Veteran Police Officer To Retire After Years On The Night Shift

By Andrew Gorosko

On his retirement from the town police department, Dominick Salvatore recalls his quarter-century career in local law enforcement, which focused for the last 15 years on the overnight shift, during which he helped keep the peace from midnight to 8 am.

Patrol Officer Salvatore began his affiliation with local law enforcement in 1980, when he started work as a radio dispatcher. He soon became an auxiliary police officer, serving in that capacity until 1984.

In 1984, he took the oath of office as a full-time police officer, and then worked the rotating shifts, which are common in law enforcement, until assuming the overnight shift in 1990.

Things have changed in the 21 years since he started work as a full-time policeman, said Officer Salvatore, who has lived in town for the past 30 years.

The police department has doubled in size since he started work, he said. During the past 21 years, the number of people living in Newtown has grown significantly, and the volume of traffic has increased markedly, he said.

Officer Salvatore said he will most miss the camaraderie he experienced with fellow officers. In October, the police feted Officer Salvatore and the departing Officer Lou Ferreira at a farewell party.

During his tenure, the public mood has changed, Officer Salvatore noted, explaining that members of the public appear to be under more time-related pressure than they were in the past. People are seemingly always hurrying about and sometimes behaving less courteously than in the past, he said.  “People are just in a hurry to get where they’re going,” he noted.

Some people have lost a sense of respect for law enforcement, he added.

The midnight shift starts work at a time when most people are asleep in their beds. Working such hours can either be quite uneventful or very hectic, Officer Salvatore said. On the overnight shift, many serious incidents including domestic disputes, assaults, and motor vehicle accidents happen, he said. Much overnight mayhem is fueled by alcohol consumption, he observed.

“The midnight shift is a deterrent…You drive around and you watch,” he said. Over the years, during such duty, police become very aware of typical activity patterns, heightening their sense of activity that is amiss, alerting them of potential problems, he said.

The ubiquity of cellular telephones means that police receive many more calls alerting them about erratic drivers than in the past, he said.

Background

During his law enforcement career, Officer Salvatore did a stint with the state police’s Statewide Narcotics Task Force, performing undercover drug investigations.

He also became the police department’s first field training officer, a position he held until his retirement. Field training officers accompany police department recruits on patrol duty after the recruits graduate from the police academy. After learning the theory of police work at the academy, training officers teach the recruits about the town where they will be working.

Of the law enforcement philosophy that he seeks to instill into recruits, Officer Salvatore said, “You try to treat everybody [public] with respect…At times, you have to be more forceful.”

“Be fair and reasonable…Don’t be a hypocrite…Treat people the way you would like to be treated,” he added.

Challenges that local peace officers will face in the future include dealing with increasing violence and drug-related problems, Officer Salvatore said. Locally abused drugs include heroin, cocaine, marijuana, and alcohol, he said. He noted that young people appear to have less parental supervision than in the past.

“I like the midnight shift. It worked out well,” Officer Salvatore said.

Working the overnight shift allowed him to also work as a carpenter during the day, remodeling homes in his business known as D&J Carpentry and Home Improvement. When he moves to Florida soon, Officer Salvatore will work solely as a carpenter.