Rodney Williams, Karl Jacobson on “Dateline.”
New Haven police are investigating death threats made this week against officers amid a wave of national protest against cop misconduct.
New Haven police are also investigating how they can do their jobs better so people in the community don’t feel threatened by the cops.
Assistant Police Chief Karl Jacobson gave those two updates during an appearance on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program.
He appeared on the program Wednesday along with Dixwell/Newhallville community activist Rodney Williams. The two spoke about how to build police-community trust — and how they have found a way to communicate and cooperate in that quest.
Their conversation took place against the backdrop of ongoing protest in New Haven and nationwide in the wake of the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd.
Jacobson said one aspect of the killing that particularly struck him was the way that fellow officers watched the killing and failed to intervene. That gets to the core of the problem, he said.
“Twenty-three years ago, we were almost trying to look the other way. It’s wrong. That mentality is starting to change,” he said, recalling the start of his career with the Providence, R.I., police. “We need to do better.”
The past emphasis on “zero tolerance” and chasing people off cameras was also wrong, Jacobson argued.
He spoke on the program about how police officers’ families have received death threats by phone and text message over the past week. He also spoke about hearing a young woman tell him at a recent protest, “I’m afraid for my child to go outside” for fear of police violence.
“That breaks my heart. I did not joint he police department so people could fear us,” Jacobson said.
Jacobson said the department has been working on “police legitimacy” — earning trust of citizens by improving daily interactions. He and retired Detective Stacy Spell teach a course by that name at the police academy. It focuses on earning the perception of the community that actions of law enforcement are appropriate… The community commits less crime” if it sees the police following rules as well. “If they see police police themselves, they will police themselves.”
“Crime going down— the community don’t get credit,” Rodney Williams argued. “We’re respecting each other a little better. How we resolve beef will decide how many people are killed.”
Thomas Breen Photo
Rodney Williams speaks outside the Newhallville police substation on the day someone threw a molotov cocktail at the building.
Rodney Williams, who runs a Dixwell Avenue sheetrocking business called Green Elm Construction, has been outspoken about police not policing themselves, including one incident in which an officer pulled a gun on him at a traffic stop.
He brought concerns one night to a Board of Police Commissioners meeting. Afterwards, he met Jacobson. They remained in the hallway outside the meeting room for two hours, speaking. They have remained in regular touch since then.
On “Dateline,” Williams spoke of how citizens don’t receive support after bad experiences with cops: “You’ve got to understand how we feel after the officer do what he did to us. We don’t get help [when] we get terrorized .”
Williams suggested that officers who lose their ability to control themselves should be guided to early retirement. He suggested psychological evaluations of veteran cops.
“Twenty years of drama” may prove too much for a person to handle and still do the job effectively, Williams argued. “This ain’t for everybody,” he said of the police job. If concerns about losing pensions keep officers in the role too long, they could perhaps receive financial incentives to retire early, Williams suggested.
He also called for police body cameras to turn on automatically through voice activation. He noted that in some cases — like the Hamden police officer shooting at two unarmed people in Newhallville, one of whom is Williams’ nephew — the cops leave the cameras off.
“Rodney and I want the same thing: We want people safe, alive, and out of jail,” Jacobson said.
Click on the video below to watch the full episode of “Dateline New Haven” with Rodney Williams and Assistant Chief Karl Jacobson, in which they answered listeners’ questions about community and policing.
I like the idea of continuous psychological evaluation and support for police throughout their career but I cannot support incentives for early retirement unless they have been diagnosed with some sort of PTSD, there is too much room for that to be abused, the military has a similar issue with this as well.
Voice activated body cameras sound cool but that technology isn't out there yet and IMO is a bad idea. There is too much room for outside interference and police can never allow any outside entity access to equipment of any kind. Even if that were the case it requires then to turn it on.
Glad to see the NHPD are making good on their word to try to enact change