots in the Greater New Haven area raised their right hands and swore to live up to the responsibilities of their profession — before heading off for training in Waterbury, and hoped-for careers in New Haven.

On Monday afternoon, Mayor Justin Elicker and Police Chief Karl Jacobson hosted a swearing in ceremony for those four recruits with the New Haven Police Department. 

Those four cops to-be will now head to Waterbury’s police academy for 20 weeks of training before returning to New Haven for 12 weeks working the beat with a field training officer. If they complete all of that, they’ll then be full-fledged cops in New Haven.

Jacobson said that these four recruits are heading to Waterbury for training because New Haven’s police department doesn’t currently have a class in session. ​“We’re hoping to have a huge class” in October, he said. 

According to the city’s latest monthly financial report, at the end of June, the police department had 60 vacancies among fully funded sworn positions, from officer to captain. Click here to read about the department’s latest hiring efforts.

The four recruits sworn in on Monday included John Brunetti, 26, of West Haven; Aisaiah Rodriguez, 22, of Milford; William Massey-Simmons, 24, of New Haven’s Westville neighborhood; and Eric Lopez, 29, of Hamden.

Brunetti, Rodriguez, and Lopez each said that they were inspired to become a New Haven police officer because of a family member who has served in law enforcement. Brunetti’s dad was a cop in West Haven. Lopez’s dad was a police officer in Bridgeport. Rodriguez’s uncle is a sergeant in New Haven, Martin Feliciano. ​“He set a good example,” Rodriguez said about his uncle. ​“I want to follow in his footsteps,” Lopez said about his father’s work as a Bridgeport cop.

Massey-Simmons was the only one of the four with no police officer in his immediate family. He also was the only one of the four born and raised and living in New Haven. He said he wants to become a New Haven police officer to serve the city he calls home.

“The City of New Haven holds officers to the highest standards,” Elicker said in opening remarks before Monday’s swearing in ceremony. ​“You’re not only a New Haven police officer when you’re at work, but also when you’re” off the clock.

“This is the greatest profession in the world,” Jacobson said. And a challenging one. 

He said that city police played basketball in a community tournament in the Hill on Saturday, and then responded to a ​“tragic incident” at a domestic violence homicide in Newhallville on Sunday. That’s the range of experiences city police should expect. Key to succeeding in this work, he said, is ​“embracing the community.”