Where are They?
I keep being reminded by city staff people that have called me to try to back off on this, and they have reminded me it is an election year.I know it is an election year, and I really don't care. Taxpayers dollars are the same in Election years as they are in non-election years I also know that no candidate wants their management , or mismanagement exposed, especially when you claim you have put Hartford back on a solid financial footing.
I know I use this Mark Twain quote often, but maybe more people at City Hall need to memorize, and live by it "If you always tell the truth, you never need to remember the lies.
I am also amazed by our priorities in this City. The "powers to be" are up in arms and doing a full court press "to educate me" about the car purchases and that I wasn't correct about yesterdays posting of the Tahoe purchases. It boggles my mind that they are upset about my posting about the car purchases but reports I posted this week of a Police Officer carrying on an "intimate and sexual" relationship with a Juvenile is of very little concern. He is still employed, working full time with full Police powers. I guess I don't get it.
Today, I was a guest on WTIC radio for the Todd Feinburg show. The City auditor did a preemptive strike to attempt to discredit my figures, but he failed to give the full and correct number. Craig Trujillo claimed they were getting a discount because they were "piggybacking" on a State purchasing contract and went on to say what great vehicles the Chevrolet Tahoe's were. He also forgot to mention the 12,000 to 15,000 cost for the upgrades such as lights, sirens, push bars and another couple thousand for installing radios.
here is a 2016 invoice from MHQ, the company that up fits all of Hartford's Police Vehicles. This is for the Traffic Division Admin vehicle and it doesn't include the additional $2800.00 for a light bar, similar to the Command Staff Tahoe's
Mhq Traffic Admin Tahoe on Scribd
Hpd Mhq Patrol Supervisor Upfit Invoice on Scribd
MHQ INVOICE FOR PATROL SUPERVISOR UPCHARGE
Simple question here, If the Tahoe's are/were such a great deal then why are the Connecticut State Police switching over to the Ford Explorer Interceptor's PPV? (The PPV is the identifier for the Police Pursuit Vehicle) Why has NYPD recently purchased 500 Ford Explorer's PPV's? Why have the Massachusetts State Police switched to the Ford Explorer Interceptor PPV's for their entire fleet?Not to mention they are roughly almost $9,000 less expensive than the Tahoe's but the estimated fuel savings is $3,000 to $4,000 less than the Tahoe.The estimated savings may be as high as $5,000 when the Hybrid version is released this year
Why wouldn't the Connecticut State Police take advantage of their great fleet Government pricing if it was such a great opportunity?
So back to the cars. I was told there is a delay in ordering patrol vehicles, the Ford Explorer Interceptors , which have replaced the Ford Taurus and the Ford Crown Vic. A source from HPD said that there was some sort of retooling being done and no new Ford Interceptors would be available for maybe 8 months. I started doing more research because I know I am seeing the Interceptors everywhere now, just about every town is putting them on the streets and and able to purchase them. How are all of these other agencies able to put the Interceptors on the street and Hartford is 8 months out.
Through sources familiar with fleet purchases and Ford, that seems not to be true. I asked one source familiar with the fleet process if they could find out for me , if an order went in today, when would the vehicles be delivered? The answer was 4 months. So if the vehicles had been ordered back in June, like I was told the first time I asked, they would probably be arriving any day now.
Ford is also very happy to talk about their state of the art Chicago production plant where over 500 Explorer's come off the assembly line every day. They are also very willing to share the videos of their "state of the art" production line churning out large quantities of Police Patrol Vehicles. There are reportedly over 13,000 orders awaiting fulfillment for the Ford Explorer Police Interceptor
I think the issue is more the incompetence of City Hall's purchasing procedures than Ford being unable to fill orders.
Hartford's Auditor also stated that HPD Officers trash the cars and maintenance costs are high. Well, Craig that is part of the cost of doing business. Do you criticize DPW drivers who break a plow doing their jobs during a snowestorm? I am sure the worst thing the Auditors or City Hall staffers deal with is a stain on the carpet in their offices when they spill their Starbucks coffee. Hartford Police vehicles are subject to violent criminals kicking out doors and windows in cruisers, Some even vomit or urinate, or worse, in the back seat of a cruiser. And HPD cruisers definitely take a toll driving through potholed, poorly maintained streets racing to shootings and homicides around the City.
End the nonsense , show some regard for Patrol and let the Command Staff drive the recycled vehicles,
And by the way, where are all the dash cameras that were supposedly purchased last year, and are yet to be installed in any vehicle? Are we waiting to get a better deal when we return those to the vendor because the technology is outdated?
Here is a HPD Purchase Order for 5 Ford Explorers that were allegedly ordered back in March. Where are they? but as you can see, the cost is substantially less than the Tahoe's, $30,789.80
HPD Purchase Order for Explorers on Scribd>
From Ford:
"The new Police Interceptor Utility with standard hybrid all-wheel-drive powertrain has a projected EPA-estimated rating of 24 mpg combined, a 41 percent improvement over the current model equipped with a 3.7-liter gas engine. Projections indicate the first pursuit-rated hybrid police utility will save between $3,500 and $5,700 per vehicle annually in fuel costs versus the current Police Interceptor Utility*. If those savings were applied to every Police Interceptor Utility sold in 2017, it would equate to between $118 million and $193 million*, or more than 43 million gallons of fuel".
28 comments:
This is why I'm voting for "Other" in this year's mayoral race. We all loose no matter who wins.
The school system is run even worse. The city and school district need full audits and some heads need to roll.
Never mind all the fleet issues and the attacks on your character Mr. Brookman. Whether you want to face reality or not, simply put, Jason Thody is failing miserably. He is unequivocally the worst chief in Hartford’s history. HPD is in complete disarray. Jason Thody has been a habitual liar and scam artist since day one. Mayor Luke Bronin is a very intelligent individual, a Rhodes Scholar as a matter of fact. How Jason Thody pulled this fraudulent scam of the century is mind boggling. Agreeing to retire, come back and collect a pension check and a weekly pay check, for complete and utter failure at all levels. Is there more to this? Are we all missing something here? Hopefully relief is on the horizon. Please help us Mayor as November is eon’s away. Vote of no confidence in discussions now.
Good job Mr Brookman i think its safe to say the people that are in power in the city of Hartford are crooks plain and simple. The mismanagement of money the entitlement the hypocrisy these people are just as bad as the most corrupt Ceasars and Senators of old Rome. And to be clear Officer Joven Gonzalez is by no means the first officer to be fooling around on his wife with underage girls.If the public really knew the history of that PD when it comes to officers having 63s on the side that are underage they would burn that building down. Retired Captain Hidash once told us in the academy Dont Get Your CIs Confidential Informants pregnant. We all looked at him with a blank stare. His response was hey its happened.
Vote of no confidence at union meeting in september .... that should spice up the mayoral primaries very nicely .
Keep ruffling those feathers Kevin. Let me ask you this, the towns with the most money like West Hartford, Glastonbury, Stamford, Fairfield, Greenwich etc etc....none use police Tahoe’s. All use Ford Explorers, why is that? Only the borderline bankrupt city of Hartford buys a vehicle that’s nearly $10,000 more per vehicle. Is there some reason Hartford needs huge gas guzzling Tahoe’s at a much greater expense to the taxpayer? Is it because their family fits in a large Tahoe more comfortably than an Explorer? These guys are spending taxpayer money like drunk sailors.
Since Thody took over, things have gotten better. New cruisers are coming out, new useful equipment are either on the way or already have landed. I just wish he would do what the officer unanimously want, new comfortable uniforms! I know he’s in love with our current uniforms but things have got to change. Why are officers in towns where there’s zero crime have better/tactical uniforms than us? If officers can’t keep their uniforms clean, don’t baby them! Just write them up until they figure it out. Thody, show is that you really care for what we need and stop holding the new uniform orders. I think having an option to wear a vest that holds most of the items on our duty belts will also be helpful to our hips and backs. Team up with your staff and let’s get practical uniforms.
Yes, a certain Lieutenant on paternity leave with his take home city vehicle needs a Tahoe so his car seat fits comfortably.
9:06PM
can you send me a picture of those new cruisers you stated are "coming out"? Where are they "coming out" of, Australia? I haven't seen any of them yet except for the Command Staff vehicles, Also , if you look closely at the purchase order for the 5 Explorers that I posted yesterday, even those say they are for Admin use. And what new equipment are you talking about? I know you don't mean the dash cams for cruisers or even MDT's because they don't exist, at least not where they are needed, they may be in boxes someshere
We all got nice new body cameras!....
10:43PM
All? I see plenty of officers and supervisors not wearing them
First of all, get the word “NEW” out of your head. Patrol has never seen a brand new cruiser and will never see one, unless there’s a another change in the brand of car we use. I don’t know who’s feeding you your info but you can at least be fair and ask someone who knows what they are talking about. There’s been several patrol cars swapped out recently for newer cars and more are on the way in the next few days. I highly doubt you see “plenty” of officers and supervisors without body cameras. They should all be trained and wearing them, maybe a few still haven’t been trained. Also the vote of no confidence will never happen. There’s more guys that are happy with what Thodys been doing than upset disgruntled officers that complain about everything. Brookman, you can get purchase orders all day from HR, but they can’t tell you which car is getting swapped with what car in the PD.
According to "command staff" they do not want to send patrol officers back to driver retraining to learn how to drive the explorer that is a all time AWD vehicle. Command staff said it would cost too much money to send patrol to be retrained on a 100% AWD vehicle. Hence the Tahoe. The Tahoe is rear wheel drive but with a press of a button it can be changed to 4x4. No legal need to resend patrol officers back to learn how to drive. Unlike CSP who sent all 500 patrol officer back to be retrained on a AWD vehicle. I personally dont agree with decision in the end because all PPV are going to be AWD in the near future
4:>55PM
your information sucks, Under Chief Rovella when HPD went to black and white patrol vehicles a large quantity of the Crown Vics and Chevrolet's went to patrol as well as CSO's and conditions and all new SUV's for Patrol Supervisors ( yes, Patrol Supervisors are actually part of Patrol) as well as the Patrol LT unit 45 and 46 . Very few supervisors are wearing body cameras yet and if "everyone" is wearing body cams, where is the video from Zach Sherry's body cam the night of the OIS?. I am being told the vote of No Confidence will be coming at the September Union meeting.
And I have no problem finding out which cars are being swapped and which cars are on the deadline on a daily basis. Today cars 1,3,4,6,10, 11,19,25, 26, 28,30,and 31 all have red chits, and my purchase orders did not come from HR, but then again why would HR be handling Purchase Orders unless City Hall is really that screwed up or either you are just caught up too much in being the mouthpiece for the second floor in a feeble attempt to keep your Tahoe . Are you that confused to think HR also does purchasing? I would gladly tell you where I got the purchase orders and MHQ billing, but I protect my sources. Are you yting to say the purchase orders are not legit?
:51pm
your information is also incorrect, CSP apparently did start off with driver training for the Explorer PPV when they began switching over to them and then realized that was not necessary and I am told that the Explorers are issued the same way now as the Taurus and Crown Vics were issued in the past, with a set of keys. I also inquired of several Municipalities this weekend where I have contacts, and none of them do any specialized training for Explorer driving. And one Training Officer went so far as to say that the requirement Hartford claims for driving the Explorers was "NONSENSE". Good try though. I also spoke to several Police Officers who operate the Explorers daily and asked them what training they had to take to drive them and everyone of them said "NONE"
Maybe Hartford needs to give special training to HPD Command staff on how to properly balance their loads of drywall, plywood and mulch for their weekend runs to Home Depot
7:51 PM
Can you maybe tell me in your training records when Assistant Chief Medina, Sgt. Corey Clark and the other HPD operators of Explorers received their specialized 8 hours of Driver Training for their certification as "Certified Explorer Operators" as you claim is required. Did Deputy Chief Buyak receive his driver training before he retired?
Can we just be honest here? Jason, just tell Kevin you bought the big Tahoes because you wanted to hook up your guys. They guys who showed you loyalty and took care of you when you were a captain. We get it. We all know that's the truth. In HPD culture, it's understood.
However, the mayor may not see it that way. The mayor, who is fighting for his job, wants to show the public, he has selected department heads who make sound fiscal/conservative decisions. Jason did not make a sound decision. So, although Jason's intent was to take care of his men, he ultimately blundered. And he continued to blunder by lying to Kevin about the explorers because and the "all-wheel drive" bullsh*t.
Jason, you have plenty on your resume to apply for any smaller municipal agency in Connecticut. Please leave. You are not wanted here. All the new officers think you are fake and entitled. All the officers who knew you when you came up through the ranks think you're a fraud and self-serving.
Think about it. You never hung out with anyone here off duty because no has ever liked you. For example; you were with a trooper when you started shooting things in your back yard and you were with a trooper when you started a fight off duty in downtown. Maybe since you like troopers so much, you can ask Rovella for a job. Just kidding.
I know, since you are fond of troopers, maybe you could hang out with Medina at his house. Oh wait, you won't be able to fit your Tahoe in his garage, and besides, Medina is actually a good dude who does a good job.
Hopefully, Mayor Bronin will read this post and pick a new chief this week. No more scandals. No more scandals.
“According to command staff?” You mean more like another Thody lie?!
That reasoning for justification of the PPV Tahoe is comical and a complete lie.
Nearly every, if not all, CT police departments are now using AWD Ford Explorer Interceptors, except Hartford PD. Not one PD sent their officers to AWD Ford training. The same goes for the AWD Ford Taurus Interceptor, which most PD’s stopped using because it’s to small with a prisoner containment cage/partition. Zero AWD training. You really believe any officer had/has to be taught how to drive an AWD vehicle as opposed to a 4WD PPV Tahoe or rear wheel drive vehicle? All officers go through driver training at the academy in Meriden. That training suffices. Do you really they conduct rear wheel, two wheel with 4WD PPV and front will drive pursuit vehicle training? Let me answer that for you- No!
Here’s how I’ll completely debunk Thody’s lie.
A front wheel drive PPV vehicle is indeed MUCH different than a rear wheel drive Crown Victoria, rear wheel drive PPV Caprice, rear wheel drive only PPV Tahoe and a PPV Tahoe equipped with 4WD. There actually is front wheel drive pursuit vehicle training that differs from the aforementioned. A front wheel drive pursuit vehicle handles and operates much differently than rear or AWD pursuit vehicles. Thody was on the fleet committee when marked and unmarked Chevrolet PPV Impalas were introduced into the fleet for the first time. There are many marked and unmarked PPV Impalas equipped with lights and siren being used today. Unmarked Impalas were involved in the highway pursuit that ended in the Sherry OIS. Has everyone been sent to front wheel drive pursuit training to operate those vehicles code 3 with lights and siren? I think we all know the answer to that question. A big fat negative! Thody is a fraudulent clown. Everyone backing his theory is a bigger clown.
Hey dummy.....who’s feeding you your info? You sound like someone on the fleet team. There is a change in the brand of car we use!
The Chevrolet Caprice has been discontinued you dope. Why do you think we’re in this situation. Tahoe’s will never be patrol line units.
So what’s the option other than an AWD Ford Utility Lieutenant?
If you read you will see that I said unless the fleet was changed to another car brand. Also, I got what I want. I knew you would reach out to your so called “Supervisor” informant to take a pic of the patrol vehicles key box. Now all I have to do is check the camera and see which so called “Supervisor” is trying to deliberately cause harm to the organization. You say old cruisers are unsafe, which they are but has always been the case at HPD, I think deliberately trying to lower the moral of young officers is far more unsafe for both the officer and the citizens of Hartford. To be continued...
I got what I wanted as well. It’s very obvious your an inner circle Lieutenant or above if all you have to do is check the camera. Very limited supervisors have the access to PSC cameras. And by you saying it’s always been the case at HPD that old cruisers have been unsafe. Another false statement that clearly shows you served zero time in patrol, been behind a desk your entire career. Now that clearly narrows it down to one Lieutenant or Chief. By the way, thanks for the air conditioned seats. Maybe if you spent more time trying to fix the issue at hand and maybe some police work, rather than trying to identify Mr. Brookman’s CI’s, the police department and city would be a much better place.
Based on those comments from early this morning, guess our chief of staff wants to play hardball. How about you take care of us? The rank and file. Isn’t that your job? Instead you post in the wee hour of the morning about looking at cameras to try and destroy the reputation of the most respected supervisor in the patrol division.... remember, he takes care of his troops. Something you will never do. Keep playing hardball Bowsza. Or those photos of you getting your groceries in your precious Tahoe in South Windsor may just leak ;) two can play at this game.
You sergeants need to stop complaining and do your jobs! One day if and when you pass the lieutenants test, you will be driving a Tahoe and the Sergeants at that point won’t be babies and will make due with the equipment they have. Zweibelson and Morande, you guys should know better. Especially you Morande, who use to deadline your car when you were on your days off so nobody else can drive it, forcing officers to drive crusty old beat up spare cruisers. Shame on you! All you did was clear calls via cell phone. You didn’t even respond to the address half the time. The only guy to clear a 52/88 Delta and say the family wants to speak to a lawyer first. All that over the phone. Now you want to complain about lieutenants having take home cars.
Say what you want about Zweibelson and Morande but they are competent and well respected supervisors by those that work for them, and in this place what else really matters? They may run their mouths, but NO ONE can say that they don't do their jobs and do them well.
This just in....... New Tahoe’s going to PATROL!!!! Now the Traffic Division will start to cry...
10:54am
I hate to say this, but your information is incorrect. I would like nothing more than to see new vehicles going to Patrol, but I am told existing Command Staff vehicles will be "trickled down" as replacements for Patrol as new vehicles arrive and are issued to Command Staff. It appears to be an issue of priorities, and you all know who the priorities are.
Besides the Morgan street garage, HPD has access to the XL center garage too. Level P3 to be exact
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