A New Face On The Police Force

By Andrew Gorosko

As a policeman in Newtown, Antonio Granata should face a calmer environment than he did while serving with the US Army as a NATO peacekeeper in troubled Eastern Europe.

Mr Granata, 22, of Norwalk, took the police oath of office Tuesday in ceremonies at the police station, with family and friends looking on.

Following an orientation period this week, Mr Granata will head to the state’s Municipal Police Academy for 20 weeks of training, after which he will receive several months of on-the-road experience accompanied by a Newtown training officer, before going on police patrol on his own.

From August 1997 to April 1998, Mr Granata served as a military policeman with the 423rd Military Police Company in war-torn Hungary, Croatia, and Bosnia.

“You got to work with a lot of different people, cultures, and police departments,” he said of his peacekeeping role in Eastern Europe.

“We just kind of worked as referees” in settling the continuing disputes among the various ethnic groups as a member of the army in Operation Joint Guard, Mr Granata said.

Mr Granata was stationed on the border of Croatia and Bosnia, where he worked to resolve conflicts and provide military escorts. “There was a danger,” he said.

“NATO ran the show,” he said, noting that the alliance of Western powers supervised the actions of the peacekeepers.

While elderly people generally respected the intentions of the peacekeepers, children would sometimes throw rocks, he said.

Often, gunshots would ring out in the night as the troops tried to get some sleep in their tents, Mr Granata said.

He is now an army reserve sergeant in the 1302nd Port Security Company based in Orangeburg, N.Y.

Of his future in law enforcement he said, “It’s something that’s always appealed to me.”

“It [Newtown] is a closely knit community. That’s what I like about this place,” he said.

Mr Granata said he has wanted to be a police officer since he was 15, adding that becoming a military policeman provided an opportunity for him to pursue that goal.

“This is going to be the place for me,” he said.

A graduate of Norwalk High School, Mr Granata also attended Norwalk Community Technical College, where he received an associate’s degree in criminal justice. He has worked as an apprentice electrician.

Mr Granata replaces former Newtown police officer Patricia Tesla, who resigned recently to join the Stratford Police Department.