Nancy Wayua and her daughter Maly came to Saturday’s event to meet police officers; she said “the most important thing is seeing the police themselves doing this for the community.” Josiah Matta challenges a New Haven police academy recruit to a foot race to the basketball courts at Edgew ood Park. In a push-up contest against two New Haven police academy recruits, five-year-old Josiah Matta held his own — he fell down onto the grass with a smile after about eight repetitions, to cheers from his competitors. Josiah’s grandmother AnneMarie Rivera-Berrios — the chair of the city’s Civilian Review Board (CRB) — watched as he ran around with recruits in their blue academy uniforms during Saturday’s first annual “Unity within the Community” event, hosted by the CRB and the New Haven Police Department (NHPD). “He’s training” for the police academy already, she joked. Rivera-Berrios helped to organize Saturday’s event — a gathering in Edgewood Park attended by several CRB members, New Haven police officers, and dozens of academy recruits — as an “open forum,” for community members to meet and get to know their police officers and district managers.  “The CRB is not a bad entity,” said Officer David Vega, who has worked for the NHPD for 15 years. “They hold people accountable just like we hold people accountable. It’s a good thing. They represent the community, just like we do.”  The CRB provides independent oversight of investigations into alleged misconduct by New Haven police officers, reviewing complaints that are also investigated by the NHPD’s Internal Affairs division. This year, the CRB finalized an agreement with Yale authorizing it to review complaints against university police officers. It also cleared a backlog of cases from 2022 to 2024.  Organizing the first Unity within the Community event was another milestone for the board, which was founded in its most recent iteration in 2019. “Our goal is to get the community to come out,” said Rivera-Berrios, “meet their district managers, talk with their police department, and express their gripes.” Zannelli said the department and the CRB are a “united front” — “the relationship is still a work in progress,” he said, but he is encouraged, and emphasized that events like Saturday’s help the department with crime prevention through community engagement.  “I think that he is being proactive,” Rivera-Berrios said of Zannelli, whom she endorsed when he was appointed as police chief earlier this year.  The CRB also invited the fire department, dispatch, and Yale police, but representatives from those departments did not attend Saturday’s event, according to Rivera-Berrios. She said the CRB was “disappointed” Yale police did not join.  Lt. Ed Dunford — the district manager for the Whalley, Edgewood, and Beaver Hills neighborhoods — said Saturday’s gathering was the first time he had met current members of the CRB. When they are reviewing cases and complaints, he said, now “they can put a face to the name.”  Several parents brought their children to the event. Charlene Tobias said that when her kids arrived at Saturday’s event and saw all the officers lined up to take a photo together, “they got so excited,” and asked if they could say hello. She said her kids “trust the uniform” — they saw officers helping someone who had heat stroke at the Freddy Fixer Parade, and first responders helped her daughter once when she needed an ambulance. She wants them to know that “police are there to protect you.” CRB member Sam Fawcett said that she remembers a time when people were more skeptical about police, and police were less open. “It’s a different day now,” she said. “They’re moving along the way to become more understanding.” Zannelli said he wants the event to be held every year. “It’s good for the community to get to know everybody. We’re trying. We’re doing our best.” New Haven Public Schools Youth Development Coordinator Cedric Robinson, Zannelli, and new police Internal Affairs director Chris Alvarado at Saturday’s gathering. The post CRB, Police Unite In The Park appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less