Thomas Breen Photo
Friends of Stephanie Washington, who was shot by a Hamden cop, protest outside the PD.
Amid public outcry over an officer-involved shooting and police death and deportation threats made to a Latino driver, Hamden Mayor Curt Leng has named a committee to help him pick a new chief — and invited the public to help.
Leng’s new five-member “Hamden Police Chief Community Input & Transparency Committee” is charged with holding “community dialogues” about what the town should look for in a new chief; recommend job description changes, research “best practices” to obtain a diverse applicant pool; and conduct a first round of interviews and forward a list of top candidates to the mayor.
“The goal is to complete this process in a thorough, but expedient manner,” stated a release Leng’s office issued Friday afternoon.
The release did not include plans to have public interview sessions with candidates, as some in the community have suggested.
Keith King, pastor of Christian Tabernacle Church, will chair the new committee. Other members include former Mayor Scott Jackson and residents Former Mayor Scott Jackson and residents Toni Foreman, Dominique Baez, and Valerie Horsely, CEO of a group called Action Now CT.
Leng had suspended the search for a new police chief, which began last fall, after two recent controversies:
• An April 16 incident in which a Hamden officer crossed town lines into New Haven’s Newhallville neighborhood responding to a report of an alleged robbery attempt. The officer stopped a car with two unarmed occupants, then fired bullets into it, hitting and injuring 22-year-old Stephanie Washington. The incident has drawn national media attention and provoked demonstrations and outrage from, among others, New Haven cops critical of Hamden cops coming into town with a more violent approach to policing.
• The fallout from a video released earlier this year showing Officer Andrew Lipford — who had a history of losing his cool on the job — following Hamden resident Victor Medina to his home, where Lipford and Sgt Michael Sigmon arrested him at gunpoint. Lipford at one point told Medina, “If you do something that you’re not told you’re gonna get shot.” Lipford did not believe the passenger in Medina’s car when he said that Medina did not speak English. Sigmon was also caught on the tape threatening to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Amid an internal investigation of that case, the police have faced public calls to create a civilian review board.
A former New Haven police chief and two current assistant chiefs were among those who put in applications to become Hamden’s new chief. Leng has said he wants to move the department more in the direction of community policing. He has found himself in the middle of social-change protestors seeking a shift to 21st century reforms and civilian review; and an old guard seeking to promote a longtime insider to the chief’s position.
Keith King, pastor of Christian Tabernacle Church, will chair the new committee. Other members include former Mayor Scott Jackson and residents Former Mayor Scott Jackson and residents Toni Foreman, Dominique Baez, and Valerie Horsely, CEO of a group called Action Now CT.
As I look at the list Most of the Names are most are Political Hacks.