Yale Lures Campbell

Anthony Campbell is returning to Yale for a third stint — this time as a top cop.

Yale Police Chief Ronnell Higgins announced Tuesday that his department has hired Campbell as his assistant chief of operations. Campbell begins the job on June 10.

Campbell earned his bachelors degree from Yale in 1995, then a masters in divinity in 2009.

Between those stints he became a New Haven cop, rising to the position of chief during a career marked by a commitment to community policing. He retired as chief in March to take a job with the New Haven state’s attorney’s office.

In a conversation Tuesday, Campbell said he is ​“honored and privileged” to take his new post at his alma mater. ​“I look forward to working under Chief Higgins’ command to continue to develop the Yale police department as the shining star of excellence when it comes to community policing.”

Higgins announced Campbell’s hiring in a community-wide email message Tuesday afternoon. He wrote that Campbell will oversee patrol operations, community engagement, and emergency services.

Campbell’s move to Yale’s department comes at a time when the university has come under pressure to improve community relations, in the wake of an officer-involved shooting in Newhallville on April 16. Higgins and other Yale top cops have begun showing up at New Haven neighborhood community management team meetings, where Campbell is already a familiar face.

Yale’s department has 93 officers.

(Click here to read a story about a formative episode in Campbell’s policing career.)