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Officers arresting Shawn Marshall at the CT Financial Center in January; one intervened to stop another from continuing to punch Marshall in the head. The NHPD and CRB disagree on need for head punches.
Paul Bass Photo
Rev. Boise Kimber, flanked by activist Rodney Williams and Rev. Charles Brewer, calls for diverse assistant-chief team.
As a vote nears on whether to make New Haven’s acting police chief’s appointment permanent, she came under fire on two fronts: One for exonerating three cops who punched unarmed suspects in the head; another for declining to commit to appoint a Black assistant chief amid the emergence of the first all-white department leadership in 28 years.
The acting chief, Renee Dominguez, defended her actions in both instances while expressing a commitment to diversifying the force and working with critics who raise questions about police misconduct.
Tom Breen Photo
Acting Chief Dominguez at scene of Nov. 5 Yale bomb threat.
Dominguez has served as the department’s acting (first “interim”) chief since March. Mayor Justin Elicker has nominated her to become the permanent chief. That requires two votes from the Board of Alders: First, next week, on whether to approve her filling out the last two months of the current chief’s term. Then, in early 2022, on whether she should serve a full four-year term.
The vote is proving controversial, with some alders expressing concerns related to the issues raised in the two sets of statements made public Monday.
Use Of Force Revisited
The first statements consisted of two letters to Dominguez from Civilian Review Board (CRB) Chair Samuel Ross-Lee.
In one letter, Ross-Lee reported that the CRB is recommending that Dominguez discipline Officer Justin Cole for his handling of a rent dispute at the Connecticut Financial Center on Jan. 29.
After over an hour of frustrating conversation during which the officers helped a man named Shawn Marshall (who had called police to the tower because of a rent dispute) carry his bags down to the lobby, Cole and a fellow officer moved in for an arrest. They fell into a scrum on the lobby floor during which Marshall kicked Cole. Cole responded by grabbing Marshall by the neck, punching him three times in the head, and pepper spraying him.
A fellow officer intervened and pulled Cole off the unarmed man. Asked by an internal affairs investigator why she intervened, the officer stated “I had seen [Cole] using his level of force, and I felt it wasn’t necessary at that time. That’s all I can personally remember thinking at that split moment, we don’t need to be doing that, and that’s why I said stop.”
However, IA and Dominguez cleared the officer of any wrongdoing, noting that the suspect had kicked Cole first and that Cole had first tried calmly to convince Marshall to leave the building.
They also cleared him because they deemed Cole’s actions “justified.” A new state police use-of-force policy directs departments to judge officers’ use of force based not only on whether they can be justified, but on whether they are “necessary.” Read more about that debate and the IA ruling here and here.
CRB Chair Rev. Ross-Lee: Reprimands, retraining in order.
“We recommend that Officer Cole be reprimanded or cautioned for failing to de-escalate in the runup to the arrest and failing to make the arrest in a way that would not result in violence. He should be cautioned that choking is not permitted. He should be required to attend refresher training in de-escalation,” Ross-Lee wrote to Dominguez. “We recommend that officers be trained to recognize when people they are dealing with feel they are being singled out and treated poorly because of their race, and respond appropriately.”
“We recommend to the chief and board of police commissioners that they remove punches to the head from the list of permitted uses of force, except in rare and extreme circumstances,” Ross-Lee added.
Dominguez responded that Cole spent more than an hour patiently trying to de-escalate the encounter. “There comes a point when deescalation is no longer working, if the individual is not responding to what is asked,” she said in a conversation with the Independent.
Dominguez said Cole’s grabbing of the man’s neck did not constitute a “chokehold” under the formal definition of the term. Department policy does prohibit chokeholds.
And she argued that it is “difficult” to rely on “absolutes” in policing, such as almost never using a particular technique.
That said, Dominguez continued, “Each use of force is always an opportunity for us as a police department to think if there’s anything we can do to improve. We have added more de-escalation types of training to our officers” in response to this incident, certifying more staff in instruction.
“We continue to learn. I will review [the recommendation], and I appreciate the CRB taking the time to give feedback from a different lens,” Dominguez said. She noted that the CRB had not met regularly until its recent reconstitution. She expressed an openness to developing a constructive working relationship with the body.
Ross-Lee sent Dominguez a second letter disagreeing with the NHPD’s clearing of Officer Rafael Ramirez for his use of force — specifically punches to the head and face — and for his manner with two shoppers causing disturbances at the Route 80 Walmart on two separate occasions. (Click here to read about one of those cases and watch a video of the encounter.)
“In both cases, we felt the officer used too much force too quickly. We also felt he spoke disrespectfully to one of the civilians. We recommend that the officer receive a verbal reprimand for not de-escalating and for using more force than necessary, and he should be cautioned to be more respectful. The officer should be counseled by a training officer about better ways to resolve the situation,” Ross-Lee wrote.
“For the department: We don’t think officers should throw punches to the face or head except under rare and extreme circumstances. We CRB ask the chief to review the standards for throwing a punch, and especially to the face or head, and consider changing them.”
Dominguez said she plans to review both letters more fully and offer a detailed response to the CRB in a spirit of cooperative dialogue. She defended Ramirez for trying verbal de-escalation, even after being threatened with violence. “He stepped back. One punch. While deescalation verbally didn’t work, use of force in that case, after it was looked at by IA and training and myself, it was deemed to be not excessive,” she said.
Diversity Commitment Sought
Paul Bass Photo
Rev. Kimber Monday: Plenty of qualified Black officers are available to serve as assistant chief.
Meanwhile Monday, the Rev. Boise Kimber called for alders to require Dominguez to commit to hiring at least one Black assistant chief if she is confirmed to become the permanent police chief.
Dominguez has up to three assistant-chief slots to fill. This year, after a wave of retirements and resignations as well as promotions of mostly white officers to upper ranks, New Haven’s department has all white cops serving in the chief, assistant chief, and captain slots for the first time since 1993.
That matters, Kimber argued at a press conference held at his Dixwell Avenue church, First Cavalry Baptist. (Watch the press conference here.)
He noted that New Haven is majority Black and brown. He argued that the department’s recent 30 percent clearance rate on homicides is not due primarily to the need for more surveillance cameras — as Mayor Elicker and top cops have argued — but in part to the lack of enough Black cops in decision-making and detective and patrol roles dealing with the community.
Dominguez repeated Monday that she is not making any commitments at the moment about whom she will hire as assistant chief, pending the vote on her own confirmation. She said she is committed to diversity, pointing to a recent recruiting drive in which 88 percent of the applicants are Black or Latino.
Tom Breen Photo
Rev. Cousin: “This is who we want as our leader.”
Kimber was flanked at the press conference by Bishop Charles H. Brewer, III of Trinity Temple C.O.G.I.C. and activist Rodney Williams. In numerous press conferences critical of the NHPD this year, Kimber has also been accompanied by Rev. Steven Cousin of Bethel AME Zion Church. Cousin did not attend Monday’s press conference. Cousin attended the mayor’s Nov. 10 press conference announcing his appointment of Dominguez, speaking in favor. He spoke of watching her rise through the department and work with the community. “This is who we want as our leader to lead us in a time such as this,” he said. “We will follow your leadership. We will follow your vision.”
Reached Monday, Cousin said that he was impressed by how Dominguez met with him and other critics through this year and addressed concerns. He also noted that Elicker won reelection in November — and that he has the authority to name police chiefs and “run his city.”
“I was very critical of Renee. She still engaged with us. There were things I saw that she changed,” like updating the face mask policy so officers would not display the “thin blue line” symbol on duty, Cousin said.
At Monday’s press conference, Kimber was asked about the argument — offered regularly in the Independent comments section — that it’s a mistake to demand that an appointment go to a person of a specific race rather than to the best qualified person.
Kimber responded that at least four Black officers in the department are more than qualified to hold and excel at the assistant chief position: Sgt. Bertram Ettienne, who headed both the major crimes and homicide units until Dominguez promoted a new supervisor above him; Sgt. Shayna Kendall, deputy commander of the police academy and the department’s first Black female certified firearms instructor; Lt. Dana Smith, the only Black district manager; and Sgt. Paul Finch, who headed the recent recruitment drive. He noted that several have advanced degrees, unlike some other appointees who hold higher ranks. He noted that the assistant chief position has in the past not necessarily gone to the next officers down the chain of command. (Sgt. Archie Generoso, for instance, became assistant chief in 2012.)
Mayor Elicker told the Independent he will not intervene in Dominguez’s assistant police chief choices to advocate for at least one appointee of color. He said he does not “micromanage” his department heads.
Kimber compared Elicker’s and Dominguez’s position on the subject to then-Gov. George Wallace standing at the the doors to the University of Alabama with a vow never to allow Black students inside, and declaring in a 1963 inaugural address, “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!”
Dominguez responded that comparing her and NHPD to Wallace and “one of the biggest injustices in the country” serves to “trivialize” what the civil-rights movement meant.
“Diversity is extremely important to me and the police department,” Dominguez said. “The good work that the men and women of the police department do is not based on the color of the officers, the detective, the sergeant doing the good work. We work well as a team. We have challenges, yes. We can improve, yes. I am moving and trying to move the department forward so that we are representative in all of our ranks.”
In response to Kimber’s accusation, Elicker told the Independent, “I’ve worked with and seen firsthand the chief’s commitment to diversifying the department. Mr. Kimber’s inflammatory rhetoric is out of touch with the work that is going on in the Police Department.”
Legitimate points on both sides of the argument, so I don't want to get deep into the analysis of this Assistant Chief situation. Additionally, I've stated how I feel about selecting merely on the basis of race many times before. I will say that I truly don't believe a Sergeant should make the leap to executive command from front-line manager because the responsibilities of the two positions are vastly different. Providing leadership to managers is much different than supervising the rank-and-file officers, and managing a budget and adhering to regulatory compliance is much different than signing overtime slips and reading General Orders. Just because one guy was promoted from that position doesn't mean it should now be the practice, or it was even a good idea initially. A few years in middle management seems to be the best preparation. All of the officers mentioned are certainly adept at their job and executive command has the responsibility of developing them for their future and letting them mature as leaders, not thrusting them into a position that they may not be entirely ready for. I speak from a perspective of experience. During my last five years at the NHPD I was pushed through the ranks at a dizzying pace. Promotion after promotion and one high profile position after the next. I was adept at my job and possibly a decent leader, but I was immature for the rigors of those high-level positions. When I retired and was made Chief of Police of my own department, I made a huge rookie mistake and have been paying for it ever since. Simply stated my immaturity ruined my career in policing. The Black officers mentioned in this article are good officers, some of them I know well and some of them have been students of mine at Albertus. We should let their careers take shape naturally and set them up for success, not failure. We owe them that much. Right now, there are not many Black officers in command, but that's because of attrition...not racism.