Police department’s new hires add diversity to the ranks
DANBURY — Four new officers have been sworn into the city’s police force — increasing not only the department’s headcount, but its diversity as well.
Police Chief Patrick Ridenhour said D’Andre Perkins, Christopher Rodriguez, Christopher Spennato and Christopher Campanero were the best qualified of the remaining police officer applicants, and their hiring helps efforts to diversify the department.
Of the four — all of whom live in Danbury — three are people of color, said Ridenhour, who became Danbury’s first Black police chief in 2016.
“We have made some progress with minority recruitment as evidenced by our recent hires,” Ridenhour said. “We have hired four Hispanic/Latino officers and two Black/African-American officers within the last seven months.”
Danbury is not alone in its police department diversification efforts.
Connecticut law requires police departments in communities with “relatively high” concentrations of minority
residents to make efforts to recruit, retain and promote minority police officers so that the agency’s racial and ethnic diversity represents the community it serves.
Minority police officer recruitment has been a problem in the state, according to a January 2021 report from the Connecticut Police Transparency and Accountability Task Force — which cited a difference in percentage of Hispanic or Latino officers in Danbury compared to residents who identify as such.
According to the U.S. Census 2019 population estimates, at least 30 percent of Danbury residents identify as Hispanic or Latino and about 10 percent identify as Black or African American.
A CT Mirror article last June reported the Danbury police force was 86 percent white, 9 percent Hispanic or Latino and 2 percent Black.
Hearst Connecticut Media has requested data on the department’s racial demographics.
But Ridenhour estimates that with the four new hires, nearly 10 percent of Danbury’s 153 police officers are Hispanic or Latino and less than 5 percent identify as Black or African American.
While efforts are being made to diversify Danbury’s police force, Ridenhour said regardless of the department’s makeup, “the goal is always to provide fair and equitable service to the entire community.”
The neighboring town of Bethel has seen its police force become more reflective of the community it serves.
Bethel police had 37 sworn officers in 2019 — 84 percent of whom identified as white (non-Hispanic or Latino), while 11 percent identified as Hispanic or Latino and 5 percent identified as “other,” according to the department’s latest accreditation report from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement.
The racial makeup of Bethel police officers in 2019 showed a slight increase in diversity from the prior year, when 91 percent of the force was white, according to the report.
As a reflection of the Bethel community, the racial makeup of the town’s police force was not far off — and its percentage of Hispanic/ Latino officers was actually slightly higher than that of Bethel residents who identify as such.
In 2019, about 82 percent of Bethel residents identified as white, 7 percent as Hispanic or Latino, about 2 percent as Black and 8 percent as “other,” according to the report.
Ridenhour said Danbury’s new officers — all in their 20s — have to successfully complete six months of training at the Milford Police Academy and at least 10 weeks of field training to get initial state certification before going out on their own.
For the past five years, Perkins has been an infantryman in the Connecticut Army National Guard, earning the rank of specialist E-4. In addition to working as a full-time property manager for the past three years, he has held two part-time jobs — as a hospitality representative and deli clerk — for the past year.
Rodriguez is a senior justice and law administration major at Western Connecticut State University who completed a 150-hour internship at the Danbury mayor’s office, interned at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury and, for two years, was a part-time compliance officer with the city’s health department. He has been a volunteer firefighter and is certified in adult and child first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation and automated external defibrillators.
Spennato is a Western Connecticut State University graduate with a bachelor’s degree in justice and law administration and minor in psychology, who has worked as a Danbury Fair mall security site supervisor for the past three years.
Campanero is working towards a bachelor’s degree at Western Connecticut State University and has worked as a youth physical trainer. He is also certified in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and automated external defibrillators.