New Haven’s permanent police chief officially sworn in today

NEW HAVEN, CT (WFSB) – A permanent police chief for the City of New Haven was sworn in on Wednesday.

Despite controversy surrounding the process, a relatively smooth transition for Karl Jacobson was expected.

The ceremony happened at New Haven City Hall at 11 a.m.

Jacobson, a 15-year veteran of the department, was already serving as the city’s top cop on an interim basis and was an assistant chief beforehand.

He was named the interim chief back in May, then nominated as permanent chief six weeks ago.

His elevation followed a process full of headaches for New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker, who originally nominated former acting chief Renee Dominguez for the position. However, the city’s Board of Alders rejected Dominguez and she subsequently retired.

Elicker said he is confident Jacobson, who was unanimously supported by the Board of Alders, is the right person for the job and will provide the long-term leadership the city needs.

“I never got into this job to be the chief, but a few years ago when I was asked to be assistant chief, a lot of the community members said take this job because you care,” Jacobson said. “Now, here we are.”

Jacobson said he has a plan for his first 100 days, and then a long-term vision as well.

He said it all starts with rebuilding trust after a man was paralyzed in police custody a few weeks ago.

“Our measure of success will not be the number of arrests made or traffic citations issued, but rather interaction with community, along with the reduction of crime, fear and disorder in New Haven,” Jacobson said.

Jacobson, who has been with the department for 15 years, said that interaction starts by rebuilding community trust, after Randy Cox was paralyzed while in police custody last month, and it continues with getting new officers back on walking beats.

“Just restart that community-based policing concept, where the cops walk for the first 3 years and build those relationships, that happened for me, I walked in the Hill,” Jacobson said.

“You see the number of people showing up today, celebrating the fact that there was a unanimous vote by the Board of Alders last night, it means we’re heading in the right direction. I’m very confident in Chief Jacobson,” Elicker said.

Ronald Huggins, who works in the youth department, and showed up to lend his support.

“I’ve known Karl since a little bit before my mom passed away. Karl is a guy who’s dedicated, trustworthy. He responds, more than anything, he responds, he shows up, I trust him, he really deeply cares about the New Haven community,” said Huggins.

Jacobson pledges his police department will be open, accountable and accessible, vowing to get to work.

“I want the community and the officers to work in tandem, to work together, to help solve problems together, I want the homicide and violence to go down, I want people to have equal opportunities to be police officers, I want to diversify this police department. There are so many things I want to do,” said Jacobson.

The chief mentioned following the mistreatment of Randy Cox, they’ve already made changes to how officers are to handle those in their custody, and the city is going to outline those in-depth Thursday.

Officials said Jacobson plans on announcing his assistant chief at a ceremony later in July.