Dean Esserman, former Providence police chief now heading the New Haven, Ct., police department, is vowing that dedicated walking beats will return to every neighborhood, that officers will know residents, and that residents, over time, will celebrate police and work as partners, says the New Haven Register. Esserman he pledged to return the Police Department to the model of community policing.
“Mayor, thank you for bringing me home. It feels good,” Esserman said as Mayor John DeStefano Jr. announced him as the next chief. He will start Nov. 16, replacing Frank Limon, who is resigning. Esserman, 54, a former prosecutor, was assistant chief in New Haven from 1991 to 1993. Since then, he's worked as the chief of the Metropolitan Transit Authority police in New York, in Stamford, Ct., and in Providence, R.I., for eight years before resigning in June. DeStefano's opponent in the upcoming election, Jeffrey Kerekes, criticized the way Limon’s departure was handled. Bill Bratton, former police commissioner in Boston and New York City and chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, said even if New Haven had done a national search, “you won't find a better candidate than Dean Esserman.”