Police Commission To Hire Several New Patrol Officers

By Andrew Gorosko

Police will be conducting background checks on job applicants as part of their plan to hire up to four new police patrol officers to fill job vacancies at the police department.

The background checks will be conducted on eight people who are seeking to become patrol officers, Police Chief Michael Kehoe said this week.

In January, almost 200 people took a written test for the post of town police patrol officer.

The eight applicants slated for personal background checks were among the people who received the highest scores on the written test, scored high in ensuing interviews, and did well in physical agility tests. 

Currently there are 42 sworn officers in the police department, which has funding available this fiscal year for up to 46 officers.

In the 2009-10 fiscal year, the police department had 47 officers. Officer Colin Richter left the department in May 2010 to become a state trooper.

The current town budget, however, does not include funds to cover costs for the position which Richter resigned, effectively reducing the maximum staffing to 46 people.

Four police officers have resigned their posts this fiscal year, creating four job vacancies.

Officer Dana Schubert, 53, resigned his position February 8, amid an undisclosed police disciplinary action against him under consideration by the Police Commission.

Officer Andrew Stinson, 34, resigned on February 2. Sergeant Domenic Costello, 33, resigned on January 21. Stinson and Costello resigned their posts amid a criminal investigation into their activities in connection with missing funds from the Newtown Police Union’s financial accounts.

The criminal probe is being conducted by Danbury police on behalf of Newtown police. That investigation stems from a “significant” but unspecified amount of money that was discovered to be missing from the union accounts last fall. Stinson and Costello formerly served as the police union’s president and treasurer, respectively.

Also, last July, Lieutenant James Mooney, 45, retired from the police department after more than 25 years of service. He is now an emergency radio dispatcher for the Town of Brookfield.

Chief Kehoe said that the police department has reserved three seats for its recruits at the Municipal Police Academy training program, which starts in April.

Besides new recruits, police are reviewing a list of job applicants who already have police officer certifications, having served as municipal police officers elsewhere in the state. If hired, such people would not need to undergo training at the police academy.

The police academy training program lasts about 5½ months. After graduating, officers spend about four months in a local in-service training program during which they are accompanied by a training officer while on patrol.

Chief Kehoe said police plan to hire three new officers by the end of March. A fourth person potentially could be hired by then, provided that such a person already has a police officer certification and does not need to attend the police academy, he said.

The five-member Police Commission makes the final decisions on hiring police officers.