18 Cop Recruits Sworn In

Eighteen New Haven police recruits were sworn in as cadets on Monday afternoon at the Police Training Academy at a time when the institution of policing is being scrutinized, criticized, and castigated.

During the short ceremony, Mayor Justin Elicker led the recruits in reciting the oath of office and spoke about how this will be the first class of police recruits to be sworn in since the ​“world changed.”

The swearing-in comes a month after 5,000 people marched in New Haven to protest racial injustice in policing, calling for, among other things, defunding the police. It was one of many protests in New Haven, and across the world, sparked by the killing of Goerge Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

“It is very clear that we are in very difficult times to be a police officer, where we are talking about what defines the role of the police,” said Elicker during a press conference after the ceremony. ​“For the young people here today that are beginning their career as a police officer, it probably feels like their future is very uncertain.”

Police Chief Otoniel Reyes acknowledged that recruitment has been a challenge for policing in the past five to ten years.

“There’s no denying that this [climate] creates more challenges in order to attract people to the profession,” he said. ​“Because of all the negativity, the calls for change, it is difficult to find people who want to sign up for that. Let’s face it, it’s an enormous responsibility to wear the uniform and deal with these challenges day in and day out like our officers do.”

The recruits were selected from a pool of just under 500 applicants and subject to background checks, psychological tests, and checks on their financial records. They include a recruit whose uncle was a police officer and at least two who come from a family of officers.

Officials prevented the press from interviewing the recruits.

In a bid to increase recruitment of police officers from the New Haven community, applicants were given additional points in their applications if they came from the city.

Of the 18 sworn in Monday, four live in New Haven. Six are African-American; two are Latino. Two are female (including one of the African-American cadets).

When asked how the recruits are screened for racial biases, Reyes said, ​“These are people that we pick from society. They’re going to come with their biases and preconceived notions — we vet that out. For us, it’s less about making sure people don’t have racial biases and it’s more making sure we have people who understand the standard here, who are good people, who want to do the service.”

In response to the nationwide reckoning with the purpose of policing, Chief Reyes said that police training will become more community-centric with a greater emphasis on deescalation training.

Monday was the first day of the six-month-long training program, during which the cadets will learn defensive tactics, motor vehicle driving, and constitutional and civil law. They will undergo firearms training, community outreach training, and deescalation training. After the six months, the officers will patrol the streets with a field training officer for an additional three months, before entering a one-year probation period.

“[I’m] trying to put in perspective what the world must look like for them,” said Reyes. ​“While we see and certainly understand from our vantage point the enormous opportunity we have for change, and to galvanise the community, it’s got to be pretty overwhelming for a group of young people. They have the weight of the world on their shoulders on day one.”