staff photos
Newlly approved Asst. Chiefs David Zannelli and Bertram Ettienne.
Two veteran local cops rose to the rank of second-in-command Tuesday, as police commissioners voted unanimously in support of promoting David Zannelli and Bertram Ettienne to assistant chief.
That was the outcome of the latest regular monthly meeting of the Board of Police Commissioners, which took place online via Zoom.
The commissioners voted unanimously in support of approving Police Chief Karl Jacobson’s recommendations that Capt. Zannelli and Sgt. Ettienne become his assistant chiefs.
The promotion comes six days after Jacobson, who previously served as the city’s only assistant chief, was sworn in as the city’s new top cop.
Zannelli, a 15-year New Haven Police Department veteran, most recently led the internal affairs division and formerly served as Fair Haven district manager. Ettienne, a 21-year NHPD veteran, has overseen the homicide and detective units during his career on the local police force. (Click here to read more about Jacobson’s appointment of these now-confirmed assistant chiefs.)
Tuesday night's police commission meeting.
Police Chief Karl Jacoson.
Both Zannelli and Ettienne have the respect of city police officers and “good community communication, good standing with the community,” Jacobson told the police commissioners Tuesday night.
These promotions “will balance out my inner command staff to where it needs to be. … This is going to help our police department move forward.”
Zannelli.
Both of the new assistant chiefs spoke about how “humbling” Jacobson’s appointment was. They spoke about tapping into their wealth of professional experience to mentor more junior officers in what is a relatively young department.
“I have an open-door policy,” Zannelli said, about being a mentor to officers and a transparent and communicative public official.
Ettienne.
“I’m responsible for cultivating better officers, better detectives,” Ettienne said when asked by Police Commission Chair Eveile Ribiero about his vision and goals as assistant chief. “I’m responsible for assisting the chief with getting this police department back on track and maintaining the reputation this department has. We’ve lost sight of it over the years with some unfortunate situations, but I think we can get it back.”
Police Commissioner Michael Lawlorr, who took the lead along with fellow commissioners Donald Walker and Isiais Miranda in interviewing all of Tuesday night’s promotion candidates, said that it is a “very impressive group that the chief has assembled. I for one am very optimistic about how this is going to play out over the next months and years.”
Walker agreed. “I think both of these gentlemen will make amazing leaders in our police department.”
In addition to approving the promotions of Ettienne and Zannelli to assistant chief, the police commissioners avoted unanimously to promote Lt. Nicholas Marcucio to captain; Sgt. Yessennia Agosto to lieutenant; and Detective Jonathan Pleckaitis and Officer Jonathan Caron to sergeant.
After the commissioners voted Tuesday night to promote the new assistant chiefs, Daniel Hunt — a regular attendee at city police commission meetings who also hosts cop-community meetups — congratulated Zannelli and Ettienne via the Zoom text chat tool.
“Captain Zannelli and Sgt Ettienne are both great leaders!” he wrote. “Glad they were tapped for the Assistant Chiefs position. They will do very well!”
Congratulations to two very good police officers. I'm usually not in favor of a Sergeant jumping all the way to Assistant Chief, but in this situation Ettienne is the clear choice to run the bureau. There will be a learning curve as there always is, but these guys (including Jacobson) learn quickly. Most importantly, they are good people who know the job well and have always performed at a very high level. All three have empathy and compassion but they will not be manipulated or put up with any bullshit. Three strong and respected leaders. Godspeed Gentleman...bring the pride back.