Froehlich Promoted To Police Sergeant

By Andrew Gorosko

Less than three months after she was promoted from police patrol officer to detective, Darlene Froehlich has been promoted again, this time from detective to sergeant.

Following an interview with the Police Commission, commission members Tuesday night unanimously promoted Ms Froehlich, a 17-year police veteran, to the post of patrol sergeant.

In naming Ms Froehlich to the supervisory post, commission members specified that she start work as an acting sergeant May 15. When a sergeant’s position becomes vacant soon thereafter, during planned organizational changes, Ms Froehlich will become a permanent sergeant, Police Commission Chairman James Reilly said Wednesday.

Ms Froehlich received the highest score on a written test among those seeking the sergeant’s position.

“I think she’s going to do well as sergeant,” Mr Reilly said. “She has the experience,” he added.

“We look forward to having her on board as a supervisor. She has tenacity, experience, and the personality to do a wonderful job as a supervisor,” said Acting Police Chief Michael Kehoe.

“She’s very capable, very thorough, competent. She has the ability to be a good supervisor. She’s earned it. She’s excited,” said Acting Captain Joe Rios.

Ms Froehlich, 42, has been a patrol officer since 1984. From 1980 to 1984, she worked as a town police radio dispatcher. She is the first woman to have joined the Newtown Police Department, was the first female detective, and will now be the first female supervisor.

“It’s going to be a wonderful educational experience. There’s an awful lot of responsibility that the positions holds,” Ms Froehlich said Wednesday. “My plate is going to be full,” she said. “I’ve got a whole lot of things to learn… One step at a time.”

Ms Froehlich said that although the new post will be challenging, she is looking forward to the job.

“It’s a place I’ve wanted to be for a long time,” she said of her longstanding desire to be a police supervisor. Ms Froehlich said she believes she brings experience and maturity to the post.

The new sergeant will receive specialized training to prepare her for supervisory duties. Ms Froehlich said she will continue with the training to make her more valuable to the public and the police department.

The new post will provide her with new duties, she noted, such as helping to develop police department policy and procedures, and disciplining subordinates. She said she will seek good ways to motivate others to perform well.

Ms Froehlich said it will be gratifying to apply the knowledge that she gained while studying for her bachelor’s degree in justice and law enforcement at Western Connecticut State University.

“I like working one-on-one with people. I like to get answers,” she said. Ms Froehlich said she wants to bring well-grounded investigative techniques to her work as a sergeant and wants to improve police case management.

Of her brief stint as a detective, Ms Froehlich said detective work is very detail-oriented. Detective work is more thorough and time-consuming than patrol work, she said, noting that detectives go into much greater depth in investigating cases. It takes much longer to develop detective criminal cases than patrol unit cases, she said.

When Ms Froehlich was promoted from a patrol officer’s post to the detective bureau in February, she said she expected she would miss wearing her police uniform. Although she has adapted to wearing plainclothes as a detective, she expressed satisfaction that she will be returning to wearing a uniform as a patrol sergeant. The benefit of wearing a uniform is that all the equipment that is needed to perform the job is well organized and carried within arm’s reach, she said.

Ms Froehlich is a member of the Connecticut Association of Women Police, an organization that provides training and also serves as a support group for females in law enforcement.

Ms Froehlich was the only woman officer at the police department for many years. The department now has four female officers. There are currently 42 officers altogether.

A divorced mother, Ms Froehlich has two sons, Joe, 14, and James, 7.