DITTMAN RETIRING AS MASHANTUCKET PEQUOT POLICE CHIEF

Mashantucket — William Dittman, named chief of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Police Department in 2012 after a 35-year career with the New London Police Department, will retire May 30, the tribe announced Saturday.

He will be succeeded by Deputy Chief George Potts, who also previously served as a police officer in New London.

Dittman, a New London native, retired as a captain with the New London department and became the first Mashantucket police officer to be certified by the Connecticut Police Officer Standards and Training Council.

“Chief Dittman’s mission was to get our police department POST-certified by the State of Connecticut, thus eliminating Connecticut State Police presence in Mashantucket and making our department fully responsible for our sovereign jurisdictional area, and he has certainly accomplished this goal and then some,” Rodney Butler, the Mashantucket chairman, said in a statement. “The department was awarded POST certification by the chief state’s attorney and commissioner of the state police in 2014, and over the years has gained the respect of numerous municipal, state and federal law enforcement agencies.”

“We thank Chief Dittman for his service to our Tribal Nation and wish him and his family all the best,” Butler said.

Dittman, in a statement, said he wants to relax and enjoy his family.

Potts joined the Mashantucket department as a sergeant in 2015. He was promoted to captain in 2018 and to deputy chief last September. He began his law enforcement career with New London police in 1990, and recently became the first tribal police officer in the state to complete an FBI training program.