It is with great pleasure that we announce the promotion of two widely respected public safety leaders, Yale Chief of Police Ronnell Higgins and Assistant Chief of Police Anthony Campbell. On July 1, 2022, Chief Higgins will assume the inaugural role of associate vice president for public safety and community engagement. Assistant Chief Campbell will be elevated to Yale’s chief of police. The formation of this new public safety structure is part of Yale’s ongoing work to reimagine how we protect our campus and ensure that policing happens with the community rather than to it.
Over the past eleven years, Chief Higgins has spearheaded efforts to enhance safety on campus, helping Yale to attain sustained decline in crime since 2011. His leadership of the Yale Police Department is nationally recognized as a model of community engagement. And his regard for building community trust is reflected in his appointment to several statewide posts, including as a member of the Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Criminal Justice System and the Police Officers Standards and Training Council and as a practitioner in residence at the Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Sciences at the University of New Haven. Chief Higgins is also a past president of the South-Central Connecticut Chiefs of Police. He currently serves on the executive board for the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives for Connecticut.
As associate vice president for public safety and community engagement, Chief Higgins will serve as Yale’s primary public safety leader and work closely with colleagues across campus to mobilize security, mental health, and other university resources, with special consideration for circumstances that do not require the intervention of Yale police officers. A key liaison to our New Haven neighbors, he will also identify points of intersection between campus safety, community safety, and community engagement.
As Chief Higgins prepares to focus on this new, expanded role, we are transitioning his chief of police duties to Assistant Chief Campbell. With an unwavering commitment to protecting the safety of our community and promoting a sense of belonging and mutual understanding within it, he brings to his new role a deep appreciation for Yale’s vision for policing. Assistant Chief Campbell developed a keen understanding of our community during his more than two decades at the New Haven Police Department, where he rose from a recruit to the chief of police. Before joining YPD in 2019, he served as an inspector with the New Haven State’s Attorney’s Office.
In addition to Assistant Chief Campbell’s service on YPD’s Executive Command Staff, where he currently oversees patrol operations, investigations, community engagement, and emergency services, he has taught a course at Yale Divinity School, “Police Others as You Want to Be Policed: The Changing Face of Community-Police-Ministry Relations in the Twenty-First Century,” focused on police-community relations. He holds a master’s degree from the Yale Divinity School and a bachelor’s degree in religious studies from Yale College.
Chief Higgins and Assistant Chief Campbell have served our community with great distinction for a combined half-century, and their records of achievement make them singularly qualified to lead the oldest college police force in the country in a new era of public safety. Please join us in congratulating soon-to-be Associate Vice President Higgins and Chief Campbell on their very well-deserved promotions and in wishing them every success.
Sincerely,
Peter Salovey
President
Chris Argyris Professor of Psychology
Jack Callahan Jr.
Senior Vice President for Operations
Announcement – Promotion of Public Safety Leaders
Dear Members of the Yale Community,
It is with great pleasure that we announce the promotion of two widely respected public safety leaders, Yale Chief of Police Ronnell Higgins and Assistant Chief of Police Anthony Campbell. On July 1, 2022, Chief Higgins will assume the inaugural role of associate vice president for public safety and community engagement. Assistant Chief Campbell will be elevated to Yale’s chief of police. The formation of this new public safety structure is part of Yale’s ongoing work to reimagine how we protect our campus and ensure that policing happens with the community rather than to it.
Over the past eleven years, Chief Higgins has spearheaded efforts to enhance safety on campus, helping Yale to attain sustained decline in crime since 2011. His leadership of the Yale Police Department is nationally recognized as a model of community engagement. And his regard for building community trust is reflected in his appointment to several statewide posts, including as a member of the Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Criminal Justice System and the Police Officers Standards and Training Council and as a practitioner in residence at the Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Sciences at the University of New Haven. Chief Higgins is also a past president of the South-Central Connecticut Chiefs of Police. He currently serves on the executive board for the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives for Connecticut.
As associate vice president for public safety and community engagement, Chief Higgins will serve as Yale’s primary public safety leader and work closely with colleagues across campus to mobilize security, mental health, and other university resources, with special consideration for circumstances that do not require the intervention of Yale police officers. A key liaison to our New Haven neighbors, he will also identify points of intersection between campus safety, community safety, and community engagement.
As Chief Higgins prepares to focus on this new, expanded role, we are transitioning his chief of police duties to Assistant Chief Campbell. With an unwavering commitment to protecting the safety of our community and promoting a sense of belonging and mutual understanding within it, he brings to his new role a deep appreciation for Yale’s vision for policing. Assistant Chief Campbell developed a keen understanding of our community during his more than two decades at the New Haven Police Department, where he rose from a recruit to the chief of police. Before joining YPD in 2019, he served as an inspector with the New Haven State’s Attorney’s Office.
In addition to Assistant Chief Campbell’s service on YPD’s Executive Command Staff, where he currently oversees patrol operations, investigations, community engagement, and emergency services, he has taught a course at Yale Divinity School, “Police Others as You Want to Be Policed: The Changing Face of Community-Police-Ministry Relations in the Twenty-First Century,” focused on police-community relations. He holds a master’s degree from the Yale Divinity School and a bachelor’s degree in religious studies from Yale College.
Chief Higgins and Assistant Chief Campbell have served our community with great distinction for a combined half-century, and their records of achievement make them singularly qualified to lead the oldest college police force in the country in a new era of public safety. Please join us in congratulating soon-to-be Associate Vice President Higgins and Chief Campbell on their very well-deserved promotions and in wishing them every success.
Sincerely,
Peter Salovey
President
Chris Argyris Professor of Psychology
Jack Callahan Jr.
Senior Vice President for Operations