New Haven police officer’s file shows sergeant’s concern about his gang ties

NEW HAVEN — The city Police Department looked into an officer’s potential ties to the Bloods gang after the Board of Police Commissioners allowed his application to move forward, but the modicum of new information gathered was deemed insufficient to require a second vote.

This information was contained in a copy of Officer Jawan Haddock’s personnel file the department provided in response to a Freedom of Information request Tuesday.

Haddock applied to join the New Haven Police Department after working as a state correction officer, according to the records contained in his file.

During his time working at Corrigan Radgowski Correctional Center, he was investigated for allegedly passing notes from an inmate housed in the gang population to one in the general population.

That allegation was not substantiated, but investigators found he was pictured displaying hand signs associated with the Bloods on his Facebook page and was friends with people believed to have gang ties.

At the time, Haddock “admitted to hanging with several (people).... who are known to be gang members,” but said he had “no direct knowledge of their gang statutes,” according to the Department of Correction report.

The report says the DOC did not believe Haddock was a member of a gang, but he was fired from the DOC for “several administrative charges including his failure to disclose that several of his acquaintances are current or former gang members,” and did not disclose that he knew “many people that were incarcerated;” he was then reinstated on appeal, according to the records.

After this was revealed during his background check in New Haven, then-Chief Anthony Campbell recommended Haddock not be hired and flagged his application for review by the Board of Police Commissioners, according to the department.

Commissioners considered whether to strike his application on July 24, 2018 but allowed it to move forward.

After an unnamed individual mentioned Haddock’s purported gang ties in a November 2018 traffic stop, and then Haddock was stopped, but not charged by police in January 2019, Sgt. Betsy Segui re-opened the investigation, according to documents in his file.

Segui found the summary presented to the Board of Police Commissioners about Haddock’s potential gang ties did not include “the totality of the reasons” he was up to be removed from the hiring process and recommended that the board consider the matter a second time.

Then-Assistant Chief Rachael Cain declined to follow Segui’s recommendation in April 2019, according to documents in Haddock’s file. Cain said “she did not see any new information” gleaned during the follow up investigation, according to the records.

According to the documents in his file, Haddock was found to have no criminal record during the background check.

Haddock did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

In a Friday press release, Police Chief Otoniel Reyes said that Haddock, not mentioning him by name, was in good standing with the department.

Reyes was responding to “social media reports of veiled inequities of the hiring process for the New Haven Police Department,” Sgt. Shayna Kendall said in the release.

“Chief Reyes expressed the officer in question applied for the New Haven Police Department and subsequently went through the rigorous process, which included successful completion of a physical ability assessment, written examination, as well as the oral boards,” Kendall said in the release. “This officer was also subjected to a laborious and intensive background check, psychological examination, drug test, and polygraph test amongst the plethora of requirements needed before entering the police academy. The officer was presented to the Board of Police Commissioners and was moved forward for hire.”

“Notably, this officer proved to be an efficacious member of the police department by completing a physically and mentally challenging police academy in addition to the Field Training Officer Program. Chief Reyes expressed that the officer is currently a member in good standing.”

A request for comment was made to Reyes Tuesday.