‘We’re involved with the community’

Weston not switching to resident state trooper; policing model to remain

WESTON — Data from the state crimes analysis unit showed Weston had 45 reported offenses in 2021, with a population estimate of 10,204.

In short, the town has a low crime rate.

Though the crime rate is low, the Weston Police Department and has no plans to switch to a resident trooper model, which is typically used in towns with lower populations. Under the model, the town generally does not have a municipal police department, but rather has one or multiple state troopers overseen by the Connecticut State Police.

Five of the 14 towns in Connecticut with populations from 9,000 to 11,000 people use the resident trooper model: Somers, Hebron, Prospect, Burlington and Woodbury. The other nine use a municipal police department, including Weston.

“Part of why the crime rate’s so low is because we have a very community-oriented policing model here in town,” Weston Police Chief Ed Henion said. “We’re involved with the community, we’re embedded in the schools and we do a lot of preventative things here in town.”

Some of the department’s safety and education programs are in the schools and senior centers.

The department’s 17 officers respond to far more calls than the 40 or so offenses reflect. In 2021, the Weston Police Department responded to 4,802 calls for service. Of those, 3,983 were for general service, 529 were crime related and 303 were for motor vehicles, according to town data.

Henion said, Weston is beyond the needs of a resident trooper model.

Weston had a similar number of offenses compared to similarly populated towns under the resident trooper model. Somers, which has about 10,300 residents as of July 2021, had 63 total offenses in 2021. State police reported that Hebron had 32 offenses, Prospect had 63, Burlington had 55 and Woodbury had 46 in 2021.

The state has 111 resident troopers in 55 towns that use the resident trooper model. Some of those use a hybrid model, which mixes state troopers and municipal police officers.

State Trooper First Class Sarah Salerno said the State Police is not aware of any towns considering switching to a Resident State Trooper Program, though a few have switched from the model in the past several years.

“The Town of East Lyme transitioned to an independent municipal police department in approximately 2017,” Salerno said.

Salerno said Montville is switching to an independent municipal police department.

“A town that has been a participant in the Resident State Trooper Program would advise the State Police that they no longer wished to participate in the Resident State Trooper Program and would either need to create its own municipal police department (including but not limited to professional and sworn staff, infrastructure, vehicles, computers/communications equipment, evidence storage, etc.) or rely on police services provided by the patrol troopers in their geographical area, who may be responsible for patrolling multiple towns during their shifts,” Salerno said.

It is rare for a town to return to the resident trooper model after leaving it. In 2017, Redding residents raised the possibility of switching back as a cost savings measure during the budget season, though it never came to fruition.

Henion, who was a resident trooper in Redding in the early 1990s said the town used the model until around 2002.

“Having a full-time, professional police department in the town with local control allows the town to control the policing model to have full-time officers in the town,” he said. “With the resident trooper program, that’s not provided.”

Without the current policing model, Weston would not have a full-time officers in its schools, he said.

“We’re very community oriented here, in our policing model,” he said.

Henion said that the police department works with public works and social services, when the community needs it.

“My officers have been here a very long time, many of them over 20 years,” he said. “They know all the players in town, they know who to contact, they know who to go to. With a resident trooper program, you don’t really get that.”

He said that typically, resident troopers only work Monday through Friday and then other police officers or troopers are in towns over the weekends.