Darien police officers relish perks of boat

Officer Chris Knight of the Darien police marine division christens the department’s new patrol boat. (Darien Time/ Laureen Vellante photo)

Sep 15, 2007

After 11 years of braving the elements and working in tight quarters, officers from the Darien Police Department’s Marine Division are enjoying the amenities that have come with a new patrol boat.

“It’s a great piece of equipment,” said Officer Mark Cappelli, who spent six years in the marine unit before joining Darien’s Detective Bureau in May. “It’s much more useful and user-friendly.”

The 23-foot Glacier Bay patrol boat comes outfitted with a trailer, lights, sirens, state-of-the-art navigational and life-saving equipment and an oxygen tank, among other things. Although it has been in the water since spring, the $160,000 vessel, which will be docked at the Darien Boat Club at Pear Tree Point Beach, was officially christened during a ceremony held Saturday at the Noroton Yacht Club.

“It [was] a dedication and thank you to the contributors at the same time,” Cappelli said.

The contributors to whom he is referring are those who donated money to the Darien Police Boat Fundraiser Inc., a not-for-profit group formed solely to cover the cost of the fully-equipped boat. It was born out of an off-hand comment made by David Hawes, who served as president, along with attorney Chris McClancy, who provided his services free of charge, and a board of directors comprised of John Hertz, Tom McKiernan, Al Tibbets, Peter Berry, Tom Geary, David Zanary and Jerry Nielsen Jr.

“Myself and another officer, Sam Boccuzzi, were working on the boat and Dave jokingly said when are you going to get a boat you can work with and Officer Boccuzzi said why don’t you get it for us,” Cappelli said. “Dave took the idea and ran with it.”

However, turning that idea into a reality was a larger undertaking than Hawes anticipated. Initially, he thought holding a fund-raiser with the proceeds being donated to the department would suffice. Hawes quickly learned that he first needed to establish a non-profit — a process that took about a year. It took roughly the same amount of time to get the money to cover the new boat and have enough left over to purchase a new defibrillator.

“We didn’t expect to raise it that quickly, but if we didn’t, once you get started you can’t stop,” said Hawes, who co-owns Wheeler Real Estate. “If it took one year, two years or three, we were going to keep going until we got it done.”

And if he were to do it all again, Hawes said he would have created a foundation so it could raise money for other equipment for the police department rather than a non-profit geared toward a single goal, especially upon seeing what is involved.

“There was a lot of bureaucracy and it was not as easy as I thought,” Hawes said. “But I’m certainly glad I did it at the end of the day.”

So is Chris Knight, senior officer of the marine division, who knows he and his colleagues would still be using the old Center Console Mako if it were not for the Darien Police Boat Fundraiser.

“People don’t realize that there are budget constraints and if funds are needed somewhere else and if you don’t have a boat, you don’t think we need one,” Knight said. “But for people who have boats, when they call for help, they expect you to be there, have the equipment and do the job correctly.”

Already, the marine division has been able to respond to calls it would have been unable to handle with the other patrol boat. For example, last month, officers rescued two people from a boat fire using the new vessel’s swim platform with extended ladder and extinguished the flames using a fire pump for which there is now ample room.

Also, when officers responded to a cardiac arrest that occurred on a boat, Knight said the table in the new boat provided a proper working space as well as a place to sit down and talk to the deceased man’s family.

“This one is more functional for our use,” said Knight, noting there are two officers on the boat at one time. “We’re in the water year-round. Now we have heat and cover from rain, large waves and snow.”

The Darien Police Boat Fundraiser may have paid for the boat, but it was the police department that chose the Glacier Bay after testing out a similar style operated by Stamford police and the exact one owned by police in Rye, N.Y.

“I really liked it,” Cappelli said of the Glacier Bay. “It offered a lot of things we were looking for in a boat.”

Knight had nothing but praise for the purchase.

“We can actually work like human beings out there,” he said. “The big thing is being constantly in the sun. Being out there eight hours a day, the sun takes a toll on you. Plus, the new boat has fresh water, a head, refrigerator and table. I’m definitely enjoying it.”

E-mail Darien Times associate editor Susan Chaves at schaves@darientimes.com.