Chief Zannelli (right) with former alder Ernie Santiago and Santiago’s great-nephew Jadiel. William Wood and George Creamer Sr. both earnestly want the cops to please keep working to reduce the blaringly loud noise from racing motorcycles and ATVs that keep elderly folks from sleeping well. However, they said, when officers pull into the parking lot below their windows to write reports, and they sees the cruisers’ flickering red-and-blue safety lights nearby, that’s good, that’s reassuring. Those were some snippets of the productive schmoozing that emerged Thursday afternoon at Chatham Place, Mary Wade’s senior living complex at 138 Clinton Ave. in Fair Haven. That’s where Police Chief David Zannelli, Asst. Chiefs Manmeet Bhagtana and Bertram Etienne, several of the new district managers, and a host of patrol officers all gathered to hang out with residents and neighbors for this year’s inaugural “Coffee With A Cop” event. Much better to meet an officer over coffee than at a crime scene, was how Zannelli described what will be the first of many such gatherings — social activities that advance community policing — throughout the year. When he was district manager of Fair Haven in 2017-2018, Zannelli initiated the effort meeting the community at various locations, once at the Dunkin’ Donuts in the plaza at Ferry Street and Grand Avenue among other locations. The community management team, which supported the effort, even came up with free coffee mugs to induce community members to drop by. And at the festive and very social Chatham Place event on Thursday, Zannelli remembered what was written on the coffee mugs in question: “Good to the last cop.” If you have one of those around, it very well may be a collector’s item. “We want to revitalize those efforts,” Zannelli said, with the additional specific purpose of introducing himself — he was sworn in as chief on May 5 — and the four new district managers, to the community. They include Sgt. Jon Lambe, who helms Dwight neighborhood policing; Lt. Ed Dunford in Beaver Hills; Lt. Rosa Melendez in the Hill; and Lt. Justin Cole in Fair Haven. While community policing has long been the policy in New Haven and coffees with a cop at various venues across the city a regular feature, Chief Zannelli has over the years become one of its most ardent advocates and his district managers, he said, are very much in sync and are all planning similar events in their corners of town in the months ahead. The next will be at the Towers on May 29 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., to be organized by the Hill’s new district manager, Lt. Melendez. On Thursday Melendez said she was picking up pointers about how to host her event but mainly socializing with residents of Chatham Place like Lora Lum, listening to their stories and perspectives. These first two events just happen to be at senior living complexes, said Zannelli, both because older people don’t have as easy a time getting out and also because they offered to host. But the “Coffee with a Cop” program is for everyone, he said. “With the nicer weather coming, it can be at a school, a community center, wherever we can get a good group like this one.” In attendance at Thursday’s meetup. That group on Thursday included not only the residents and staff at Chatham Place but community leaders current and former like Ernie Santiago, who served six terms as alder for Fair Haven’s Ward 15. He dropped by with his four-year-old great-nephew Jadiel, who also scored a NHPD officer’s pin. Parts of the gathering even had the feeling of reunion. David Hunter, the long-time president and CEO of Mary Wade Home, embraced Zannelli and told a tale of the kind of policing that emerges when people know each other. In 2017, Hunter recalled, after a man had been violently assaulted with a weapon on Grand Avenue — the assailant was caught, but the victim was traumatized — he received a call from Zannelli. He told me, Hunter said, he believed the man was our neighbor and could we look in on him because he was really shaken up. It wasn’t just formally connecting him (the victim) to wraparound services, said Zannelli, which they did. “But he was a wreck,” Zannelli said, and he thought it best to alert neighbors like Hunter to look in on him. George Creamer, Sr. and William Wood. Wood is the residents’ council chair at Mary Wade’s sister building, the Boardman Residence. Meanwhile, over on the other side of the bright lobby of the Chatham Place residence, a member of the fire department was playing some Gershwin on the piano while Creamer was talking to Lt. Cole about the portable scanner he has in his room. “I have the fire department frequency,” said Creamer, who had served for many years as a volunteer fireman in North Haven. He wondered if Cole might help him get the NHPD frequency so he could listen in on those calls too. Cole said he didn’t think the community policing idea included that service but he made a point of thanking Creamer for his service as a volunteer fireman. Zannelli appeared pleased with the turnout and the talk. “It should be more of a norm that they see us as dropping by and not only when something’s wrong.” For info on the next event in the program, see below. And you don’t have to live in the neighborhood where an event is taking place to attend; any resident is welcome. By press time there was no word whether complimentary coffee mugs would be available this year, or what might be written on them. The post “Coffee With A Cop” Percolates In Fair Haven appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less