Garrett Curtis, Staff Photographer

In the mayor’s proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year, the New Haven Police Department stands to benefit from funds allocated toward a recruitment push and a continued investment in police technology.

The proposal, which New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker unveiled on Friday, would increase the city’s public safety budget by $10.1 million, or 10.68 percent. The proposal notes that the increase is primarily driven by the salary raises in the department’s new labor contract and a higher overtime budget “reflecting difficulties in recruiting and hiring.” Additional expenses are allocated toward upgrading and maintaining police technology and infrastructure, including piloting of artificial intelligence police report writing software.

The mayor allotted New Haven’s police services a grand total of $64,252,442, making it one of the highest funded agencies in the city. Nearly 15 percent of the potential city budget will go toward public safety agencies.

“Public safety is such a big part of what we do in our agenda as a city,” said Brian Wingate, who chairs the Board of Alders’ public safety committee. “I hope there’s only conversations and dialogue on their budget, if there is any change. You can’t really put a cost on life.”

Spotlight on recruitment and staffing

In the budget proposal, the city expressed its commitment to “extensive recruitment efforts” to fill police department vacancies. Concern over NHPD understaffing peaked this past fall, as the department’s union, Elm City Local, negotiated and finalized an overdue contract with the city.

When a tentative agreement on the contract, which raises NHPD officers’ salaries significantly, was announced in October, city and police officials hoped that it would encourage more aspiring police officers to join the department. In January, NHPD Chief Karl Jacobson told the News that recruitment would be his “number one priority” for the coming year.

According to the budget proposal, 12 recruits are currently training in the police academy.

Describing targeted recruitment efforts to hire “minority officers, women and members of the New Haven community,” the budget proposal states that of the current class of 12 recruits, 58 percent are “females and minorities.”

“We’re tentatively hopeful,” NHPD communications officer Christian Brukhart said. “A lot of what we’ve seen in the last couple years is our officers going to other police departments for better pay, better benefits, and the perception that it’s less work.”

Since the labor agreement was reached, Bruckhart said, the department has seen a “slight uptick” in applicants, but he cautioned that not enough time has passed to determine whether the increased recruitment success is due to the contract.

Aside from hiring new patrol officers, the NHPD hopes to recruit an additional detective to its staff and appoint more district managers — “top cops” assigned to a particular neighborhood as part of the department’s community policing model. Although the NHPD identifies 10 policing “districts,” Bruckhart explained that there are currently only six district managers. Four of them manage two separate neighborhoods.

“You have a wide variety of neighborhoods and concerned citizens, and it’s a lot for one person,” Bruckhart said.

Expanding and maintaining technology

The budget proposal heralds several initiatives related to police technology. In the coming fiscal year, the city hopes to support advances, including more cameras and license plate readers.

Bruckhart said that the cameras, which capture video throughout the city, have been “hugely effective” for the police department. He pointed to a November shooting in which camera surveillance helped the police to make two on-site arrests and put together warrants. 

The cameras are placed in areas where the police have historically seen a concentration of shootings, violence and traffic accidents.

“Nobody wants a police state,” Bruckhart said. “So we’re trying to find that right balance of recognizing that cameras are incredibly useful, while also, you know, not necessarily wanting cameras on every street corner.”

The budget proposal also lists improvements to the NHPD’s detention center — adding two suicide prevention cells and an accessible cell — as upcoming initiatives.

Money allocated to the NHPD will also go toward reimplementing a “quality of life and narcotics” unit, which the department had until the pandemic, according to Bruckhart. The prior unit included 10 patrol officers temporarily assigned to respond to narcotics-related calls, Bruckhart said. 

“It was really great because if you get an officer who’s proactive and wants to go out there and do a good job for six months, they get to focus just on narcotics,” Bruckhart said. “But those skills — authoring search warrants, authoring arrest warrants, being able to work with cooperating witnesses or confidential informants — it builds a lot of skills that officers can then apply when they go back to patrol, or if they then become detectives later on, or become supervisors.”

With depleted personnel, the department was forced to discontinue the unit. According to the budget, a reestablished unit would address complaints related to loud noise, dirt bikes and ATVs and drug activity.

More than $3 million in budget funds will be used to purchase and replace equipment, including conductive electrical weapons, body-worn and dashboard cameras, drones and interview room technology. The department is seeking approval to terminate its current contract for the equipment and enter a new five-year contract with Axon, which would provide updated technology, including a new artificial intelligence police report system.

Wingate told the News that the public safety committee has thoroughly researched the technology provided by that contract and that it will continue to solicit updates from NHPD leadership as the equipment is rolled out.

The Board of Alders’ finance committee will host its first public hearing on the budget proposal on Thursday, March 20.