Markeshia Ricks Photo
Anthony Campbell at Varick Thursday evening.
Faith and community leaders are asking how best to move forward in rebuilding trust with the police after Hamden and Yale officers shot at two unarmed people in the Newhallville section of the city.
That question was posed at a forum held at Varick Memorial AME Zion Church on Dixwell Avenue Thursday evening. Retired New Haven Police Chief Anthony Campbell had an answer for the nearly 25 people who showed up.
He told them to keep talking and bring more people. He also told them that the April 16 shooting in Newhallville should change the concept of community policing for the better.
Campbell, who currently works for New Haven State’s Attorney Pat Griffin, walked those in attendance through the investigatory process, which is now in the hands of the state. While he couldn’t provide specific details about findings, he let them know that an investigation of officer-involved shootings usually takes a long time. But this particular investigation is moving along quickly in the interest of transparency.
“He understands that this is an event that has traumatized the community,” Campbell said of Griffin. “He has committed in collaboration with the commissioner to two to three months at best. It will probably be sooner.”
Campbell said that the work of rebuilding trust between the community involves open and honest dialogue. He said that rebuilding trust will have to result in a change in policing. While New Haven has become nationally and internationally recognized for its efforts in community policing, the officer-involved shooting in Newhallville and Wethersfield mean some things have to change. particularly in surrounding communities, Campbell argued.
“When we say move beyond, I don’t mean getting back to things as they were before, but making things better,” he said. He called for “a whole new way of doing policing.”
“You have to know the pulse of your community,” he said. “And far too often many surrounding towns don’t know that pulse.”
“I’m a father of three sons,” he added, “and when I see things like that I think, ‘My God, that could be my son.’ I’m in law enforcement and I don’t feel good about the things that have happened in our state in the last three years. I think there have to be some changes.”
While he spoke, Bridgeport police arrested protesters at an anti-police violence rally in that city, including New Haven organizer Kerry Ellington — and even handcuffed and detained a Hearst reporter who was covering the event.
Click the Facebook Live video to watch Campbell’s entire remarks.
It will change radically when I am mayor.