26 city police recruits get their badges

09/08/2007

By: William Kaempffer , Register Staff

NEW HAVEN - They will begin their new careers Sunday night on the graveyard shift, but Friday was for celebrating. In an afternoon ceremony, 26 recruits got new badges, standing ovations and graduated from the city's police academy after more than six months of often-arduous training.

Each had their own story of how they ended up here.

Officer Christopher Senior was a former junior police officer, a former member of the Board of Young Adult Police Commissioner and 2000 Hillhouse High School graduate, where he was captain of the football team. He went on to play ball at American International College in Springfield, Mass., and after two years as a correction officer in Massachusetts decided to return home.

Officer Albert Acosta spent 20 years as a state correction officer, retired and joined the New Haven police force.

Officer Eric Smith, 42, is the pastor of the Adoni Spiritual Formation Center and lives in Newhallville. "It just seemed like a natural connection, pastoring and police work," he said after graduating.

Officer Jessica Nasta, 26, the daughter of a Long Island correction officer, a graduated of John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York and volunteered for a tour in Iraq with the National Guard. She spent a year in Mosul as an Army engineer, where she met her fiancé.

The class of new officers, which will offer some much-needed resources, joined the department at a tumultuous time. They were a month into training when the FBI raided police headquarters and arrested two officers for alleged corruption. Last month, a national policing organization hired by the city released a report the depicted a department as understaffed, disorganized and unsupervised.

Mayor John DeStefano made mention of that in addressing the class and pledged to implement as many of the recommended reforms as possible. Some people say community policing isn't working any more, he said. Others disagree. Perhaps it's time to move away from a formal community-policing program, he told them, and focus on the core element.

"You get back what you give like anything else in life," he said, adding, "Give that respect and you'll get it back and every shift will be a good shift in the city of New Haven."

None of those problems seemed to matter Friday to the proud graduates and their families who packed the auditorium at Career High School.

More than a dozen of Derek Cohen's family and friends came from throughout the state to cheer for him at his graduation. Army Sgt. Daniel Colon Jr. flew in from Fort Irwin in California to watch his brother, Jose Luna, graduate.

"There's no words for how happy I feel right now," said Daniel Colon Sr., their father.

Roy Davis became a third-generation police officer and his father and grandfather, both retired from Natick, Mass., were on stage.

It was a good day for Jonathan Pleckaitis, a class leader and son of a retired New Haven sergeant.

"We proudly look forward to becoming the newest members of the outstanding ranks of the New Haven Police Department."

In all, 27 recruits graduated, including one new Middletown officer.

Graduating were: Albert Acosta, Edrick Agosto, Joseph Aurora, James Bottigliero Jr., Salvatore Buonfiglio, Derek Cohen, Pedro Colon Jr., Florencio Cotto Jr., Paul D'Andrea, Roy Davis, Edward Dunford Jr., Derek Gartner, Ekrem Halim, Joseph Landisio, Luis Antonio Lopez, Michael Luckingham, Jose Luna, Jessica Nasta, Raul Pereira, Jonathan Pleckaitis, Enrique Rivera, Tyren Robinson, Christopher Senior, Christopher Simon, Eric Smith, Joseph Staffieri and Middletown Officer David Woolard.