By Stan Fisher, Register Correspondent
08/16/2008
CLINTON — The police commission has named John Santry, a sergeant with 24 years of service in the town police department, to succeed William Chapman as departmental major.
As major, Santry will assume command of the department’s patrol functions while Maj. Todd Lawrie is the department’s administrative commander, as well as supervising the operation of the detective bureau.
Both officers serve under police Chief Joseph Faughnan as the department’s three top administrators in a realignment of its command structure, recommended by a professional study in the 1990s.
Santry joined the Clinton force in 1984 after graduating from the University of New Haven with a bachelor of science degree in criminal justice, and as a sergeant in the U.S. Marine Reserve.
“I always was interested in law enforcement,” he said. “But I found in college that not many went into local law enforcement with a degree, and that coming in with it was seen as contributing to the profession.”
Promoted to corporal and then sergeant, Santry has demonstrated a particular talent for identifying and securing thousands of dollars in federal and state grants for the department and town, Faughnan has said.
He also serves in the department’s marine patrol and has gone through a variety of specialized training provided by the U.S. Homeland Security Agency, including incident command, disaster training, and special events planning, as well as community policing and planning.
Faughnan said Santry was chosen by the police commission after completing a competitive examination and will earn $82,582 in the non-union managerial role. As a unionized officer eligible for overtime pay, he earned $101,000 in 2006-07.
A Madison resident, Santry and his wife are parents to two teenage daughters.
The police commissioners also have promoted Cpl. John Carbone to sergeant, filling the vacancy in that rank created by Santry’s advancement.
An 18-year veteran of the force, Carbone is a graduate of Florida State University, a martial arts expert, and a member of the Clinton Board of Education. He and his wife have three children.
The retirements allowed the police commission to hire two new officers, Allyson Skeens and Matthew Reed.
Skeens, the daughter of a retired West Haven police detective, has a bachelor’s degree from Ball State University and a master’s degree from the University of New Haven.
Reed, who is 6 feet 8 inches tall and spent some time in baseball’s minor leagues as a pitcher for the Cleveland Indians and Chicago Cubs organizations, earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UNH.
He previously was a federal police officer at the U.S. Veterans Hospital in West Haven.
İNew Haven Register 2008