Retirement Had To Wait

When Nancy Jordan does her ​“clap-out dance” at police headquarters Friday, she doesn’t plan to make people wait outside.

Jordan is retiring that afternoon after 23 years as a community-focused police officer. The ​“clap-out” ritual accompanies retiring officers on their last days: The ritual begins in the third-floor atrium with speeches by the chief and colleagues. The officer gives final remarks then calls in a radio ​“signal 13,” meaning she is going off duty (in this case for good). The departing dance follows, downstairs, to the front outdoor entrance to the 1 Union Ave. entrance, where fellow officers and friends and families line the ramps and applaud.

Jordan plans to do the inside part. She plans to give her speech, assuming she can hold back enough tears. She plans to dance to a to-be-disclosed song.

But she plans to end the ritual there. She doesn’t want to make people stand outside in the cold in winter. And she worries that she would ​“lose” people on the journey downstairs.

“I’m a people person,” she explained in an interview looking back on her career, on WNHH FM’s ​“Dateline New Haven” program. ​“I want everyone to be close knit together.”

Not Done Yet

The original plan was for Jordan, who’s 53, to retire after 20 years. Her ​“people person” approach to the job — and in-person approach to dealing with people — caused the delay.

Jordan’s final PD posting, begun in 2018, was as the victim services officer. In that role she organizes a homicide victims support group. She meets individually with families to help steer them through the process and obtain information following the killings. Then she gathers the parents together for regular meetings of a homicide victims support group.

She was in the process of expanding the group when the planned January 2020 retirement date arrived.

“I still needed to do more for that group,” she recalled, so she stayed on.

The onset of the pandemic confirmed her decision: Now the parents needed her even more, to stay connected.

At first they met over conference calls. That made it harder for people to connect with each other. By mid-2021 she arranged for the moms to meet outside in city parks. That went well. in colder weather they began meeting in the basement of Bethel AME Zion Church on Goffe Street, observing pandemic protocols. 

The most recent meeting drew 84 participants. Three quarters live in New Haven; others came from other communities.

Being in person makes the difference, Jordan observed. ​“A hug goes a long way.” As does seeing up close the person with whom you’re interacting.

Elm Haven Roots

From her start on the force, Jordan determined to show New Haveners who grew up in neighborhoods like her own that a cop can indeed be a people person.

She didn’t have that view of cops when she grew up on the sixth floor of the old Elm Haven high-rises. She never saw cops except when there was trouble. And they weren’t friendly.

Jordan considered becoming a cop after graduation from Morgan State University. One reason: Her mother-in-law had retired at 46 years old after a 20-year career at the old Southern New England Telephone Company. She, too, wanted a job where she could ​“make a difference in the community I was raised in” — and where she could retire after 20 years.

The NHPD was one such place. And by 2000, when Jordan did become a cop, the department had upended its approach and embraced community-based policing.

Jordan was determined to become that cop she never saw growing up, connected to community, caring about people.

For her first eight and a half years wearing the badge, she patrolled the Hill neighborhood. She volunteered on the side for a group called Drug Education For Youth, working with young people in the neighborhood and taking them on camping trips. She then worked with kids as a full-time PAL (Police Athletic League) officer, then as a school-based cop at her alma mater, Hillhouse High, before landing the victim services officer role.

After completing her clap-out dance Friday, Jordan has one immediate plan: taking a well-earned vacation, in New Orleans. Beyond that she’s hoping to continue her work in victim services, this time on the civilian end rather than as a cop. Whether or not she has ​“Officer” in front of her name, there’s no doubt that Nancy Jordan’s mission has not ended.

Click on the above video to watch the full conversation with Officer Nancy Jordan on WNHH FM’s ​“Dateline New Haven.”

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