Date: Fri 19-Feb-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

Carney-retirement

Full Text:

Capt. Carney To Close A Long Police Career

(with photos)

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

Captain Owen Carney says there are some things he will miss and other things

he will not when he retires from the local police force at the end of this

month.

The captain said this week he will miss the relationships he has developed

with his colleagues.

"I'm going to miss the people here...It's a good bunch of people here," he

said.

However, he will not miss the disruptions and the stresses posed by a life in

law enforcement.

"I'm not going to miss the 3 am phone calls. I'm not going to miss the

stress," he said.

Captain Carney, 48, retires February 26 after spending 27 years in the

department.

As for the immediate future, Captain Carney says he plans to take a breather

and experience life as a civilian for the first time since 1972.

At some point, he plans to re-enter the workforce in some new capacity, he

said.

"I'm sure that I will be going to something at some point," he said.

What field that might be depends upon the opportunities which present

themselves, he said.

Captain Carney has served in many posts during his tenure at the police

department.

He started as a patrolman in 1972, just a few months after the department was

organized. In 1974 he was assigned as a detective to the special

investigations unit, now known as the detective bureau. In 1980, he became a

sergeant and also started serving as youth officer. In 1988, he became the

lieutenant in charge of detectives. He became a captain in 1998, serving as

second-in-command of the department and conducting its day-to-day operations,

supervising both the patrol and detective units.

As a captain, Carney worked in the areas of budgeting, scheduling, hiring and

long-term planning.

He did graduate work in leadership training, organizational communications,

and profiling at the FBI National Academy.

Reflecting on his various assignments over the years, Captain Carney fondly

remembers his days as the youth officer.

"I enjoyed the years spent as youth officer... I had a very good, positive

relationship with the kids...I really enjoyed that," he said.

Work in the detective unit was challenging, he said, especially when he was

the lieutenant in charge of a group of investigators.

"It's interesting work. It's challenging. It can be fun," he said of

investigations. The captain said he found work involving the detection and

analysis of latent fingerprints to be particularly rewarding, especially when

the work led to arrests and convictions in crimes such as burglaries.

Burglaries and larcenies are among the most common crimes investigated by

police in Newtown.

Reflecting on how police work has changed in his years in the department,

Captain Carney notes there are more traffic accidents to handle than in the

past. That stems from the town's increasing population, the proliferation of

new roads, and an increasing number of vehicle trips and miles traveled by

motorists, he said. "The town is just developing by leaps and bounds."

And some of the law enforcement priorities have changed since he began work on

the police force.

Incidents of domestic violence have taken on a higher enforcement priority

than they had in the past, he said. In the 1970s when husbands and wives had

disagreements, police would go the scene to keep and the peace but not

necessarily make arrests.

However, today when responding to domestic violence police are required to

make arrests if they have probable cause to believe that a crime was

committed, he said.

Police work is much more complex than it has been portrayed in television

programs, Captain Carney said. "Things are just glossed over. It doesn't do it

justice," he said. From watching television programs about police, people

develop unrealistic ideas about the nature of the work, he said.

This year the captain is serving as the master, or presiding officer, of Hiram

Lodge No. 18 of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons in Sandy Hook. He also

works as a chaplain volunteer at Ashlar of Newtown, providing spiritual

guidance to residents of the nursing home.

"I love to play golf, but I play golf very badly," he quipped, adding "I don't

play as often as I would like to."

He says in his retirement he may find the time to play a couple of rounds a

week to improve his game.

The captain plays golf at Gainfield Farms, the nine-hole, 28-par course in

Southbury owned and operated by Al Brinley, the former Newtown building

inspector.

Besides his interest in golf, Captain Carney enjoys computing, especially

exploring the near and distant corners of the World Wide Web on the Internet.

"It's just like there's no end to it," he said of the vastness of cyberspace.