nothin Hamden Snags 2 More New Haven Cops | New Haven Independent

Hamden Snags 2 More New Haven Cops

Paul Bass File Photos

Officer Jenna Davis, at right, helping a K2 overdose victim on the Green.

Officer Brian Jackson.

Two more New Haven cops have resigned to take new higher-paying jobs in Hamden.

The resignations of the two officers, Jenna Davis and Brian Jackson, took effect Monday. They also became Hamden officers as of Monday, according to town human resources chief Ken Kelley.

They join cops who have been fleeing New Haven’s force for higher-paying suburban jobs amid uncertainty about the future of the city’s police contract, which is currently in arbitration. Forty-nine resigned or retired in 2018 alone, and dozens more are expected to this year.

Jackson and his partner last year saved a suicidal woman’s life in a dramatic rescue atop East Rock. (Read about that here.)

Suburban departments like Hamden have aggressively courted younger cops from New Haven, which paid to train them. (Read here about efforts by New Haven to change state law so the city can recoup more of the $31,600 in average costs lost on training poached cops.)

City cops’s annual salaries start at $44,400, the lowest level in the state. Suburban salaries routinely start at $15,000 to $20,000 higher and top out that much higher as well, accompanied by sometimes better health and retirement benefits. Also, cops in the suburbs usually contend with less crime.

Last year Hamden filled three open positions with New Haven Officers Keron Bryce, Michael White, and Jinett Marte-Vasquez. Two of them had been on the New Haven force for under six years; Bryce has already made a mark in Hamden as he did in New Haven.

Four of the five poached cops are black or Hispanic, reflecting Hamden’s efforts to diversify its force as part of community policing.

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