With retirement announcements last week by Hartford Police Chief Jason Thody and Bristol Police Chief Brian Gould, a total of seven local Connecticut police chiefs as well as the state police commander have retired in the last six months.
Chiefs in East Hartford, Granby, Vernon, North Branford and Darien have all put in their retirement papers in the past six months, along with the commander of Connecticut’s state police.
But unlike during the nationwide wave of departures during the “defund the police” movement in 2020, there appears to be no discontent with the career or other thread linking the Connecticut retirements.
And in at least one case, a chief left one municipal department to take command in another less than 20 miles away.
In his retirement announcement before Bristol’s city council on Tuesday, Gould said he was leaving after 30 years with “a very heavy heart. This decision comes with much difficulty. It has truly been an honor to serve and protect this great community.”
Both Gould and Thody were approaching the end of their contracts and decided against committing to multi-year renewals. Both said they were gratified to have made a difference, particularly during a time when law enforcement has been changing rapidly.
“There’s a measure of success in leaving the place better than when you took it over,” Thody said Monday at a press conference announcing he was ending his 28-year career with the Hartford police.
All eight chiefs who retired since last October served during the challenges of the COVID pandemic and nationwide anti-police sentiment after the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Their careers also spanned decades when policing shifted away from an almost exclusive focus on law enforcement to a far bigger emphasis on community relations.
Col. Stavros Mellekas retired as state police commander last October after 29 years with the agency, and John Kelley is leaving the Vernon police this month after 25 years.
In April, Donald Anderson will leave the Darien police after a 40-year career and Kevin Halloran is retiring from the North Branford police after 30 years. Carl Rosenweig, a former West Hartford officer, retired last October after 12 years as Granby police chief; he was replaced by Scott Sansom, who retired as East Hartford’s police chief to take the job.
Three of the retiring chiefs — Mellekas, Thody and Gould — went through the pain of being the commander of an agency when officers died on the job.
Col. Stavros Mellekas headed the Connecticut state police when Sgt. Brian Mohl was killed as floodwaters swept away his patrol car in 2021. Last August, Hartford police Detective Robert “Bobby” Garten was killed when a car fleeing a traffic stop slammed into his cruiser; and in Bristol, Lt. Dustin DeMonte and Sgt. Alex Hamzy were shot to death on October of 2022 in a reported domestic dispute.
The Bristol killings put the city in the national spotlight, and Gould said he and his department were proud of the outpouring of support from the community in the weeks and months afterward.
“From that moment on, this community rallied and demonstrated for all to see that we are one, we are Bristol Strong, we are All Heart,” Gould said in his announcement.
Under the leadership of Gould and the two previous chiefs, the roughly 125-member Bristol Police Department gradually went deeply into community policing with a steadily increasing emphasis on day-to-day interactions.
“Thirty years ago, there was the idea that this was all about stopping crime and getting criminals off the street. But there’s incredibly more to it, and I’m proud to have been part of that with so many others in my career making adjustments not only in the police department, but in ourselves,” Gould said.
“When I came on, the traditional method was get in the police car, go out and look for criminals. Many things were stat-driven back then,” Gould said. “I’m so grateful I had mentors who showed me different ways and taught me that we had a better opportunity to serve our community by problem solving, immersing ourselves in the community.”
As his career nears the end, Gould said one of his most cherished memories was as a young officer. He was on patrol on a cold night, but kept the car’s back windows cracked open as he drove.
“I remember being taught that; you could smell something or hear something that you’d miss if all the windows were closed,” Gould said.
“I was overwhelmed by an odor. I stopped and looked around, there was thick smoke coming from a house. I knocked on the doors and woke up the family They’d had an issue with the furnace, and they were exposed to the carbon monoxide,” Gould said. “The fire chief told my supervisor that if it wasn’t for that officer, the entire family would have succumbed.
“Those are the things I think about at night. We have the privilege of maybe having a hand in fixing a situation, helping make someone’s life just a little better. When you can do that, it’s a great day.”
