by Thomas Breen The New Haven independent
Mayor Justin Elicker plans to nominate Acting Police Chief David Zannelli to serve as the city’s next permanent chief, more than two-and-a-half months after Zannelli’s predecessor, Karl Jacobson, abruptly retired — and was later arrested — for allegedly stealing public funds.
City spokesperson Lenny Speiller announced Zannelli’s selection in an email media advisory sent out at around 6 a.m. Wednesday.
Elicker, Zannelli, city Chief Administrative Officer Justin McCarthy, and city police commission Chair Evelise Ribeiro plan to hold a press conference about Zannelli’s selection at 1 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall. (Speiller had previously sent out an email media advisory at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday announcing that the mayor would be holding a City Hall press conference about his nominee for police chief; that initial email did not identify Zannelli by name as the appointee).
Zannelli’s nomination must now head to the Board of Alders for review and a final confirmation vote. Per the city’s charter, an acting police chief can serve in that temporary role for no more than six months before the mayor has to submit their name to the Board of Alders for confirmation as permanent chief.
Zannelli — a veteran city cop who became a popular Fair Haven district manager and then head of the Internal Affairs division — previously served as assistant chief of patrol and then as assistant chief of investigations under Jacobson.
He stepped into the role of acting chief on Jan. 5. That was the very same day that the city’s three assistant chiefs — Zannelli, Bertram Ettienne, and Manmeet Bhagtana — confronted Jacobson in his office about his alleged theft of police funds meant for confidential informants. Jacobson retired that day; he was later arrested, on Feb. 20, for allegedly stealing $81,500 from the CI fund fund as well as $4,000 from the Police Activity League (PAL). According to a state police affidavit, Jacobson had gambled over $4.4 million on the sports-betting apps DraftKings and FanDuel over the course of his final year as police chief, reaching a net loss of at least $214,000.
A state police warrant for Jacobson’s arrest showed that Zannelli cooperated with investigators and audio-recorded that confrontation with Jacobson to preserve a record of what was said; state police and the state’s attorney’s office have also said that no other city cops appear to have been involved in Jacobson’s alleged theft of city funds.
Zannelli was the assistant chief who was supposed to be in charge of the fund for the year prior to Jacobson’s resignation. He has said that he and his colleagues repeatedly asked Jacobson for control of the CI fund, but that Jacobson consistently declined.
So far during his tenure as acting chief, Zannelli, working with the mayor and the police commission, has overseen the adoption of a new temporary CI policy that, among other changes, means that command staff in charge of managing the CI fund will no longer also have the responsibility of auditing how that money is spent.
He is also working with the New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) district to assign a city police officer to middle schools as soon as this May in an effort to address a spike in crimes committed by, against city youth.
According to the city’s latest CompStat report, through March 15, there have been 0 homicides and six non-fatal shootings so far this year, compared to two homicides and two non-fatal shootings by that same time last year. City police have made arrests or pulled warrants for all six non-fatal shootings so far this year. The CompStat report also states that there have been 22 confirmed shots fired so far this year, compared to 14 by this time last year.
In an interview on Feb. 5, a month after Jacobson’s retirement, Elicker said he had not yet decided whether or not to do a search to find Jacobson’s replacement as Zannelli continued in the role of acting head of the department.