Allan Appel Photo
Reunited: Yale Chief Campbell with newly minted Asst. Chief Rose Dell at Friday's swearing in.
The only two Yale College alums ever to serve as cops in the Yale Police Department’s 130-year history are now its two top officers — and for the first time, one of them is a woman.
Dell sworn in by New Haven Board of Police Commissioners Chair Evelise Ribeiro.
That history was made Friday night in an emotional swearing-in ceremony at Yale’s Whitney Center for the Humanities on Wall Street.
YPD Chief Anthony Campbell pinned the badge on new YPD Assistant Chief Rose Dell, the first woman chief in the history of the department.
They both previously served in New Haven’s police department in addition to attending Yale.
Back in 2008 when then-officer-candidate Rose Dell showed up for her first day of training at the New Haven police academy, then Sgt. Anthony Campbell was in charge.
“Do you remember me?” Dell recalled asking him.
“Of course I do,” Campbell responded. In the late 1990s they had both been undergraduates in Yale’s Berkeley College, two years apart. Campbell eventually rose to become the NHPD’s chief before he retired.
They now are the only Yale College graduates who have ever served in the YPD, although one other officer in the 93-member department has a graduate degree from Yale, said Campbell.
Friday night’s swearing-in-ceremony included the promotions of four other YPD officers. It unfolded before an affectionate crowd of 100 wives, husbands, parents, kids, fellow officers, friends, and admirers.
“Rose has broad experience and the best qualifications,” Campbell said, “and bridges the gap between the community, Yale University, and NHPD.”
In her 15 years at the NHPD, Dell rose quickly in the ranks from supervising the midnight patrol shift to becoming expert in crash reconstruction to district manager in Westville/West Hills to working in the department’s Internal Affairs Unit and helping to revamp a wide range of policies in areas of officer-involved shooting. She also spear-headed the implementation of the body-worn camera program, among other demanding tasks. She finished her NHPD career as a captain.
Dell’s new appointment was approved just on Tuesday by the NHPD’s Board of Police Commissioners, a requirement for all YPD officers. She will be in charge of the YPD’s Patrol Operations Division.
Dell said she intends to mentor YPD officers, especially the female ones, and help to recruit new cops.
Both Campbell and Dell said the appointment is a step in the direction of the fulfillment of the 30 by 30 pledge. That’s an informal but growing initiative among police leaders, agencies, and researchers nationwide to have 30 percent of police recruits be women by 2030, and to increase the representation of women in all ranks.
Currently the 93-member YPD has only 16 percent women in the ranks, said Campbell. That’s better than the 12 percent nationally, but still a long way to go to reach the 2030 goal.
“The greatest recruiters in a department are the other officers,” Dell said. So you cultivate the leadership of the ones you have and then “these are the ones who spread the word,” she added.
Click here for the swearing-in ceremony program in full, with summaries of Dell’s and the other promoted officers’ achievements.
Those officers include Gregg Curran and Raymond DeJesus who were both promoted to detective; Gabrielle Cotto, who was promoted to sergeant; and John Healy. Healy joins the YPD as captain after leaving the NHPD in 2022 at the same rank. At the NHPD he commanded the SWAT team and emergency services, and was the officer of the year in 2020.
Capt. John Healy with proud father John Francis Healy, Jr.
Experimental Policing. Live social experiments, without the permission of those that will be directly affected, the public. Victims. And of course criminals caught committing crimes by the police. With a frugal economic twist to the budget of the Yale Corporation. Top level police administrators, with track records, at the top of the police management pyramid, here, in New Haven. Bonus: two, are graduates of Yale; Yale Alumni. How good is that. NHPD and New Haven taxpayers trained, and gave these administrators, close to a million in total salary, with a multi-million dollar pension, to complement the six-figure salaries they will receive from Yale. (multi-million dollar pensions is a strong statement that needs some explanation for the uninitiated. Campbell and Dell along with Captain Healy, leave with pensions greater than $100,000, paid in weekly installments. Both are young, to speak of their retirement, and could easily last ten years working at Yale. Chief Ronnell Higgins did 12 years as Yale's Chief. Making over $1.5 million during his tenure, and now accepts six figures from the state as the Commissioner in charge of public safety, every year he decides to stay in that post. ) The best part of this career choice is no one responsible for hiring them, or paying them, wants them to come up with solutions to crime, solutions to eliminate the legal use of force within policing's legislated duties, or solving the everlasting racism inherent in policing, law enforcement, our society, here in the U.S., that is part of the Yale community, legacy, history, and charter.
This is too much to expect from these individuals. They will never initiate any developments in policing; Yale won't allow them to. They will do exactly what their handlers, their managers, tell them needs to be done, when it needs to be done. <br /> God Blesses these individuals, and their families. They made it up to the top of the pay scale in New Haven policing, with limited personal risk.