NEW HAVEN, Conn. — It’s been just over a year since the City of New Haven swore in its newest police chief, Karl Jacobson. The Rhode Island native is now reflecting on the trials and tribulations the last year has brought on top of the successes the department is seeing.
Jacobson’s time as chief started on July 6 of 2022 on the day of his swearing-in ceremony, where his daughter was the one who pinned him. The same daughter who is now studying criminal justice, to get into the same field as her dad.
“She wants to be a New Haven police officer,” Chief Jacobson said.
That fact, as chief, makes him proud. He’s been in law enforcement for 26 years, transferring to the New Haven Police Department in 2007. In 2019, he became the assistant chief of investigations and last year, he was promoted to chief.
“It’s a great agency, we’ve struggled this year, but I feel like we’re on the other side of that struggle,” Jacobson said.
That struggle did involve a handful of low points. One of them was when Officer Chad Curry was shot by a suspect running from a scene in October of 2022. In the same month, they lost Officer Michael Hinton to cancer. Shortly after, two Bristol police officers were shot and killed, the ambush impacted law enforcement everywhere.
“We actually had someone resign and walk off the job,” Jacobson said.
Jacobson was met with another challenge as soon as he became the chief, which was right after Randy Cox was paralyzed while under the custody of five New Haven officers. Jacobson recommended they all be fired, and they were by the board. They’re also facing criminal charges.
But they weren’t the only ones. Jacobson recommended four other officers in separate cases be fired.
“Over the period of my first year, nine officers have been recommended for termination. That’s a lot. But, I feel like the community deserves for us the do the right thing as an administration. The community deserves for us to move forward on these cases. Some of those people resigned, which means they can’t be police officers, which that’s a good clause in the Police Accountability Bill,” Jacobson said.
And the results of those decisions, Jacobson said, are paying off. It’s evident in the decrease in the amount of force New Haven officers are using. Jacobson said in the first six months of 2022, officers used force 400 times. So far this year, that number sits at 119 times. Jacobson said the number of complaints to internal affairs is also down.
However, calls are up, by 12,000. Jacobson sees that as a plus.
“If the community is calling you more, it’s for a couple different things. One is, they trust you, and they trust you to solve their problems,” Jacobson said.
When it comes to shootings, fatal and non-fatal, the department has seen fewer shootings, but they’ve been deadlier.
So far this year, New Haven Police have investigated 14 homicides. This time last year, eight people were murdered. But non-fatal shootings are down. Jacobson said so far this year, 36 people have been shot. At the same time last year, the department investigated 63 shootings.
Much of that improvement, the chief said, has to do with advancements in technology. The department has started to implement things like cameras sprawled across the city, license plate readers, stop stick technology (which helps stop and slow down cars), StarChase (which helps them track cars through a tagging system) and drones to help with investigations. Soon, the department will have a real-time crime center to track and see things as they happen and red-light cameras.
“So we’re giving the officers everything they need to safely do the job and for it to be safe for the community,” Jacobson said.
Jacobson said moving forward, he wants to focus more on the mental health of officers. To do that, he wants to get more people on staff so that they’re not forced to work longer hours and get them the care they need.
Right now, the department has 330 officers on the force. The chief said he’d like to be closer to 400 active duty officers.
“We have the largest number of what’s called holdovers, having to force people to stay due to shortages right now, than we’ve had in my time ever here,” Jacobson said.
The department is working hard to change that, just completing a new deployment plan where they implemented a new shift from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. It’s a plan Jacobson said was developed by a captain and a lieutenant. It has since cut down on the holdover rate.
“Just as we need to give the community a voice, me as the chief, I need to give my officers a voice. I need to listen to them too. So that they can be healthy and move on and do the right thing,” Jacobson said.
Jacobson has made the commitment to serve as chief of the department through January of 2026.
“And I’m going to stick with that commitment. And I hope that a lot of the officers here follow me,” Jacobson said.
Julia LeBlanc is a reporter at FOX61 News. She can be reached at jleblanc@fox61.com Follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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