Former Providence Police Chief Dean Esserman took part in a rally Monday in New Haven, in response to last week’s racially-charged violence across the country. Esserman now leads the police force in New Haven, where he’s working to improve police-community relations.
From the New England News Collaborative, Cassandra Basler at WSHU brings us the story.
When Pastor James Newman heard that a white officer shot a black man in Minnesota, he felt angry. He said officers around the country need more training to combat their racial bias.
“They’re looking at ‘that black man has a gun’ and that is the thing that bothers me with white officers that say they’re trained,” said Newman. “But really, they’re not trained because if they were trained, there would be a better approach.”
Newman is on the city’s Community and Police Relations Task Force. He said The New Haven Police Department is working towards a better approach to policing.
Police chief Esserman said the department just started training recruits to recognize their biases before they walk their beats. He wants officers to build empathy with the community by remembering two things:
“That to many of us, the uniform brings pride,” said Esserman. “But to many it brings pain. And that what happens in Ferguson, and Minnesota, and Louisiana do affect New Haven.”
The FBI has recognized Esserman as a national leader for building trust with the community by having officers walk the streets in the neighborhoods they serve. He’s recruiting more police officers who live in New Haven. He also wants to help write national guidelines for community policing.
This report comes from the New England News Collaborative. Eight public media companies coming together to tell the story of a changing region, with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
