Date: Fri 06-Sep-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

police-transition-assignments

Full Text:

Police Department Faces A Period of Transition

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

Amid a period of transition in the police department, three new police patrol

officers are scheduled to take their oaths of office in ceremonies September

13 at Edmond Town Hall.

The new officers are: Jason Frank of Sandy Hook; Patricia Sperling of

Stratford; and Dan Cacace of New Fairfield. The new officers are in their

mid-20s.

In recent months, the officers have been training at the state's Municipal

Police Training Academy in Meriden.

Officer Frank is a graduate of Niagara University, with majors in criminal

justice and criminology.

Officer Sperling is a graduate of Southern Connecticut State University in New

Haven. She has an associates degree in human services and a bachelors degree

in social work.

Officer Cacace went to Hesser College in Manchester, NH. He majored in

criminal justice and corrections.

The new officers will receive 14 weeks of on-the-road training in Newtown

before being allowed to patrol on their own, said Police Chief James Lysaght,

Jr.

The officers will be schooled in the "San Jose model" of police training, he

said. After complete road training, the officers will start independent patrol

work in late December.

Three Newtown officers, detective John Cole, patrol officer Steve Ketchum, and

patrol officer Michael Brokaw, will take a course to become police training

officers. They will accompany the new patrol officers during the on-the-road

training periods, Chief Lysaght said.

Vacancies on the police department were created with the departures of

detective Harry Noroian and patrol officers John Kotch and Robert Jersey.

Also, Sergeant Klaus Ertl retired recently.

Besides the three new patrol officers coming on duty, the police department is

in a period of transition, with five officers serving in "acting" positions.

Acting Captain Owen Carney is filling in for Captain Michael Fekete who is on

medical leave. Carney is normally a lieutenant in charge of the special

investigations unit.

Chief Lysaght said it's unclear when Captain Fekete will return to his duties

at the police department.

Acting Lieutenant Henry Stormer is filling in for Carney. Stormer normally is

a sergeant.

Michael Kehoe and Raymond Thompson are serving as acting sergeants. Kehoe

normally is the youth officer and Thompson normally is a patrol officer.

patrol officer George Sinko will be filling in as acting youth officer while

Kehoe is an acting sergeant.

A major transition at the police department came this year when Chief Michael

DeJoseph resigned after almost 30 years on the department. Mr DeJoseph left to

take a post with the International Association of Chiefs of Police in

Virginia.

Chief Lysaght, a former captain and second-in-command at the Bristol Police

Department, became Newtown's police chief in July.