Paul Bass FIle Photo
Generoso: Remained in the mix after “retirement.”
A retired New Haven cop who helped birth Project Longevity is suiting back up to take the anti-violence project’s helm.
The cop, retired New Haven Police Chief Archie Generoso, began serving this month as interim director of Project Longevity, the U.S. Attorney’s Office-run and state-funded program that partners with New Haven, Bridgeport and Hartford departments. The program targets the small number of people most involved in gun violence — then offers them a choice between community-backed help going straight and long federal prison sentences. (Click here and here for background stories about the program.)
Generoso, a city native, was the police department’s point person in developing Project Longevity when the program started here in 2012. It has been credited with helping the city dramatically reduce gun violence from 2012 through 2018.
Even earlier, back in the early 1990s, Generoso helped put into practice New Haven’s community policing program as top cop for the Dwight-Kensington district. (He retired from the NHPD in February 2018 after 43 years in law enforcement.)
Generoso’s new gig started Nov. 1 and runs through at least next June. He succeeds Brent Peterkin, the previous statewide Project Longevity coordinator, who now runs the green nonprofit organization Gather New Haven.
“It’s good to be back and see all the familiar faces,” Generoso said Thursday. “It’s not like I ever left.” Since his retirement from the NHPD, he has still attended Project Longevity “call-ins” offering gangbangers help with jobs, job-training, housing, and counseling. On behalf of the National Network for Safe Communities, he has conducted “ceasefire academies” promoting the underlying strategy across the country and in Sweden.
The ceasefire model “benefits cities greatly and works toward keeping our young people alive in these cities,” Generoso said. “The model itself contributed greatly to the reduction of violence experience in New Haven” and has kept it from being “much worse” than it otherwise would have been as New Haven, like cities across the country, has experience an uptick this past year.
Generoso sees Project Longevity as a key player in reestablishing trust between the community and law enforcement, he said. “We can work together to end this gun violence that’s really devastating our neighborhoods.”
Congrats and thank you for taking back the helm for Project Longevity. This program should connect up with the new prison release drop off program center that is going to be in in Fair Haven, and Ice The Beef and other community anti-violence programs. The more that all the services, resources and programs can coordinate together to help reform and rehabilitate people to become productive members of society, the better.