NEW HAVEN, Conn. — New Haven’s police chief abruptly retired following allegations he stole cash from a division account, Mayor Justin Elicker introduced Monday.
The Democrat mentioned Chief Karl Jacobson admitted he took cash from a metropolis fund that compensates confidential informants for serving to police clear up crimes.
He mentioned the chief acknowledged taking the funds for private use when three of his deputies confronted him Monday morning over the monetary irregularities.
Elicker known as the allegations “stunning” and a “betrayal of public belief.”
“Nobody is above the regulation,” he mentioned in a night press convention on the police station. “We put our belief in regulation enforcement to uphold the regulation, to not violate the regulation themselves.”
Jacobson didn’t instantly return an e mail in search of remark Monday. He had served as police chief in one in all Connecticut’s largest cities and residential to Yale College for greater than three years.
The mayor mentioned he was set to fulfill with Jacobson and place him on administrative depart when the chief as an alternative submitted his paperwork to retire, efficient Monday.
Elicker mentioned it’s unclear how a lot and for a way lengthy Jacobson had been taking cash from the informants’ account and that it does not seem others have been concerned. He mentioned metropolis officers are cooperating with state investigators trying into the matter.
Elicker mentioned he has tapped Assistant Police Chief David Zannelli, who was among the many officers to confront Jacobson over the funds, to function interim chief.
Jacobson took office in July 2022, simply weeks after a Black man was paralyzed in the back of a police van in an incident that roiled the police division and town.
5 officers have been arrested in reference to the mistreatment of Richard “Randy” Cox, who suffered a neck damage and was left paralyzed from the chest down when the police van with no seat belts he was in braked exhausting to keep away from an accident and despatched him flying right into a steel partition.
Jacobson beneficial firing 4 of the officers, and town’s police commissioners terminated them. The fifth officer retired earlier than he could possibly be disciplined. One of many fired officers received his job again after an attraction.
Jacobson had been with the division for 15 years earlier than being named chief. He beforehand served within the East Windfall Police Division in Rhode Island for 9 years.
