NEW HAVEN -- Following several controversial incidents in recent months, New Haven Police Chief Dean Esserman has agreed with Mayor Toni Harp to take a paid leave of absence.
The news comes after reports that Esserman was involved in an altercation with a waitress at the Archie Moore's Bar and Restaurant on Willow Street.
In a statement, New Haven Mayor Toni Harp said:
Following my investigation of recent reports of conduct I consider unbecoming a public official, Chief of Police Dean Esserman and I have mutually agreed that he will take a 15 working-day, paid leave-of-absence, effective tomorrow. Beyond that, given the city’s policy and practice of honoring a presumption of confidentiality in personnel matters, there will be no further comment.
On Monday, there was a meeting at City Hall involving Harp, Esserman and other City Hall officials. It was held in response to the Archie Moore incident.
"When (Esserman) deals with discipline, he always goes on people's past history, past incidents, and he should be treated the same way," said Craig Miller, the president of the New Haven Police Union.
On July 7, the police union in New Haven passed a vote of no confidence against Chief Esserman, saying he intimidates officers and has a bad temper. The vote of no confidence in Esserman passed 170 to 42. However, that vote was not binding, according to City Hall officials, and an official decision was to be determined at a later date.
"It is the prerogative of the police officers’ union to schedule votes on relevant topics as it sees fit and it seems such a vote by union members – this time, a non-binding referendum on Chief Esserman’s job performance – may take place Thursday," said Mayor Toni Harp's communications director in a statement on July 7 before the vote was actually held.
It's not clear if this is the end of the discussion on Esserman's future, or just a step.
Esserman also faced a vote of no-confidence during his time as chief in Providence, Rhode Island.
In December 2014, Mayor Harp issued a formal reprimand to Esserman after he lost his tempter with an usher at a Yale-Army football game that September. The reprimand warned the chief that more severe consequences would follow if his behavior was repeated.
Since Esserman was appointed chief in 2011, crime in New Haven is down "in every neighborhood, in every category, every year," Esserman told FOX 61 in May, attributing it to community policing.
“We’ve had a decline in crime for three years in a row in all crime and we've cut the murders and shootings in half,” Esserman said a year and a half earlier, in December 2014, at a time when Black Lives Matter protests were sweeping the country and New Haven.
"You do it by having relationships and people tell you what happens before it happens. You do it by partnering with every enforcement agency in the community," Esserman said during a speech when he was first named New Haven's chief.
