Hamden Chief Retiring On Tuesday

Updated 3:40 p.m. — After six months on the job, following over a year in an interim capacity, Hamden Police Chief John Cappiello will retire on Tuesday, capping over 36 years in the department.

Deputy Chief John Sullivan, who became deputy chief at the same time Cappiello became chief, will serve as acting chief until the mayor makes a permanent appointment, Mayor Curt Leng announced at about 3:30 Friday.

Cappiello started as a patrol officer on Hamden’s force in 1984. Over the years, he worked his way up the ranks, first to detective, then sergeant, then lieutenant, then deputy chief, then acting chief, then finally chief.

“Chief Cappiello, in partnership with former Chief Wydra, was a core member in a team of public safety leaders who made our community safer and stronger,” Leng wrote in a statement Friday afternoon. ​“Pro-active and thoughtful efforts toward crime prevention, improved community focus and relations, expanded professional development and trainings for Officers, efforts to diversify our Department, and increased use of technology for efficiency and effectiveness are just a some of accomplishments achieved under their tenure. ​‘Capp’ as he was called for many years before being called Chief, is someone I have always been able to depend on with his commitment to public safety for all residents. I am deeply grateful for his service. I wish Chief Cappiello and his family the very best in his retirement.”

After former Chief Thomas Wydra left to take a job with the state in the fall of 2018, Mayor Curt Leng placed Cappiello, then deputy chief, in the role in an interim ​“acting” capacity. He remained acting chief for over a year, until December, when the town’s Legislative Council approved his appointment and contract as chief.

Cappiello oversaw the department through some tough times. In the winter of 2019, WTNH’s Mario Boone uncovered video of two Hamden officers threatening to shoot and call ICE on a Latino man, sparking scrutiny of the department and some protest.

A few months later, Cappiello was shoved into the spotlight when Hamden officer Devin Eaton opened fire on an unarmed black couple in New Haven. The shooting sparked over a year of protests calling for Eaton’s firing and for structural changes to the department. Eaton remains on unpaid administrative leave pending a criminal trial.

A year later, Cappiello oversaw the department as the world entered a pandemic. Then, about a month before his retirement, the nation (and Hamden) erupted in unprecedented protest against police brutality, reigniting conversations about the role of policing in American society and calls to defund police departments.

“When it’s time to go, it’s time to go,” Cappiello said of his decision to retire. At times, he said, he had ​“lost that edge that I wanted to get up and come to work,” and he knew it was time.

Did the turbulent era in which he found himself at the helm of a department trying to police a rapidly changing, dynamic town influence his decision to step down? ​“I would be lying if I said it probably didn’t hasten it,” he said. But had he known it would be so tough, he said, he still would have taken the job.

“That’s what happens in police work. You don’t know what tomorrow brings,” he said.

In December, the council passed a contract which, in addition to officially making Cappiello chief, gave him a $10,000 raise over his acting chief salary. He retires with a $135,000 salary. He also gets a $15,000 stipend for overseeing the traffic department, but that does not count toward his pension, which will not be calculated until after he retires.

The contract gave Cappiello of term of six months, with the option to extend for another six months upon agreement with Leng. Cappiello is retiring after six months on the job. He said he talked informally with Leng about his retirement starting at the beginning of June, but that he notified him officially in the middle of the month.

Leng announced that the Hamden Police Chief Community Input and Transparency Committee, which Leng named after the 2019 shooting, would resume its work updating the chief’s job description, recruiting candidates, and interviewing them to give recommendations to the mayor.

Cappiello said he does not have anything lined up for after his retirement. He said he would take some time off and ​“catch up on some projects around the house that my wife has been asking me to do.” That means a kitchen makeover is in his future. ​“Homeowner projects, you know.”