Police chief to step down
After decadeslong career, ‘it’s time to start a new chapter’
Hartford’s police chief is stepping down.
Chief Jason Thody and Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam made the surprise announcement Monday morning inside the Hartford Police Athletic League surrounded by nearly a dozen officers from the department.
“It is with mixed emotions that I share with you my decision not to seek a new contract to serve as chief of police and my intent to retire from the Hartford Police Department,” Thody said at Monday’s press conference. “One of my mentors a long time ago told me I would know when it’s time to start a new chapter, and for many reasons, I am confident this is that time.”
Thody said the decision is “personal” and that it was made along with his family. He began his decadeslong career with Hartford as a Police Cadet in 1996, and graduated from the Connecticut Police Academy in 1997.
“This June I will have 28 years of service in the city, I started as a cadet a long time ago. I can’t work for the Hartford Police Department forever,” Thody said.
Thody was appointed chief in 2020 during the height of the pandemic and acknowledged several challenges during his tenure, including waves of violent crime and staffing shortages.
In 2022, Hartford saw the most deadly year on record since 2003. There were 39 homicides through Dec. 29 2022, surpassing the 34 recorded in 2021. But for the first time since the pandemic began, violent crime decreased in the city last year, Thody said.
In 2023, there were 98 nonfatal shooting victims — less than half of the 211 Hartford saw in 2020.
“The increases we have seen in violent crime were challenging, but the department couldn’t have stepped up more by getting illegal guns off the streets. Over the past several years we have faced some of the most challenging times in law enforcement history. A global pandemic, the murder of George Floyd and the resulting demonstrations, increased violence, immense attrition and staffing shortages, and the loss of Detective Bobby Garten.” Thody said.
“The department responded to each challenge with empathy and strength. I could not be prouder of our department. Crime is at historic lows in most every category and continues to trend in the right direction. while there is certainly more work to do, last year we recorded the lowest number of non-fatal shootings in a decade. We’re down an additional 30% this year.”
The department also continues to contend with a shrinking police force. Like cities across the country, Hartford’s police roster has been in trouble since 2020. Retirements and resignations rose after the wave of anti-police sentiment following the George Floyd murder in Minneapolis, while it has become harder to attract recruits to fill those jobs. The department is authorized to have 463 sworn personnel, but due to resignations and retirements, the department only has 372 officers with 14 currently enrolled in police academy, according to Lt. Aaron Boisvert, department spokesperson.
“As far as things I wish could have been different, when I took over I had a commitment to community policing and doing walk beats. Unfortunately, with the staffing shortages we saw in the last few years, it didn’t allow us to do that.”
Thody said he will be staying on as the city seeks to hire his replacement.
“Thank you for your service over three decades and last five as police chief,” Arulampalam said. “These were probably the five hardest years for anyone to serve as police chief anywhere in the United States. You served through the pandemic and the murder of George Floyd, but worked really hard to make this department stronger.”
Arulampalam said that he wants to ensure the community has a role in the selection process but did not give a timeframe for how soon a new chief would be picked. The mayor said the city will be looking at both internal and external candidates over the next several months.
“This decision is such an important one and we have to enter it with some thoughtfulness,” said Arulampalam surrounded by community leaders with the NAACP, YWCA, Compass Youth Collaborative, and LGBTQ+ community. “The role of police chief is one that requires a lot of public trust and we want to have as much of a community driven process as we can in selecting the next police chief. Before we even build out a job description, we need to make sure we are engaging the public in a process that is really community driven and led.”
Thody’s tenure was marked by criticism from some residents that officers relationship with residents was more adversarial than focused on protecting and serving. In one case, an officer created a deadpool, taking bets on the city’s first homicide in a group chat of fellow officers; that officer was recently promoted. In another, a video of recruits patrolling on community day prompted some to say officers had the look of an invading army.
In June 2021, a majority of Hartford police officers voted to support a vote of no confidence in Thody, citing concerns over workloads and discipline. Thody said it was a symptom of the pandemic and racial reckoning that had drained staffing levels and then-mayor Luke Bronin voiced his full support for the chief ’s leadership.
Early on during his tenure, Thody was involved in a minor car accident when the city-owned SUV he was driving scraped a guardrail and he failed to report the accident to Connecticut state troopers. Though a 911 caller reported the SUV was “going like a bat out of hell,” the resulting investigation found that Thody was reaching for a cell phone that slid onto the passenger seat and was distracted. Thody was ordered to pay over $3,000 to fix damage to the vehicle and was given a letter of reprimand.