Alum heads New Haven police

Markeshia Ricks/New Haven Independent

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“For me this is a ministry. I’m a Christian on patrol,” Anthony Campbell ’95, ’09MDiv, once said of his job as a New Haven police officer. Campbell took that ministry to a new level in June, when he was appointed the city’s chief of police. The son of a Harlem drug dealer and a Rikers Island corrections officer, Campbell joined the force after graduating from Yale College with a degree in religious studies. He returned to Yale for a degree from the Divinity School, working nights and attending classes in the daytime. Campbell was named interim chief last fall; even with the new responsibilities, he found time to teach a course on ministry and community policing at the Div School. Its title: “Police Others as You Would Want to Be Policed.”