New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
A look back: Perez’s tumultuous tenure in charge of Bridgeport police
BRIDGEPORT — Armando J. Perez spent decades working his way up the ranks of the city’s police force.
The 64-year-old Trumbull resident joined the Bridgeport Police Department in 1983, and by the time he resigned earlier this week after federal authorities charged him with fraud, he had won the role of the city’s top cop.
While in charge, Perez implemented new technology — NexGen, the Fusion Center, body and dashboard cameras and ShotSpotter — and increased training among officers.
The job he was doing was praised often by Mayor Joe Ganim; the two have a close personal friendship.
And he won accolades from the LGBTQ community for his frank public discussion on learning his child was transgender.
As police chief, Perez was the highest paid municipal employee in 2019 after a payout was authorized as part of the deal to promote Perez from acting to permanent police chief.
The payout — pushing his earnings to $461,061 last year — allowed Perez to cash in on unused vacation, sick, personal, holidays and compensatory time accumulated during his then-38year career with the department.
But his tenure as the department leader had its bumps from early on.
Since taking over as acting chief more than four years ago, he led the department through a fatal policeinvolved shooting and claims of excessive force, including a massive internal affairs investigation that named 19 people — most of them uniformed members of the police force — as having violated department policies.
Now, some of his critics over the years are pointing to his arrest as evidence they were right that he was unsuited to the position.
“We knew, all this time we knew,” Jazmarie Melendez said at an impromptu protest in front of the Bridgeport Police Department Thursday evening.
Perez was acting chief in 2017 when Melendez’s 15-year-old brother Jayson Negron was shot to death by an officer. Negron’s family has been calling for Perez’s ouster ever since.
Melendez said Perez’s arrest was “a major step in the direction of justice” and she hoped his removal was the beginning of the end of what she described as business as usual.
After more than three decades with the department, Perez resigned as police chief Thursday after federal authorities announced his arrest and the arrest of David Dunn, who resigned as the city’s acting personnel director Friday.
The men were accused of allegedly
⏩ Four years of ups and downs: See online timeline at nhregister.com
gaming the system to put Perez in the chief’s spot after he spent several years as the acting chief.
Neither Dunn, Perez, nor Perez’s attorney responded to requests for comment. Dunn’s attorney declined to comment.
From acting to permanent
Perez was appointed acting chief in 2016 but the search for a permanent chief began in March 2018 during a period of turmoil and concerns that the city did not have a permanent top cop. The search included candidates from across the country.
It was around that time, federal investigators said, Perez allegedly began to conspire with Dunn and two other members of the city’s police department to rig the nationwide search to ensure Perez was given the job.
As the search for a chief was still ongoing, Perez told a Hearst Connecticut Media reporter on Sept. 10, 2018, that he was staying away from seeking details about the search process “just to make sure it was objective.”
But the criminal complaint details the former chief’s repeated attempts to get a leg up in the chief search, going as far as to allegedly break federal law.
Perez and Dunn were each charged with wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and lying to the FBI in connection with the police chief search. If convicted, Dunn faces up to 40 years in prison, Perez up to 50.
The arrest of the chief marks what should be a turning point for the police department to gain back the community’s trust, according to Kalfani Ture, a Quinnipiac University assistant professor of criminal justice with a focus in policing, race and ethics.
“In order to restore the trust, the mayor has to clean house,” said Ture, who was a police officer in Georgia for five years. “If the mayor does anything short of that, what the mayor is signaling to the community is ‘this is business as usual.’ ”
Mayor Joe Ganim appointed Rebeca Garcia, the assistant chief, to acting chief of police on Thursday; it’s unclear if there are any additional changes expected to be made within the police department in the near future.
Ture said Perez’s alleged actions set an example to officers that misconduct is accepted. He said if proven the former chief’s actions also can serve as proof to those who have criticized the department that “maybe there was some truth” to accusations of long standing improprieties.