Velleca: Cox Case Reflects Need For Cop Culture Change

The mistreatment of Richard ​“Randy” Cox reflects two related problems with policing ​“culture” — and presents a chance to change it.

So argued retired New Haven Assistant Police Chief John Velleca.

Velleca, currently a criminal justice professor at Albertus Magnus College and sergeant-at-arms for the State Senate, spoke Tuesday on an episode of WNHH FM’s ​“Dateline New Haven” about how officers mishandled Cox’s case when a sudden stop on June 19 crashed his head against a wall inside a prisoner conveyance van and injured his neck and spine. Rather than directly seek medical treatment, officers at the police lock-up accused Cox of lying, demanded he stand up, placed him in a wheelchair, then dragged him across the floor into a cell. Cox is now paralyzed from the chest down and connected to a feeding tube and breathing tube in the hospital, as his case has sparked nationwide outrage.

“There was no value put on this guy’s life,” Velleca said of the incident, captured extensively on publicly-released videos.

The incident reflects how, nationally, ​“we have devalued Black and brown people,” Velleca argued. While the profession has worked on improivng the culture in other ways in recent years, ​“we haven’t made that change.”

It doesn’t matter that the officers in this case were Black and brown, Velleca said: ​“You can add as many Black and Brown officers as you want,” but if a poisoned culture remains in place, ​“eventually that culture is going to get you.” (Cox is Black.)

The second ​“culture” problem is specific to New Haven’s department, Velleca argued: A failure of supervisors to hold officers accountable for ​“blunders,” then a failure of top cops to hold the supervisors accountable. ​“We have great policies on paper. They’re not being followed,” he argued.

“That’s the culture taking over,” Velleca said of what happened at the detention center.

Five officers involved in the incident are currently on paid administrative leave. The state is currently investigating the incident to determine whether to bring criminal charges. The NHPD plans an internal investigation after that to determine whether to take disciplinary action.

Velleca predicted that ​“a few people” will lose their jobs because of the incident. He predicted the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) might end up looking at a pattern of cases in New Haven — this incident; a similar detention facility failure (with the same supervisor in charge) that ended with an inmate’s suicide; the repeated head punches delivered to an unarmed man with mental health problems during a call involving a rent dispute until a fellow officer intervened to save the arrestee (an incident the police deemed ​“justifiable,” requiring no reexamination or retraining, with the attacking officer promoted to sergeant). If the DOJ concludes the NHPD has a ​“culture” problem, that could lead to negotiating a ​“consent decree” involving supervised department changes, Velleca said.

Meanwhile, he praised new city Police Chief Karl Jacobson for squarely acknowledging the department’s errors and publicly identifying the need to address structural problems raised by the incident. He agreed that the department should break a pattern in which ​“we discipline, we move on, we expect the problems to be corrected.”

The Board of Alders is scheduled to vote Tuesday night on Jacobson’s nomination to become police chief. Velleca said Jacobson’s experience in the department and his commitment to stay in the job will serve him well in tackling big challenges. ​“The revolving door” of police chiefs ​“kills us,” Velleca said.

Velleca also said the state, which handed over control of the 1 Union Ave. detention facility to the city in order to save money, should take it back. Corrections officers are better trained to handle problems that arise in lock-up he argued.

Click on the video to watch the full discussion with John Velleca on WNHH FM’s Dateline New Haven,” which also touched on the shooting of Jaylan Walker in Akron, Ohio.