In its second meeting of the year, held remotely due to the pandemic, the Board of Police Commissioners covered ongoing work and updates on the new police station, budget requests, COVID cases within the police department, traffic around local schools, and defining a civilian police review board. One member of the public did join the meeting, but did not speak during the 31-minute, February 2 meeting.

Chairman Joel Faxon called the meeting to order at 6:31, with all commissioners in attendance.

Police Chief James Viadero opened the meeting with his report, saying he expects the new police station to be fully functioning by March 16.

The new station, at 191 South Main Street, opened in November. Dispatch and the booking facility are the only parts of the building that are still not yet being used. Those duties continue at 3 Main Street.

Officer Adam James, representing the police union, spoke about the future booking area. Patrol officers were given opportunity for input at the new location, for which they were grateful, he said.

“We’re so used to having this really small, tight space at the old PD, where the prisoner’s within two feet of you the whole time,” he told the board. “Now we have a real booking area where we can process potentially more than one person at a time, which does happen.

“We work in a nice town, but there are times where we arrest a bunch of people at once, and that was almost implausible at the old PD,” he pointed out. Logistics are still being worked on, he said, to be sure everything is done as safely as possible for both police officers and sergeants as well as the prisoners themselves.

James said that while blueprints are also being worked on for an in-house gym, the booking area is the highest priority at this time.

The chief said he and contractors are looking at a cutoff date of getting everything in place no later than March 16.

“At that time we’ll have the facility ready, and we’ll be using it at 100 percent,” he said. There are a few IT issues to be taken care of, he added, “but pretty much everybody is getting used to the building.”

Budget Requests And A ‘Disturbing Video’

The chief also reported that his department’s proposed budget has been given to the Board of Selectmen for consideration.

While noting that “it’s a rough budget year, and everybody is aware of what the economy is like,” Viadero said there is an $8,600 increase in his budget. That figure is due to the police accountability bill passed last year by the House Bill 6004, An Act Concerning Police Accountability, which requires police psychological and drug testing. There is also a one-time software charge due to a new fingerprinting system to be installed at the police station by the end of March, he said.

“It wasn’t a big ask in the budget as far as capital expenditures,” he said.

Faxon later asked about a budgetary request concerning body worn cameras, whether new cameras are needed, system support, or both.

The chief told him that a grant received when the program was first launched has created storage capacity “that is just phenomenal.” The budget request, he said, is for new cameras.

“The body worn cameras are about 4½ years old,” he said. Being worn by officers on a day-to-day basis, “they take a beating,” he said. Other departments are facing similar issues, he added: the cameras are damaged and cannot be repaired. An interim replacement model is being used, “but at some point that platform is not going to be able to be replaced or repaired.”

Viadero does not see a big concern, he said, in getting funding to replace the equipment when it is needed.

Faxon agreed with the importance of body worn cameras.

“In this environment, it would seem to be that we should at least suggest to our elected representatives that this is a piece of equipment that either statewide or nationally, there should be a support system in terms of funding,” he said. While he would like to see the burden of purchasing and maintaining cameras taken off the taxpayers of Newtown, he reiterated the importance of the equipment.

“It’s one of the most important items that’s on the person of a police officer who’s out in the community,” he continued. Body worn cameras make sure “things are captured, objectively can be reviewed, and it’s very important for law enforcement.”

Ofc James agreed with the assessment that there is “definitely a need for replacements” of many of the body worn cameras.

In a similar vein, the police chief said he has received “a number of calls” from residents concerning a video from January 29 that shows police officers in Rochester, N.Y., using pepper spray on a 9-year-old girl after the officers were sent to a call of a family disturbance.

“It’s an alarming video,” said Viadero, adding local residents want to know how such an incident would be handled in Newtown.

“I can say with a great degree of confidence that our officers are trained well,” he said. “Most of our officers are crisis intervention trained. When you look at a 9-year-old girl and what the cause was there — it was definitely a mental health call — I think our officers are well versed in dealing with that. They’ve demonstrated that in the past, dealing with youth in crisis, and I think our policies are pretty strong in what’s permissible and what’s not.

“Without finding fault or judging somebody just from what I’ve seen in the video, I’m very, very confident that our officers know how to handle a situation like that,” he said.

The chief offered his condolences on behalf of the department to Commissioner Neil Chaudhary on the loss of his mother. Chairman Faxon followed suit on behalf of the commission.

Three areas of concern for traffic — Poverty Hollow Road, Taunton Hill Road, and Toddy Hill Road — were mentioned. Viadero has been talking with residents of those areas, he said.

“We have our traffic division looking into that, monitoring it as far as signage and seeing what the issue is,” he said.

An increasing volume of commercial truck traffic has been using Taunton Hill Road as a cut-through, and Poverty Hollow is known as “a cut-through to lower Fairfield County,” he said.

Toddy Hill, which has long been an area with speeding concerns, “always gets our attention,” he said. “We’re out there, we’re doing enforcement.”

COVID Update

Viadero on Tuesday noted that the department, had “a rough month” in January due to a spike in COVID cases. All employees have since returned to work, he said.

“As far as the vaccinations, we’re pretty much at about 90 percent where everybody’s had at least the first vaccine,” he said. Most have already had their second shot, he added.

Newtown PD Captain Chris Vanghele, who has been monitoring the department’s COVID cases, also reported.

Vanghele said the department “had a spike, which I think the rest of the state was going through, in early January.”

Three or four members of the department, in one specific room of the station, had to take time off with COVID-like symptoms, he said. That “snowballed into 10 or 11 people,” he said, who needed to be tested.

Eleven officers tested negative in January. Three tested positive and have been through “the proper quarantine and are now back at work,” the captain said. The entire spike was done within a two-week period, he said.

Those who have received their second vaccination shot have been going through “varying degrees of flu-like symptoms,” he said, “but I think that’s the normal course of business with this vaccine.”

Viadero then noted a recent donation to the department of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) through the efforts of Dr Robert Bazuro at Danbury Hospital. Most of the AEDs have been put into cruisers, and others will be distributed throughout the police station.

Calling it a “great donation from Danbury Hospital’s Foundation,” Viadero said the equipment is “another tool that we have in our toolbox, to go out there and respond and offer aid to our community.”

Civilian Police Review Board

Another new aspect of the state bill passed last year is the element that allows each town’s legislative body to establish a civilian police review board by ordinance.

In January, commissioners had sought clarification between the state statute and the town charter. While Viadero felt the town board was already in compliance with that section of the bill passed in June, he agreed to contact Town Attorney David Grogins for a legal opinion.

Faxon said he had been contacted by Paul Lundquist, chairman of the town’s Legislative Council, requesting input from the commission for the upcoming charter revision.

Last week the chief shared the response from Grogins, who essentially said that the current board of police commissioners is acting as a civilian review board as outlined in the statue.

“It is clear that the creation of a Civilian Review Board [created in Section 17 of the Bill] is not required,” Grogins said in part in a letter shared with the commission. “Its creation is optional as stated explicitly in the Bill.”

The Newtown commission already has the authority to deal with violations by police officers of regulations adopted by the board, including the power to suspend or remove members and officers of the police force, he pointed out in his written opinion.

Grogins further stated that in reviewing the bill, which was signed into law July 31, 2020, “the only functions which are provided for in the Bill, as opposed to the power granted in the Charter, is the power of subpoena, and the power to ‘compel books and papers,’” he wrote.

The town’s current charter does not mention subpoena powers, while the state statue gives the board/commission such powers.

Following brief discussion, the commission voted to convey to Paul Lundquist that the commission recommends amending the town charter to include the following provision: “The Board of Police Commissioners shall be authorized to act as the Civilian Review Board for the Town of Newtown.”

Finally, the commission briefly touched on student drop-off zones at public schools. Commissioner Joan Plouffe said she had heard from “quite a few parents” asking about traffic during pickup and drop-off at schools.

Viadero said that school resource officers had been out sick, and he, too, saw some problems at Newtown Middle School for a while because of that. Changing schedules have been “figured out, updated, and adapted to,” Viadero said.

Security officers had been doing traffic at Hawley and Newtown High schools, but “all points are covered” now that SROs have returned to work.

Commissioner Andy Sachs noted that “Reed has been a dream as far as I’m concerned.” Traffic at that location is controlled by traffic lights.