NEW HAVEN - Tuesday afternoon, a day that New Haven police officers have been waiting for three and a half years.
Mayor Toni N. Harp (D-New Haven) and the police union President, officer Florencio Cotto, signed the new contract, which Police believe will do wonders for officer retention, which has been very difficult to this point.
In the Mayor’s conference room at City Hall, Harp,Cotto and others, signed a new six-year deal, which will be retroactive to July 1, 2016.
One of the terms that sealed the deal was the officers receiving a raise after two years rather than after three years, on your previous contract.
“We think that will make us more competitive with other towns in Connecticut,” said Harp. “I think that’s important.”
“I can say to you wholeheartedly that the members that are currently here, that are younger on the job, less than five years, they plan on not going anywhere,” said Cotto.
“I commend President Cotto and the Mayor for really stabilizing, helping stabilize our department because that’s what, in effect, this has done,” said Police Chief Otoniel Reyes.
New Haven certainly has a lot to do in the area of recruiting, which Reyes says will begin in January.
The department would be considered fully staffed at 434 officers. As of November 2019, the New Haven Police Department employees 355 officers.
Over the course of this new six-year contract, which is retroactive to July 1, 2016, runs through June 30, 2022, New Haven officers will receive a cumulative 13.5 percent pay raise.