Some may say it is too soon for this posting, so let me apologize up front to start. I can not sit by in silence thinking about a 3 year old child being gunned down on the streets of Hartford.
I have tried to be a huge supporter and to recognize and support the great work the men and women of the Hartford Police Department do every day. I can not offer the same support to Hartford's Police Chief Jason Thody.
Thody has done more damage to the Hartford Police Department than I would have ever thought was possible in such a short period of time. Sadly, it is not just measured in the damage done internally to HPD but it has also carried through to damage to the people of Hartford. This weekends murder of a three year old child followed in quick succession of a 16 year old boy are both heartbreaking examples of Jason Thody's failure as a Chief . Those failures promise to continue throughout the summer if Thody remains as Chief.
The blame also needs to extend to Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin for his failure to appoint a properly qualified Police Chief and his refusal to adjust course after Thody's failures became clearly obvious. Thody's reportedly drunken accident in his City vehicle should have been enough to replace the Captain headed toward the iceberg. But no, Bronin has allowed Thody to continue full steam ahead in his doomed voyage. An eyewitness to Thody's crash reported to Connecticut State Police that he believed Thody was operating his police vehicle drunk shortly before he went off the road and hit a guardrail and evaded the scene.
You would think that incident would have been enough to get Bronin to bring a change to someone who could at least show some leadership and set a proper example for the rank and file of the Hartford Police Department. Nope.
The number of current lawsuits filed against Thody and his Command Staff both in Stae and Federal Courts should point to a problem. The number of Officers that have left HPD in the past year should point to a problem. The common denominator for HPD's problems is Jason Thody.
Thody is a policy "wonk" , not a Police Administrator. Can you really blame him for not being in touch with the Community he serves? He has never been in the community so he can't relate or build the relationships like other Chiefs have. Where previous Chief's have been comfortable walking some of Hartford's most troubled neighborhoods, Thody is more comfortable walking the deck of his boat to get to the lounge at the Marina, far away from Hartford.
The number of good officers being driven out and leaving for other jobs are in large part due to Thody's mismanagement. I had a veteran Police Officer call me last week and tell me they "hate" going to work every day now after what Jason Thody has done to HPD. This was not a chronic complainer, but someone who used to always tell me how much they loved HPD and loved their job.
Thody's arrogance has proved to be one of his biggest downfalls. His inability to play nice with others has been a huge detriment. For anyone that doubts that, ask how HPD works with ATF and their other Federal partners to combat guns in Hartford. The answer would probably be "ATF who?" . The relationship is virtually nonexistent now under Thody.
Why wouldn't HPD be tapping into every Federal Resource and State agency possible so another 3 year old is not gunned down?
Under previous Chief's results were driven by communication and coordination to produce results. Thody's "shotgun" approach , without communication and no coordination is producing very little results, other than high overtime spending. The daily shootings and this years murders are showing that. His constant shuffling of Commanders and rewarding those Commanders as payback without concern for expertise or even capabilities is showing. Where is all of the Intel that used to be gathered under previous Chiefs to track guns and shooters. Where is Project Longevity? A program that started under Chief Rovella and brought back huge results in controlling criminals and keeping them on the right path. Project Longevity is dead under Chief Thody. (And the death of Longevity was not due to funding, apparently Commissioner Rovella was able to provide State funding for Longevity to continue so where's the money?)
I have had the pleasure of working with several good Police Chiefs during my years in Hartford. I didn't always agree with them, but I learned and respected their decisions, and they usually respected mine.
With Thody, I often wonder if I could call FEMA because he is such a disaster. He needs to go before Hartford suffers more.
5 comments:
The time to show Thody the way out started quite some time ago.
By now chief Thody must understand that he must go.
Chief, and I use that term very loosely, Thody, will never understand it’s time to go. He has always blamed someone else for his own failures, he knows everything. He is and always has been way to cocky, arrogant and drunk to understand anything. Along with being a habitual liar, that’s been his problem his entire career.
WHY should he leave he has it made, great Pay, Benefits, Retirement when he is read, use of city car and much more !!
You ended your article on-point describing elegantly Jason Thody’s time as Chief of Police sarcastically as disaster, but it truly is not a joke as so many individuals have been harmed by Jason Thody’s poor leadership and decisions. I would even take it one-step further labeling his entire career as a “police officer,” and I use that term loosely, a disaster. Jason Thody has been filled with scandal after scandal and somehow he continues to keep his job.
The only way Thody has survived is through a web of lies and coverups. Meanwhile rank-and-file officers are exposed to the weaponization of the process orchastered by Thody and a goon squad of command staff. The Hartford Police Union is now only a rubber stamp and does not advocate for its members best interest.
It’s no wonder why officers morale is so low and deciding to leave to other departments or law enforcement completely.
It will take at least ten years for both the department and the community to heal from Jason Thody and his clique of good ole boys.
Transformational change has taken root, but NOT the changes the good citizens of Hartford and it’s officers deserve. The next generation of Jason Thody’s are in the wings waiting to take command.
Thomas Sowel, an American economist, social theorist, and senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, described the abuse of auhtority/power, saying, “It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.”
The question needs to be raised why Luke Bronin has not asked for Jason Thody’s resignation.
Maybe because Luke Bronin has the same empathy about Hartford and it’s people as Jason Thody does for the men and women of the Hartford Police Department….None. The only statistics Jason Thody cares about are the ones in his checking account.
These are valuable human’s lives at risk!!!
It won’t happen but there should be no street activity allowed. Heavy police visibility, lots of pressure on the known criminals and no
breaks of any kind. Nice to see the City Council finally concerned about violent crime but the entirety
will not support the police so they can pound sand. Let the new genius’s at the top try to figure out whT to
do. Throw an AFIS machine at the crooks, wear that big hat and that new contestant might get some
pizza from Sally’s for the creeps.
Patrol makes or breaks the chief. Looks like it’s breaking
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