By Rev AJ Johnson, North Hartford Public Safety Coalition
On March 6, 2025, more than 140 Hartford residents, faith leaders, youth, and neighborhood stakeholders gathered for a powerful community visioning session to help shape the selection of our city’s next Chief of Police. From Barbour Street to Garden, Albany to Vine, our voices were clear: Hartford doesn’t just need a new chief—we need a new approach.
We called for leadership that reflects the lived experiences of our community, prioritizes fairness, and is unafraid to be visible, accountable, and rooted in relationship. We called for trust to be rebuilt—not through more press conferences, but through action. And we called for equity to be more than a talking point. We demanded it be a practice.
This session wasn’t theoretical. It built directly on last year’s North Hartford Public Safety Summit and the years of organizing that preceded it. Real residents shared real stories—about reckless driving, shootings, unanswered 911 calls, and the deep pain of being unheard. But just as important, they shared solutions: violence intervention, alternative crisis response, youth engagement, community policing, and stronger accountability systems.
We are now preparing for the 2025 North Hartford Public Safety Summit on Tuesday, May 13th from 6:00–8:00 PM at Hartford Communities That Care at the Phillips Health Center Campus, 2550 Main Street, where we will review our findings, present community-driven expectations, and call on city leadership to act.
This is not just a call for a better chief. It is a mandate for better leadership, better systems, and better safety—crafted with the people, not for them.
We are moving from vision to action. We invite Hartford to move with us.
— The North Hartford Public Safety Coalition
