Author Archives: James Lu

New Haven’s blue and yellow-clad Downtown Ambassadors could soon help patrol neighborhoods throughout the city as part of a new crime-fighting idea discussed at a March 20 meeting of the Board of Aldermen’s public safety committee. Ward 7 Alderman Doug Hausladen ’04, who pitched the idea, said adding “ambassadors” — non-sworn individuals charged with assisting »

A Saturday night rap showcase slated to feature eight New Haven and Yale rappers at the Afro-American Cultural Center was canceled after the Yale Police Department expressed security concerns. The event was canceled Saturday morning after Rodney Cohen, assistant dean of Yale College and director of the Af-Am Center, emailed co-organizer Ifeanyi Awachie ’14 that »

Newly admitted applicants to the Yale College class of 2016 now have until May 1 to decide whether they will spend the next four years of their lives in New Haven. But even after the Elm City registered a 20-year high homicide count with 34 murders in 2011, 13 applicants interviewed said the city’s crime »

With the appointment of four new assistant chiefs, New Haven Police Department Chief Dean Esserman attempted to restore stability to a department that has seen high leadership turnover in recent years. Flanked by Mayor John DeStefano Jr. and Board of Police Commissioners Chairman Richard Epstein, Esserman nominated four candidates to fill the department’s assistant chief »

New Haven Police Department Chief Dean Esserman will appoint a new leadership team today. At a City Hall press conference with Mayor John DeStefano Jr. scheduled for 5:30 p.m., Esserman is expected to announce four new assistant chiefs: Lt. Thadeus Reddish, Lt. Luiz Casanova, Capt. Denise Blanchard and Archie Generoso, an inspector for the state’s »

The New Haven Police Department will grow over the next three years in a two-phase strategy aimed at restructuring and strengthening the department. NHPD Chief Dean Esserman unveiled the plan at the department’s weekly CompStat meeting Tuesday, setting in motion the expansion of the Elm City’s police force that Mayor John DeStefano Jr. previewed earlier »

The reliability of New Haven’s ShotSpotter system, a series of sensors which detect and locate gunshots in the city’s central neighborhoods, has come under question after several missed gunshots and false reports in recent weeks. After the system of audio detectors, which uses acoustic triangulation to register gunshots, failed to report gunfire in a number »

While Yalies flocked out of New Haven for spring break, members of Occupy New Haven were determined to stay put on the Green. Last Wednesday, 15 minutes after a 12 p.m. deadline City Hall set for residents of the protest’s encampment to vacate the upper portion of the New Haven Green, federal Judge Janet Hall »

A record number of revelers flocked downtown last Sunday for New Haven’s 170th annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade, and police cracked down on public drinking along the route. New Haven Police Department officers arrested 40 people during the day’s festivities for offenses including minor assaults, fighting, vandalism, public drinking and disorderly behavior, department spokesman David »

In a four-day operation that kicked off last Friday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 45 undocumented residents in Massachusetts and Connecticut, including two in New Haven. ICE officers in the agency’s Enforcement and Removal Operations arrested the 45 individuals, 40 of them Connecticut residents, as part of “Operation Threats Against the Community,” which targeted »

Wednesday marked the end of New Haven’s second-straight month without a homicide, an interval not seen since summer 2009. The number of violent crimes is down citywide by more than 20 percent compared to this time last year, according to data from the New Haven Police Department. But city and police officials said it is »

New Haven Police Department Chief Dean Esserman is expected to finalize his new leadership team within the next two weeks. Richard Epstein, the chairman of the city’s Board of Police Commissioners, said Tuesday he believes Esserman will nominate a new slate of assistant chiefs in the “next week or 10 days.” The new assistant chiefs »