Last night, or more precisely, early this morning, numerous vehicles were vandalized and spray painted with the letters "BLM" in the rear parking lot for the Hartford Police Department. This vandalism included HPD vehicles as well as Officer's personal vehicles. I am not going to get into all of the details of the incident, but apparently a 17 year old has been arrested in the incident.
More troubling to me is more the issue of how it happened. How was a 17 year old able to get into a supposedly secure are and vandalize vehicles for an extended period. Operating undetected in front of a Police Department facility that I would hope we all thought was safe.
Well as it turns out, most of our driveways are about as safe, or safer. than the Hartford Police Parking area. The lot is supposed to be secured by chain link fence metal gates that are opened and closed by a key card access control system. Apparently those gates have been broken for months and no one was concerned enough to make the calls to get them fixed. As well as security cameras to cover the area. A 12 foot high fence covers the back are along the railroad tracks
Those broken gates allowed anyone that wanted to walk in or drive into the supposedly "secure" area. Did no one notice they were broken. Did no supervisor or member of the command staff look out the window or drive by and maybe say to themselves "hmmm. I wonder why the secure gates are always open?"
What about the Deputy Chief whose job and responsibility it is to maintain the building? Where was he? Too busy buffing the chrome trailer hitch on his prized Bomb Squad truck? This is inexcusable. If someone is making over $130,000 to do a job and he doesn't do that job, then it is the Police Chief's job to hold him accountable, and that doesn't usually happen at HPD. The only people held accountable are the low men and women on the totem pole ( is that analogy politically incorrect now a days?) The higher ups are never touched.
Thody has no trouble coming down on the little people, but if you're one of his boys with a take home Tahoe, you're all set.
For years, ever since 253 High Street opened as the new Public Safety Headquarters, the Command Staff had a fenced in deck on the second level of the parking garage. Very secure, well maintained, properly plowed in the winter. The rank and file, the little people of HPD, mostly patrol officers, have had to park in a dirt lot across from the front entrance. An unsecured dirt lot, no gates no direct cameras except what is on the front of 253 High Street, complete with ankle busting pot holes and hazards. Many Officer's cars have been broken into in that lot.
But who cares as long as the Chief and the Command Staff can park comfortably in their secure parking area.
As an issue of Officer safety, the gates need to be repaired immediately, the rear lot should be cleared of any unnecessary vehicles and space should be made for Hartford Police Officers to be able to park their personal vehicles securely while working. There is room to accommodate that and it should be done ASAP and those responsible for failing to maintain the facility need to be held accountable.
Much of the "junk" that occupies space behind 253 High Street could very easily be moved to 40 or 50 Jennings Road to free up space
The safety and well being of our Police Officers, if we really appreciate them, requires nothing less. Again, it is an officer safety issue
16 comments:
Driving HPD into the ground Jason. Just as we predicted you would this time last year. Another gem picked by Luke. Time for you both to go! City hasn’t been this bad since the Solids and Kings we’re beefing in the 90’s.
Hold on. 1. Cops broke the gate for the third or fourth time and its big money to replace. 2. He didn't get in through the open gate. 3. He vandalized cars on the upper deck. Banks are secure but people manage to get into those at night. If there is a will there is a way. Let's focus on the fact someone had the audacity to do this rather than the how.
Kevin, the day Luke Bronin publicly announced Hartford’s top cop job going to Jason Thody, I shudder in disbelief. I knew instantly Hartford had reached a new all time low. You're telling me the national search, that was promised to the voters, which never happened wouldn't turn up at least a more qualified candidate with a more robust curriculum vitae then Jason Thody?
The questionable past of Jason Thody and the recent sequence of events that has plagued him since returning to Hartford PD, clearly demonstrate he lacks the professional and personal qualifications of leadership skills, ethics, and education to carry out the position.
I’m also curious to know why hasn’t our union president,Officer Anthony Rinaldi, not held a vote of no-confidence in Thody or weighed in on the matter? Is there a system of quid pro quo taking place? Clearly that seems to be the case.
Jason Thody and his administration are single-handling destroying the department’’s reputation within the community, as well as the public's trust. Jason Thody is a failure and must go immediately.
At least when the Los Solidos, the Latin Kings and other gangs were wrecking the city reputation we had the ability and for a short time the support to locate, identify, investigate and lock up a lot of the gang members for serious crimes. Many times we had to use force because the gang members were bold and thought they could make officers back down. That was a mistake.
Hit crime hard. Lock up criminals and this punk who damaged the city and private vehicles needs a _____________________you fill that in. But he comes from garbage anyway. What did anyone expect?
Just imagine if Chief Thody, AC Medina and Bowsza, put in as much effort into fixing the broken gate as they did fixing and covering up Thody’s damaged Tahoe. Had they put in 1/4 of that effort, the gate would’ve been fixed last November.
At a recent Connecticut Chief’s of Police Meeting, Thody was referred to as an “absentee chief” in terms of leadership within the region and state. The capital city police chief is looked to as a model especially in this area where Hartford Crime carry’s over to so many communities nearby. Well, Thody’s rep and Hartford’s crime epidemic are near identical these days: just plain bad with no recovery in sight. Band-aids and deflections can’t fix this anymore. Time for a VONC! Rinaldi promised us he’d be a pit bull - let’s see it Tony! You know what HPD can be. Thody ain’t the man to get us there.
Wasn't Thody overheard and seen lobbying for votes for Rinaldi the day of the Union election. What did you expect? You got what you voted for. Good Luck
@ 1:07 aka member of command staff.
Just because things get broken and cruisers crashed you don't punish the entire working part of your police force. It's the cost of business when running a 400+ police department. You address the issue with whoever broke the gate or crashed the vehicle while getting it fixed for the rest of the department. The working officers of the police department are driving around vehicles that are dangerous and falling apart. Meanwhile the non-working "let's go to another meeting" officers are driving around in new family Tahoes. It's become more and more clear to even the new officers Thody doesn't know how to lead, take care of his officers or the community.
10:03pm,
all of your points were well known and pretty much common knowledge before Bronin appointed him. What we should be asking is what skeletons are hiding in their closets for Bronin to make such an appointment for a critical position, Even more so after the cover-up orchestrated for his accident, what is going on and what are we missing? And I agree , 1:07 pm was probably one of the sycophant's trying to deflect attention away from Thody and others to distract from their incompetence.
Did any one of the highly paid recruiting officers get a chance to approach and facilitate a path for this 17 yr old to get on HPD? He’d be a perfect fit in the cadet program since he will clearly reflect the community he’ll serve.
Joe Biden in a 1993 speech warned of "predators on our streets" who were "beyond the pale" and said they must be cordoned off from the rest of society because the justice system did not know how to rehabilitate them.
Hold on, for real? Cops broke the gate for the third or fourth time so leave it broken and the complex vulnerable? I’ve never seen the Walnut St gate to upper deck broken/not fixed, and it has broken. Banks are secure but people manage to get in at night? Really, other than the cleaning crew, when has a bank been gotten into recently as you state. Sounds like a certain Lieutenant who lying comes as easy as fabricating official reports. So with your reasoning, a cop, the chief specifically, was drunk and damaged a city Tahoe and evaded the scene. Big money to fix. So why bother fixing it so quick? Let’s focus on the audacity of that and the subsequent cover up involving several high ranking co-conspirators.
Thody should be fired. Plain and simple. What is Bronin waiting for?
So now that Medina is getting the boot, who’s going to save Sissy and his buddy?
Maybe the feds should take a look at the Capitol city...lotta stuff their if they turnover a few rocks.
Been saying that for years. The politicos at 550 don't want that.
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