New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
‘I get to be a role model’
Dominguez named acting police chief
NEW HAVEN — Assistant Chief Renee Dominguez will be named acting chief of the New Haven Police Department in the months to come, Mayor Justin Elicker announced Thursday.
Elicker said he would formally appoint Dominguez to the role in June, after outgoing Police Chief Otoniel Reyes uses up leftover vacation time.
He praised Dominguez’s experience, saying she had demonstrated “tested leadership” over her two de
cades as an officer — which includes 18 years in New Haven — analytical aptitude and the ability to build a compassionate rapport with residents.
“I’m grateful that you have agreed to take on this role,” Elicker said to Dominguez at a media event on the steps of the Union Avenue Police Department.
“I can tell you that it is not easy, having seen the work that Chief Reyes has been doing, and you’ve seen more of that than I have, so you know what you’re taking on,” the mayor said.
Dominguez joined the Police Department in 2002, rising through the ranks to hold a number of roles, including a long stint as a district manager and, prior to being named an assistant chief in July 2019, as head of the Family Services Division.
Reyes noted that, while he “can’t speak for what’s going on in the nation, but at least here in New Haven, for the Police Department, there will be a peaceful transition of power.”
He said there is “no more dedicated individual,” to both the department and the ideals of police work, than Dominguez.
The people around the chief are crucial to their success, Reyes said, crediting Assistant Chiefs Karl Jacobson and Herb Sharp, as well as Dominguez.
“She’s a person of high integrity, a person who truly, truly, truly cares. She’s going to make decisions for the right reasons. She’s collaborative,” said Reyes. “I can’t be more excited for her. I want to say ‘thank you’ to her for everything she’s done to make my tenure here successful.”
Dominguez thanked Elicker and Reyes for believing in her. Reyes had served as a mentor during her time as assistant chief, she said, and helped guide the department through a turbulent year in 2020.
“I’m extremely excited to be taking on this role as (acting) chief. The department needs stability; the community needs stability. It’s always difficult when there’s transition, and I know that, together, we’ll be able to make it a smooth transition,” said Dominguez.
“To the community, I look forward to leading you and working with you and collaborating with you, and to the men and women who stand behind me and patrol these streets, I am
really looking forward to being your chief, and I know that together we are going to continue in the path we have always led, with integrity and trust for the community,” she said.
Dominguez said the department continued to believe in community policing, as it had when she walked a beat, as it had through “the longest and the fastest year” that was 2020.
“We believe in that collaboration. We believe in knowing your officers. And we believe in doing everything we can together,” said Dominguez. “We’re not in this alone. We’re in this together as a community. We are part of the community.”
Reyes and Elicker also said Dominguez’s appointment, to the extent possible, offered stability for the department and the city.
Former Board of Alders candidate Rodney Williams, in attendance at the press event, expressed concern that it was difficult for residents to build relationships with the department if the chief’s position continued to turn over.
Dominguez will be the third person to lead the department since July 2016, when Anthony Campbell
was appointed chief to succeed outgoing Chief Dean Esserman on an interim basis.
“This not about the chief of the Police Department. This is about a vision; this is about a product. The
New Haven Police Department is a brand — it’s a brand that provides premier policing services in a community policing format to its city,” Reyes said. “That’s going to happen, irrespective of who the chief is — at least that’s the way it’s supposed to be. If that’s tethered to a chief, we’re not doing our jobs properly.”
Elicker said the change inevitably would be disruptive. But this is an imperfect world, he said, in which people make personal decisions, and “leadership roles in New Haven are brutal; they chew you up and spit you out.” Dominguez, as well as the other leaders in the department, represent philosophical consistency, he said.
“Our department heads are working nonstop, getting paid less than they would in the private sector, and dealing with very, very difficult and challenging decisions — at times, demands that they can’t possibly respond to fully — at a time, also, (that is turbu
lent politically), but of financial challenge that this city is facing unlike anything we have seen in recent decades,” said Elicker. “While, ideally, we’d have department heads stay for a very, very long time, I think I, and we as a city, need to get accustomed to that turnover.”
Dominguez will become the second woman to lead the New Haven Police Department. Stephanie Redding led the department for
a period in 2010, between the tenures of chiefs James Lewis and Frank Limon.
Dominguez said she hoped her work would serve as an inspiration for her daughters, as well as other women in the department.
“I get to be a role model for the women who are here, the officers, the sergeants and lieutenants that stand behind me, to know that you can accomplish anything with hard work,
and it’s about how hard you work, not about what gender you are,” said Dominguez. “And, also, the best gift of this — I have two little girls. What I’ve shown them is: their momma can do anything, and so can they.”
Dominguez is expected to fulfill the rest of Reyes’ term in office, which runs through January 2022.