There's No Shortage Of High Praise For EHPD Sgt. Shirley Conyers

EAST HAVEN, CT — Soft-spoken and humble, one needs to practically interrogate East Haven Police Department Sgt. Shirley Conyers to get her to talk about herself.

The second Black woman in the history of the century-old department and its first Black female sergeant —she was sworn in as a sergeant earlier this month — she always wanted to be a police officer.

“I did want to be a cop. My parents were against it. I wanted to go to the military. My parents were against it," Conyers told Patch in a recent interview. "I always followed my brothers. They played football. I enjoyed that more than hanging with my sisters playing with dolls.”

The New Haven native said she’s always been “community-oriented,” so law enforcement with a focus on helping her community seemed like a good fit.

“Community is so very important,” she said.

But it’d take more than just signing up to become a police officer.

Conyers worked in the records division at the New Haven Police Department for nearly eight years. She liked the job but wanted to be on the street, in the community “helping.”

In 2007, seeing that no entry level patrol officer jobs were available in her hometown, she looked east.

Her family was concerned.

“‘Why East Haven?’ My father, my sisters and brothers were like, ‘Why there?’ I said, ‘Because it’s different, it’s challenging.”

She applied and was hired.

Off the bat, she encountered a different kind of challenge than she had anticipated, but added she wasn’t shocked.

“It was difficult at first but most of the guys were really good to me. But the residents seemed to have a hard time with me," Conyers said of the early days on the beat.

"I remember going into one house on a call to help a resident. The woman said, ‘She’s black! She’s black!’ She was touching my face. I asked her to please take her hands off my face. The family members even started backing up away from me. The officer who was with me, he’s still here, was so apologetic," she recalled.

"So yes, it was challenging at first but I had to just not let it get to me. It’s not as if I hadn’t faced that before. I’ve always faced it. It wasn’t new to me," she said.

"But I felt bad for some of my colleagues. They were embarrassed and some were just mortified. They didn’t know what to do, what to say. Some got upset. I remember going on a call around when I first started and it was like, “Get that n***** outta here! Get that n***** outta here!” I was like, ‘Wow, really?”

She said that her supervisors stood by her and told the public in those instances, “You will not disrespect her or that badge,” she recalled them saying.

Conyers said that it’s a balancing act being a Black cop

“I’m Black and I’m blue,” she said. “Sometimes, Black doesn’t understand and sometimes ‘blue’ doesn't. It’s a balancing act, yes, a tightrope, but for me, I just walk the straight line. I’ll never forget who I am. I love my culture and I love my people. And I respect other cultures. But when things are done wrong, that's it. Wrong is wrong no matter what. Everybody who knows me knows that I haven’t changed me, the person I am. Maybe that’s why I’m a good cop.”

Conyers said that she has just continued to work hard and try not to let the racism she encountered in East Haven “get to me.” And so for the next seven years, she just kept working at her job handling all manner of routine calls and cases “from accidents to domestics to runaways” and doing her best to make a positive difference, she said.

After paying her dues, in 2014, she was promoted to detective, where she was known as a tenacious and thorough investigator, handling cases from serious assaults to homicides.

‘Getting justice for victims’ of sexual assault, domestic abuse and sex trafficking.

The “worst” calls for Conyers, she said, were investigations into East Haven child sexual abuse and assault.

“But I enjoyed thoroughly investigating them so we could get a successful prosecution,” she said.

She’s handled so many cases she didn’t have an estimated count: “Even one is too many.”

Conyers was named as the department’s domestic violence liaison, and made a member of the department’s Domestic Violence and Sex Assault Task Force. When there’s a domestic violence or sexual assault case, she’s called in to take a look and, in major cases, she will become involved with the investigation and, importantly, work alongside, and advocate for, victims.

When asked to point to some cases that meant more than others, she said that, “All of the cases are important to me. I always try to do a thorough job and I work well with the state’s attorney’s office so we can get a successful prosecution.”

Though she was hesitant to point to any one case that was most impactful, she did recall a case where a child was sexually assaulted by her uncle, though she did confront the abuse until she was a young adult in therapy. Conyers was the investigator. She spent days in court on the witness stand. The uncle was convicted. That was a good day, Conyers said.

“I do whatever I can for victims to make sure they know the services are there for them,” she said in an interview with Patch.

For years she’s collected clothing and food for domestic violence shelters. She said East Haven police Capt. Joseph M. Murgo "would put up a wish list for me."

“The shelters are non profit and they need help.”

Conyers also works to help young people reclaim their lives after being arrested. She told the story of a teen, an honor student who’d never been in any kind of trouble but made a big mistake. She explained that, biologically-speaking, teens’ brains - in particular the frontal lobe where decision-making is handled - are not fully developed and “they make mistakes.”

The boy’s best buddy got a job at a gas station covering an evening shift and said he was afraid of being robbed. The teen “played a prank that went very wrong.” He put on a mask and, pretending to have a weapon, feigned a robbery at the station. He was caught and faced a first-degree armed robbery charge that, she said, would have “stolen his life.”

She steered him toward the Juvenile Review Board and a diversion program which he successfully completed and he’d later go on to join the military and, as she still keeps in touch with him, noted that he’s “really doing well. I’m proud of him.”

A good outcome.

She is also devoted to investigating, and preventing, sex trafficking. She partners with an officer in the New Haven Police Department on a regional sex trafficking task force. Without providing specific details, she shared the stories of a number of girls she’s encountered in East Haven who have been sex-trafficked. One, a 14-year-old. Another, a girl from Massachusetts that ended up running from an East Haven motel where she’d been held and trafficked. The tenor of her voice changes when she tells these stories. She’s angry, but she’s professional, and committed to making a difference by “saving girls’ lives, most of (whom) are Latino and Black.”

“This is one of the most important things I do,” she said.

Stacey Miranda, Senior Assistant State’s Attorney in New Haven has worked closely with Conyers.

“I have had the opportunity to observe Shirley's hard work and dedication both as a police officer and as a graduate student when she was attending my class at the University of New Haven,” Miranda said. “She is a diligent investigator and has an unwavering commitment to victims of crime.”

East Haven Police Chief Edward Lennon also praised Conyers noting she “personifies hard work and dedication.”

“Sergeant Conyers demonstrates a high level of commitment to her policing profession by continuing her education all while being a department supervisor, our Juvenile Review Board and domestic violence liaison, a mentor, and a devoted mother and grandmother,” he said in a statement to Patch. “I have had the privilege to watch her as she grows as a police officer, and the distinct honor to promote her through each rank she has achieved.”

And for Murgo, who as a Black cop has had his own tightrope-walking to do — he’s spoken to Patch about the balance of being pro-police and anti-racism — Conyers is a role model.

“I’ve always been impressed by Sergeant Conyers’ work ethic, tenacity, and ability to get things done in the face of adversity,” Murgo told Patch.

“Being a police officer in today’s current climate is hard enough, but juggling the demands of the job, while pursuing higher education is a level of commitment rarely seen in people. Sergeant Conyers accomplishes all of this with a smile on her face. I’m proud to call her my colleague, but more importantly a friend.”

First in her family to graduate from college

Conyers, raised in Newhallville, is from a large and close-knit family. She’s the first in her family to graduate from college. After earning an associates degree from Gateway Community College, while working full time as a police officer and raising her three daughters, she went on to earn a B.A. in criminal justice from Albertus Magnus College. And she did not stop there. Conyers graduated from the University of New Haven this month with a Master's degree in criminal justice.

Her decision to explore higher education came while she was working as a detective so, she said, she could be an “even better investigator.”

“I wanted to learn more about death investigations. That was important. Especially as we were seeing more drug overdoses,” she said. “I felt I needed to know more.”

Now, she’s contemplating a PhD.

“I’m thinking about it. I have a lot of nieces and nephews, all good kids, but I’d like to show them that education is here for you. You have to go get it. I’d say, ‘Look at me. I’m doing it while working. I graduated from Magnus with honors, guys, while carrying a full caseload. There’s no excuse.’”

When asked how she managed, she said she was inspired by the discipline she learned from her mother.

“I’m dedicated. I come home and do homework. Hang out with the kids. Then cook. Then study and do homework. Sleep. Work. Study. And back at it again. I trained myself.”

Conyers' mother passed away from cancer before she had a chance to see her child sworn in as a police officer.

Her father James Conyers told Patch that he’s “proud” of his daughter for her work as a police officer, and he said, especially seeing her graduate from three colleges and earn a master’s degree: “It’s a big deal.”

“She’s my pride,” he said.

And when asked if she was his favorite of his children, he said, diplomatically, “She’s one of them.”