Nick Pastore served as a Research Fellow in Police Policy for the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation from 1997 to 2003. He continues to advise mayors, chiefs of police, and community groups. He has been actively involved in the field of law enforcement since 1962. From 1990 through 1997, he served as Chief of the New Haven, CT Police Department.

During his tenure as police chief he designed and implemented a model plan for bringing community policing to the city of 130,000 residents. He also designed a diverse non-militaristic, problem-solving oriented education program for the New Haven police academy, in-service training and continuing education. As part of his reorganization efforts, Mr. Pastore reassigned sworn officers to Community Patrol, appointed a civilian director and developed a model non-traditional police education curriculum including conflict resolution, problem-solving, communication skills, Spanish for police personnel, American Sign Language, sexual harassment, workplace diversity, HIV/AIDS, etc. He also decentralized police authority by establishing ten district substations and trained District Managers, allowing each to work as a "mini-chief" in his or her district. The implementation of this model involved District Management teams comprised of police, citizens, church and synagogue leaders, merchants and elected officials.

Mr. Pastore developed an innovative series of police and community conferences and seminars on subjects as varied as Police and the Black Family; Cops and Kids; Dealing with Lesbian and Gay Violence; and Domestic Violence: Rethinking Police and Community Response. He also instituted a bi-weekly cable television call-in show titled: The Police, the Community and You, hosted jointly by police officers and community members.

Police community collaborative ventures were the mainstay of Chief Pastore's leadership. Along with Donald Cohen, MD and Steven Marans, Ph.D., the New Haven Police Department instituted the model Yale Child Study Community Policing program, creating learning fellowships for police officers and teaching teams of officers and clinicians who respond 24 hours a day to incidents where children are either witnesses to or victims of crime.

Mr. Pastore established the nationally recognized Young Adult Board of Police Commissioners, a group of young people elected from each of the city's high schools to advise the Chief and the department on issues of concern to their generation. The group subsequently addressed the United States Congress and met with President Bill Clinton. He also established the first and only Board of Police Commissioners Special Subcommittee on Bias and Hate Crime and The Sexual Assault and Bias Unit, both of which educate police and community members in order to reduce the number of hate crimes and to deal sensitively with victims. In addition, he established the Family Violence Unit, providing full-time police collaboration and support to a newly established Domestic Violence Court.

As an educator, Mr. Pastore taught Case Management seminars for police supervisors along with Harvard and Rutgers urban theorist, George Kelling, Ph.D. In partnership with Yale psychiatrist Theodore Zanker, M.D., he also presented seminars in contemporary affairs and ethics for police academy students.

Mr. Pastore is a member a number of professional affiliations including of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Police Executive Research Forum, the National Association of Black Law Enforcement, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Drug Policy Foundation. He is also an Associate Fellow of Morse College at Yale University.

He has presented at several major national conferences and is the author of numerous publications within the criminal justice arena as well as feature articles within the print media. His community policing initiatives were also featured on a segment of 60 Minutes.