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12/21/2017 11:00 PMMayor Joseph Maturo, Jr., announced that, at 12:35 p.m. on Dec. 13, Federal Court Judge Alvin Thompson granted a joint-motion filed by the Town of East Haven and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to terminate the consent decree and dismiss the pending litigation between the parties following the town’s unprecedented success meeting and exceeding the requirements of a 48-month Agreement for Effective and Constitutional Policing aimed to address deficiencies raised by the DOJ in 2011.
“Following on-site audits which concluded in November, DOJ officials confirmed that our Police Department had met and exceeded each and every benchmark for success specified in the 48-month Agreement for Effective and Constitutional Policing,” Maturo said. “Last Wednesday, upon the joint-motion of the town and DOJ, a federal court judge acknowledged the same, terminated the consent decree, and dismissed the ongoing litigation between the town and DOJ.”
Maturo proudly added, “Thanks to the collective efforts of a number of individuals, East Haven is the only jurisdiction in the country to have met every requirement of a consent decree with the DOJ both on-time and under budget. Although our department has been recognized in numerous capacities over the past two years for its success rebuilding public trust and restoring accountability, today we recognize the culmination of that hard work and the beginning of a new, bright chapter for our department.”
On Dec. 11, 2011, the DOJ issued a civil findings letter alleging a pattern and practice of biased policing, unconstitutional searches and seizures, and excessive force that eventually led to the Jan. 24, 2012 arrest of four East Haven police officers.
Maturo recollected, “When I addressed our department personnel at roll call on the day our officers were arrested, the mood was somber, morale was low, and no one quite understood how we were going to chart a path forward for our embattled department. However, after nearly a year of negotiation with the DOJ, we agreed to embark on an expansive and unprecedented set of reform efforts to revolutionize our Police Department. After four years of collaboration with the DOJ, those efforts have transformed our department into a model for others across the nation.”
Police Chief Ed Lennon, who served as the department’s subject matter expert and compliance coordinator while a lieutenant in the department, recalled, “Meeting the 270-day deadline was a monumental effort. I remember working around the clock with command and patrol staff to schedule and hold all of the necessary training, re-write policies, and overhaul our data collection and reporting systems.”
Lennon noted, “However, the process was as collaborative as it was transformative, and we learned early on that we had a partner in the DOJ along with the full support of the Mayor’s Office and the Town Council. We were given carte blanche by the mayor to do whatever was necessary to turn the department around. That support came with the backing of the Town Council, which, in June of 2013, unanimously authorized the bonding of $2.5 million to effectuate the reforms called for in our agreement with the DOJ.”
Maturo explained, “We all wanted our Police Department to succeed and to grow. We even went to far as to appoint former Town Attorney Lawrence Sgrignari as special counsel to the reform effort. He was tasked with brokering, on behalf of the Town, with the DOJ throughout the Town’s compliance efforts. Throughout the compliance effort, he proved to be an invaluable resource and a champion for the Town’s legal rights.”
In her eighteen-month report released in August of 2014, then Joint-Compliance Expert, Kathleen O’Toole, who served as an independent broker and supervisor of the Town’s progress until being succeed by Rafael Ruiz, commended the “ total commitment on the part of the Town of East Haven” and noted that the Mayor, Police Chief, and department personnel in charge of this endeavor had “not wavered once on their commitments under the Settlement Agreement.”
In the same report, O’Toole concluded “that the milestones accomplished in the first eighteen months are impressive” and noted that “[a] solid foundation has been established, particularly with the development, training and ongoing review of the new Policies and Procedures Manual.”
In July of 2015, following a series of positive reports on the department’s ongoing success and transformation, Attorney General Loretta Lynch visited East Haven as part of a national community policing tour. In describing East Haven’s blueprint for success, she explained, “[t]his is a message that we’re hoping other cities can look to and see how this change is implemented here. It does take a lot of work. It takes a lot of will. It takes a lot of effort, but it can be done.”
Shortly after Lynch’s visit, Mayor Maturo and police command staff attended a community policing forum at the White House to share the Town’s story of success with forty other departments from across the country.
Maturo reflected, “Thanks to our compliance efforts, our police department found itself on the forefront of the policing industry. We weren’t just employing ‘best practices.’ Rather, by mid-2015, thanks to the sound leadership of Chief Brent Larrabee and young police executives like Chief Ed Lennon and his staff, and through collaboration with the Department of Justice and other policy experts, our department was actually defining the ‘best practices’ in a number of policy areas.”
In April of 2016, the Department gained further national recognition when the Seattle Times published an expose on department entitled, “How a small town overcame police abuses — Creating the conditions for true police reform.”
Maturo recalled, “The Seattle Times article followed on the heels of local reports by the New Haven Register and regional press about our department’s success and the improved relations with minority residents. It’s publication was noteworthy because it recognized not only the department’s progress, but the ‘conditions’ and hard work that went into the logistics of fostering, supervising, and effectuating that progress.”
In June of 2016, Maturo tapped then-Deputy Chief Ed Lennon to succeed Chief Larrabee as East Haven’s top cop and the Board of Police Commissioners promoted then-Professional Standards Officer James Naccarato to Deputy Chief. The shuffle-up led to the assignment of Lt. David Emerman to fill Chief Lennon’s role as the department’s DOJ “compliance coordinator.” Despite the shuffle up, Emerman excelled and the compliance efforts pushed forward with remarkable fluidity. In October of 2016, Emerman was honored by the U.S. Attorney’s Office with the “Community Policing Award” for his efforts as the DOJ Community Liaison and as compliance coordinator.
Maturo explained, “Ed Lennon’s ascension to the role of Police Chief was an indicator of the department’s growth, progress, and readiness to lead itself. It marked the beginning of a new era of self sufficiency for our department. Since that time, Chief Lennon, Deputy Chief Naccarato, and Lt. Emerman, along with the entire command staff, have led the department responsibly and professionally.”
On December 21, 2016, the date marking the four-year anniversary of the start of the consent decree, Maturo addressed the department’s sworn personnel at 4:00PM roll call.
Maturo recalled, “My goal in speaking to and congratulating our officers at roll call that day was to recognize their incredible contributions to the department’s turnaround. While our police executives and policy experts charted the path of reform, our patrol officers were the ones who walked it step by step.”
With the litigation between the Town and the Department of Justice formally terminated, all eyes now turn toward the future which, by all indications, looks brighter than ever. As Rafael Ruiz noted in his 48-month compliance report, “[t]oday, the EHPD is a much younger and forward-looking department. It has had a significant turnover of officers… with a number of Spanish-speaking police officers, as well as African-American officers and female officers within its ranks. Today, the EHPD looks more like the community it is policing. During the last four years, the JCE has met and had several conversations with some of these officers and supervisors at the station and during ride-alongs, and noticed the enthusiasm that exists today among these officers, and the professionalism they show. There is a certain feel of camaraderie among them.”
Echoing Mr. Ruiz’s sentiments and looking toward the future, Maturo explained, “While the consent decree has been terminated and litigation has been dismissed, our efforts cannot and will not cease. In 2012, we made a commitment to changing the culture of our department and, more broadly, to becoming a more culturally competent, tolerant community. Moving ahead with Chief Lennon and Deputy Chief Naccarato leading our Police Department, I know our efforts will be lasting and that our department will remain a progressive, responsive, and respectful organization for years to come.”
Maturo concluded, “As I noted almost a year ago, there were many who doubted whether our community was capable of making the sustained changes contemplated in our compliance agreement with the Department of Justice. There were even some who rooted against us. Today, our department and our community are models of tolerance and respect. I am grateful to our residents for their trust and support on this long and difficult journey and I am proud to say, in no uncertain terms, that ‘we succeeded.’”