New Haven police chief urges armed patrol to let officers do their jobsNew Haven’s police chief is addressing a proposal from a few residents who want to bring armed patrols to the Elm City in an effort to combat recent crime.
During a one-on-one interview with Chief Karl Jacobson, he wanted to stress that residents in the city should not be taking matters into their own hands. Despite an officer shortage, he says the public must have confidence in police to do their jobs.
“These are community issues that the police can handle, but we don’t need an armed patrol for that,” chief Jacobson told News 8.
It comes after Cornell Lewis with Hartford-based Self-Defense Brigade said he was contacted by three residents in New Haven with an interest in being trained to bring armed patrols to the city. On Thursday, the chief said his top concerns include a lack of use-of-force training among civilians.
“I think officers are trained way more than anyone could be trained. We do de-escalation, we do firearms training, we do everything we can to not shoot somebody,” he said. “We’re talking 26 weeks of police training, so that you don’t have to take a life.”
Lewis responded Thursday, telling News 8, “Ever since George Floyd’s death, we’ve been patrolling in neighborhoods and we’ve been providing armed legal security for a lot of the protests for Black Lives Matter movement. We’ve been confronted by racist neo-Nazis and terrorists. We have training — in terms of guns. We know how to shoot at the range, and the on-the-job training has provided us with the necessary skills.”
Lewis says one of the pro-patrol residents is from New Haven’s Westville neighborhood. A community meeting was held last week to address a string of vehicle break-ins in recent months.
Alderman Richard Furlow represents the area and says the suspects are teenagers.
“We know these are kids, so are you going to shoot a child?” Furlow said. “It’s just very dangerous, and I just think more residents would be afraid to have people walking around arming themselves than those who are actually doing crime.”
Lewis said, “We are not going to shoot any kids… we are legally armed, so to suggest that we’re going to pull out some guns on 14-15-year-old kids, no. We’re not going to do that, however, people have a right to protect themselves.”
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