Sophie Sonnenfeld Photo
Warren Waller addresses the police commissioners.
Seven veteran cops — most of whom used to wear a New Haven badge — are set to relaunch their careers as Yale Police with a mission of public trust, thanks to a vote Tuesday night by New Haven’s Board of Police Commissioners.
The board voted to approve the hiring of the university cops, one of whom was a familiar face in the room: Retired city Police Chief Anthony Campbell, who’s taking a post as the Yale force’s assistant chief of operations.
Stephanie James: Excited to join the Yale Police.
The six candidates to join as officers on the Yale police force, Yonick Crawford, Stephanie James, Erik St. Germain, Warren Palmer, Marc Tullo, and Warren Waller, familiarized the commission with their own experience, skill sets, and aspirations working for other departments. After rounds of thorough questioning, the meeting concluded with a unanimous vote in favor of all the candidates.
In the aftermath of community outrage over the April shooting by Hamden and Yale officers at the car of two unarmed suspects in the Newhallville neighborhood, the theme of public trust and community engagement prevailed during Tuesday night’s review at 1 Union Ave.
The special meeting was called because New Haven police must approve the Yale officers before they are appointed. Police Commissioners Anthony B. Dawson, Evelise Riberio, and Steven P. Garcia held the meeting in the third-floor boardroom. Joined via phone by Commissioner Greg Smith who joined via phone, the body elected to hold the meeting as an open session and interview the candidates all at once.
Back row, from left: Anthony Campbell, Marc Tullo, Warren Palmer, Erik St. Germain, Warren Waller, Stephanie James, and Yonick Crawford. Front: Board attorney Michael Wolak.
Four of the six officers — Crawford, James, Palmer, and Waller — left the New Haven Police Department to take the new posts, part of an exodus of city cops fleeing feared benefits givebacks or lured elsewhere by higher pay. The four recruits said they volunteer at New Haven churches and independent nonprofits.
Marc Tullo who was a sergeant at Southern Connecticut State University. Erik St. Germain previously served as an Air Force reserve staff sergeant. Officer Tullo’s father and brother also both worked in the New Haven Police Department; St. Germain was with the Milford Police Department for the past five years.
Warren Waller began his first three months on the walking beat in New Haven’s Dwight-Kensington neighborhood. “Getting to know the kids there started out rough,” he acknowledged, but he claimed by that in the end, “I was able to build rapport and a connection with them.” Waller said he hopes to bring his ability to connect with people to his Yale post.
Police Commissioners Anthony Dawson, Evelise Riberio, and Stephen Garcia.
Since joining the New Haven Police Department in 2016, Stephanie James has worked in Westville/West Hills, Fair Haven, and Whalley-Edgewood-Beaver Hills (WEB). She said she volunteers with educational organizations such as ACES and LEAP as well as at nonprofit CT VIP, which provides private psychotherapy for a low or no fee. James said Yale’s benefits helped entice her to make the job switch. She defined a good day on the beat as featuring “any call where I can de-escalate a situation by talking with someone, even in a hostile environment.”
“New Haven was tough, so a good day really is also just coming home safely,” she said.
“It’s coming home,” Warren Palmer, who has been working at Sacred Heart University the past few years after his NHPD stint, said of his pending Yale assignment. “I miss New Haven.”
Palmer spent 16 years in the New Haven’s Hill neighborhood, walking the beat for three.“I had a great experience with the New Haven Police Department, and I made lots of lifelong friends,” he said, but left because of the uncertainty over the terms of a new contract. The force has been working without a contract for three years.
Under a new contract, Yale cop salaries range from $66,000 to $95,000. New Haven cops start at just $44,400.
Increased numbers of retirements and resignations from the New Haven Police Department have been sparked by uncertainties in medical insurance coverage. This same reasoning prompted Anthony Campbell’s resignation as Chief of the New Haven Police Department back in February. He said that his experiences with the New Haven Police Department gave him “insight on the inner workings of finance and politics, which was truly eye-opening.”
Campbell, who earned both undergraduate and divinity degrees at Yale, said he returns to his alma mater to “expand community connections and traverse the worlds of education, policing, and community.” He said he hopes these connections will “create fewer problems and ultimately lead to a healthier and safer environment” as he “gives back to the organization and people who kept me safe in my undergraduate and graduate years.”
Joining with Yale Chief Ronnell Higgins’ focus on community engagement, Campbell and the new Yale officers are looking forward to “keep making that vision into a reality.”
The six new officers.
In selecting these candidates, Higgins said the key is “for candidates to relate to and understand the community while being skillful, trustworthy, and committed to policing.” Higgins said this batch of officers “have demonstrated their commitment to policing, and I believe we have selected some of the best police in the state.”
“While this is a loss for other departments,” he added, “they should all be proud of the qualities of these officers.”
Given the inevitability of officers leaving NHPD, leaving for Yale is the least worst option. These officers will still be patrolling New Haven. That said, the recent shooting is an opportunity to examine and refine the relationship between YPD, NHPD, and the city. Among my thoughts: Should all YPD officers have NHPD experience and New Haven connections to reduce friction between Yale and New Haven? Should Yale pay New Haven a finders and training fee for those officers to compensate New Haven for the cost of training them? A fee of $100K for recruitment, academy training, and on-the-job training turning a raw recruit into a journeyman seems reasonable to me.