 | ||
 | The Fairfield Police Deaprtment's current force carries on the spirit of the first one formed in 1930. | |
A constable in a ten-gallon hat patrolled Fairfield in a Model-T Ford in 1929. But that was before problems from a growing population, economic pressure caused by the Great Depression, and illegal bootlegging of alcohol during Prohibition moved the town to establish its first organized police force in 1930.
This year, the Fairfield Police Department is marking 75 years with a policemen's ball this Saturday.
The Police Department started out with six officers under the command of Chief Arthur J. Bennett, with headquarters in a Post Road storefront.
Chief Joseph Sambrook, the town's seventh chief, joined the police force in 1964. He shared the story of the department's beginning and other moments of his department's storied 75 years while seated at his desk in his Reef Road office Monday morning.
"Fairfield was a farming community," Sambrook said of the 1930s, "so it was not uncommon to be asked to pick up a cow or horse that strayed. You could also stop a car that was carrying liquor. The calls were varied."
Retired Police Chief Anthony Mastronardi, 82, who served as a Fairfield police officer from 1950 to 1980, called the Fairfield Police Department "second to none."
"I'm proud of the men and I consider myself fortunate to have had such dedicated, police-minded people working with me," he said Tuesday. "That spirit has carried through to today. I'm proud of this department. If not for my age, I'd still be there. It's one of the most progressive departments in the state."
While much has changed in the last 75 years, Sambrook learned from reading past police reports that some things have remained the same. For instance, he said, there were always the same kind of complaints the department gets today, ranging from illegal parking to stolen canoes in the Fairfield Beach area.
One difference, according to Mastronardi, was stepped-up beach patrol by police in the winter. Residents weren't allowed to live there year-round until the mid '60s when the Town Plan & Zoning Commission first allowed plumbing and heating in cottages along the beach, he said.
Home sweet home
Prior to the construction and opening of the Fairfield Police Department's current building in July 1976, the department had moved into a wooden building shared with the Board of Education and the town's Probate Court on the same Reef Road site, and then into the adjacent brick building now occupied by Operation Hope at 50 Nichols St.
As chief, Mastronardi began to plan for the current building in 1972, and the building has served the town well far longer than originally planned, he said.
"The town has exceeded the expectations of the use of that building," he said. "In 1972 it was planned to last for at least 20 years. That was my big project when I was acting chief, trying to get the local powers-that- be to come up with money to build the building. We were the only police department in Connecticut that provided facilities for female police officers."
The late Irene Feher was the town's first female police officer. She served from 1950 to 1980 in a career that included assignments in the detective bureau. Ken Evans, who was sworn in in 1986, was Fairfield's first African-American officer.
Past relics
While police now work out of a more modern building, Sambrook said relics of past departments remain. Black-and-white photos of former officers hang from walls in department hallways; a cabinet holding an incident ledger from 1932 - which contains a report on the kidnapped Lindbergh baby sent to all police departments in the nation - can be seen on the first floor; and a call box is affixed to the wall just inside the front entrance.
Early police cars had receivers, but officers could not call out to communicate with headquarters, according to Sambrook. Officers would pick up phones inside eight call boxes located throughout the town to fill in administrators on the details of incidents they handled.
Mastronardi said officers would save gas during gas shortages and cut down on driving during storms by parking next to a call box and walking the beat near their cars. When an incident occurred, the amber light on the call box lit up and the phone rang.
Mastronardi remembered his early years in the department when plowing was not done as well as it is now, making many roads impassable. He said police often brought doctors and nurses to the hospital for their shifts.
Sambrook drives an antique police car, a '37 Chevy, in town parades. He noted that a transmission tower is painted on the back.
"It says 'radio patrol,' so the bad guys would know they had it," Sambrook said.
In addition to the call box in the lobby, Mastronardi said the Police Department also houses an old, nearly seven-foot-high safe nicknamed "Big Bertha" in its basement.
All kinds of calls
The police department now has 108 officers, a fleet of about 40 patrol vehicles, four Harley Davidson motorcycles, two Kowasakis, two boats and a police helicopter. Sambrook said the largest boat is docked in the South Benson Marina year-round so it's always available for homeland security requests. The smaller, 19-foot Whaler will be berthed at the Ye Yacht Yard in Southport this year to cut down on the response time to incidents west of the reef, the chief said.
Sambrook said the size of the police force has grown gradually as the town's population has climbed to an estimated 58,000 people. The police chief plans to request additional officers when the third train station opens in the Commerce Drive area.
Aside from keeping up with the needs of the population, Sambrook said the need for specialization - D.A.R.E. officers, narcotics, identity theft, and accident investigators - has also led to new hires in his department.
Today's police officers are required to learn a more diverse set of skills, but some work conditions have greatly improved. Sambrook said officers once worked 12-hour shifts for seven days a week, with two days off a month, and sometimes finished a shift at 4 p.m., only to come back at midnight. Officers now have 38.5 hour work weeks and can earn extra money through overtime and outside jobs, he said.
"We didn't have as many outside jobs because it was not compulsory for construction companies to hire police officers," Mastronardi explained. "Now they are [required] to hire police officers by statute."
Sambrook chuckled while recalling an officer's average starting salary of $4,600 when he joined the force 41 years ago. The average starting salary is now $46,500.
"I used to get annually - when I first started - what the police chief gets in one week now," Mastronardi said, "$1,800 a year, plus a $250 cost of living bonus."
Memorable cases
Several cases in Sambrook's 41-year career stand out to him, including the Brewster Bullard murder in Southport in the early '90s. People involved in a money laundering and prostitution operation based in several massage parlors in Florida convinced Bullard and others to join in a business venture - using their names to protect themselves, according to Sambrook. When Bullard caught on to the true nature of his partners' business, Florida and Fairfield investigators began to look into the operation.
The case included three homicides, including the death of Bullard, the illegal manufacture of silencers for guns, and several arsons to destroy evidence as law enforcement closed in.
"We cleaned up that whole case, and there are people in jail today," Sambrook said. "Some took their own lives, some probably squeezed by."
One of his biggest disappointments was not solving a case in the '80s, when a baby was found murdered in what appeared to be an Afro-Caribbean ritual at Lake Mohegan.
One of Mastronardi's most memorable incidents was a road rage incident that occurred in 1973.
"A man was being tailgated on the Post Road near Fairfield Motor Inn heading towards Bridgeport," he recalled. "The guy slammed on his brakes, and the guy behind him slammed on his. He went up to the guy behind him with a rifle and shot him.
"Six months later, he walks into headquarters with a rifle in his hands. We told him to drop it. We thought he was going to shoot us. He was coming in to give himself up."
Another memory Mastronardi has is of a tragic accident that occurred following a hold-up of the Fairfield Motor Inn. Officers apprehended the gunman and a police captain, not named by Mastronardi, placed his shotgun on the passenger seat of a police cruiser. The late Officer Robert Guidotti was about to get in the car when the gun accidentally went off and a bullet ripped through his knee. Guidotti's leg had to be amputated from the knee down.
"That was one of my saddest moments," Mastronardi said. "I was standing right next to him when he got hit."
Still changing
During his career in law enforcement, Sambrook headed the detective bureau from 1985 to 1997. The bureau's successes included a two-year stint in the early '90s that included seven homicide investigations and seven convictions. In the early '80s, Fairfield became the first Connecticut police department to make an arrest and conviction in a sexual assault case based on DNA evidence, according to Sambrook.
"One officer read an article about DNA testing while vacationing in Florida and told me about it," Sambrook recalled. "I never heard of it. It cost $750 to get testing done in a lab in Valhalla, N.Y. The Police Commission approved it and we got it done. DNA has been a fabulous thing."
Police departments work more cooperatively than in the past with departments in and outside of Connecticut to share information and solve crimes. Sambrook said Fairfield detectives take part in monthly meetings with other Fairfield and Westchester County, N.Y., detectives in the Fairfield County Detectives Association to share information. Area towns also work together in the Fairfield County Training Association and the Fairfield County Chiefs Association.
"Especially in the case of the Donnellys, the interstate and town cooperation was phenomenal," Sambrook said of the Post Road jewelers who were recently slain in a robbery of their store.
"That young man [Suspect Christopher DiMeo] was in handcuffs in 48 hours. It was a great job by our detectives here, Nassau County, Atlantic City, and the U.S. Marshals.
"That had to be one of the most heinous crimes in terms of something absolutely unnecessary," he continued. "A profound waste of the lives of two people. That crime changed Fairfield a little bit, because it brought people to realize that life is so fragile, and in a split second it can change forever."
İFairfield Minuteman 2005