Young NHPD Promotes 11 ​“Future Leaders”

Chris Cameron had a full beard earlier this month as he finished a yearlong undercover investigation into a group of Fair Haven drug dealers.

Now clean shaven, he’ll be back in uniform when he hits New Haven streets for his next police assignments — as no longer a detective, but a newly-minted sergeant on the local force.

Cameron was one of six city police officers to rise to the rank of sergeant on Thursday afternoon during a New Haven Police Department promotion ceremony held in the second-floor atrium of City Hall.

The ceremony, which filled the auditorium with dozens of officers, family members, and friends, also saw the promotion of three sergeants to the rank of detective and two officers to the rank of detective.

“There is no greater thing in life than to serve,” Police Chief Anthony Campbell said as the crowd before him smiled, clapped, and cheered. And these five officers, he said, have made lives and careers out of doing just that.

Thursday’s promotion ceremony comes at a critical juncture for the department. On the one hand, violent crime in New Haven continues to drop across the board, particularly in the annual number of murders and non-fatal shootings. On the other hand, the department continues to hemorrhage officers, especially the more experienced ones, to retirement and better-paying, less-demanding jobs in the suburbs. Last year alone, the department lost 49 officers to retirement and resignation. In the first two weeks of the new year, it lost another seven.

So for Campbell, Thursday’s promotion ceremony wasn’t just about recognizing the good work of a select group of deserving officers. It was also about elevating some of the force’s most accomplished and diligent officers to positions of authority, so that they can develop their skills as supervisors and eventually become the next leaders of the department.

“Our department is so young,” Campbell said. With this latest round of promotions, he said, ​“each officer now has easier access to a supervisor.”

Assistant Chief Herb Johnson agreed. ​“We have a young department,” he said before the ceremony began. ​“We need to promote future leaders.”

Cameron, a 36-year-old West Haven native and 11-year veteran of the local force, was one of those younger officers to rise the ranks on Thursday afternoon.

Before becoming a sergeant this week, he worked as an plainclothes detective in the criminal intelligence unit. He said he spent the last year with a full beard, working undercover on what would turn out to be a successful bust of a group of Fair Haven drug dealers. Thanks to his work and that of his partners on the force, he said, city police were able to seize nine firearms, $75,000 in cash, and a kilo of heroin.

“It’s very satisfying,” he said about a year’s worth of undercover work leading to such a big bust. ​“You live that case.” Now a sergeant, his next assignment will be on second-shift patrol.

Martin Feliciano also earned a sergeant’s badge at Thursday’s ceremony. Feliciano, a 36-year-old native of Paterson, N.J., got his first job as a police officer in Santurce, Puerto Rico, when he was just 18 years old. He joined the New Haven force 11 years ago, and most recently worked as a patrol officer in the K‑9 unit.

He’s going to stay in the K‑9 unit, but now as a sergeant.

“It’s diverse,” Feliciano said about what attracts him to police work. ​“I like the action. You never know what you’re going to get” on any given day on the job.

The other officers promoted to the rank of sergeant on Thursday were Paul Finch, an 11-year veteran of the force who holds a master’s degree from the University of New Haven and currently serves as a member of the department’s hostage negotiation team; Richard Benson, started his policing career in 2003 as a patrol officer in Fair Haven and Newhallville; Brendan Canning, who joined the NHPD in 2012 and has worked as a patrol officer in the Hill and on the narcotics enforcement unit in Beaver Hills; and Kenneth King, who also joined the NHPD in 2012 and has worked a walking beat in Westville and at the police academy.

The department’s three newest lieutenants are Robert Maturo, who joined the force in 2001 and currently heads the department’s records division; Sean Maher, who joined the NHPD in 2007 and is the top cop for the Downtown-Wooster Square district; and Elliot Rosa, who joined the NHPD in 2002 and currently serves as a patrol sergeant.

And the two new detectives are Christian Bruckhart, who joined the New Haven force in 2014 after transferring from the Wallingford Police Department and holds a master’s degree from University College London; and Lizmarie Almedina, who joined the local force in 2014 and has worked in the special victims unit and as a school resources officer.

“Each of them has demonstrated that they can honor the name that they wear on their patch,” Campbell said on Thursday, ​“the name of the New Haven Police Department, which has a long hist of integrity, decency, and excellence. But they are also honoring their family name, and elevating that name by taking on more challenges, more responsibility, the ability to teach, to train, to mentor those who come behind them.”

Click on the Facebook Live video below to watch a portion of Thursday’s ceremony.