Since Police Chief Dean Esserman has come on as New Haven Police Department’s Police Chief, he has been making some very big

changes within the department. Just two weeks ago, he named four new assistant police chiefs, and now he has more planned for the department, like installing new leaders for the two biggest divisions in the department.

For the major crimes unit in the detective bureau, he will be introducing Sergeant Al Vazquez.  Sgt. Vazquez is a twenty year veteran and has been a supervisor in the bureau since 2008; before that, he was a detective, since 1999.  The sergeant will be overseeing the major crimes unit which investigates all homicides and serious crimes in the city.

The second person the Police Chief will be introducing is Lieutenant Jeff Hoffman, who will be taking command of the patrol division in the department.  Lt. Hoffman is a seventeen year veteran and has run the narcotics squad.  Hoffman will be filling the shoes of Assistant Chief Luiz Casanova who left last week when he was promoted to one of the Assistant Chief positions.  It not necessarily clear who will be taking the narcotics squad position yet.

Police Chief Esserman has described these two promotion steps as “phase one of reorganization” and he has a lot more planned to make the department better and work more efficiently.  He has been meeting with the newly appointed Assistant Chiefs and other supervisors, which he is holding off announcing for right now, and just says that “All week we’ve been meeting on the first phase of reorganization.  There are others to follow”.

Esserman has been promoted people from inside the New Haven Department, instead of outside like the last few Police Chiefs have. This is a start for many years to come because he plans on making it possible for the department to groom people from the inside to take the lead years after one of the top officials has left.  People may have had questions about Esserman when he was chosen, but he has proven that he is here for the betterment of New Haven.  These are only the first steps in making the city better.