The city of Hartford is highlighting all the work underway to rebuild its police department after it was nearly disbanded last year.
In the past five months, the city has hired Brian Matthews to serve as the department’s administrative chief to help get things back on track, and he tells us that’s starting to happen. Matthews says he’s identified several priorities.
“Everything from just doing the basic stuff of getting a brand new mission statement, hiring qualified applicants to actually be police officers in the city of Hartford, try to update our equipment, make sure our facility looks clean and orderly,” Matthews said.
And making sure the police officers look professional is another goal as Matthews seeks to update their uniforms. As of now, the Hartford Police Department has four officers following the recent hiring of two new full-timers, and Matthews says the plan is to expand a little more.
“We’re actually working on a thing called called a Cops Grant, which is a grant through the federal government where where it supports the funding of training hiring and payment of a full-time police officer.”
Shawn Poole has been promoted to the position of sergeant, and Matthews says the department is updating its technology, equipment, and training. He tells us he’s had full support from the city council and city manager and appreciates that.
A long-term goal is to offer full-service police protection, 24/7.
The Hartford City Council last summer scheduled a meeting to consider disbanding the police department, but that led to public outcry and the meeting was canceled. From there, city leaders promised residents they would maintain police services. All that came after the former chief pleaded guilty to drug charges for allegedly taking pills from the drug disposal box at the police station.
Matthews says since he came on board, he has found a lot of support from residents who want Hartford to have a full-service police department that gets to know the community.
