Allan Appel file photo
Timothy F. Wydra.
Hamden Mayor Lauren Garrett has nominated Captain Timothy Wydra to fill the role of deputy police chief, more than five months after the non-union position was first left vacant by a retiree.
A press release from the mayor’s office sent out on Thursday states that Wydra has served the Hamden Police Department for 29 years as an officer, detective, sergeant, lieutenant and captain.
“He has a proven track record as a SWAT Team Commander, Hostage Negotiation Unit Commander, Field Training Office Program Coordinator, Active Shooter Instructor and Less Lethal Instructor,” the release reads. “He is a strong advocate of community-oriented policing, as well as evidence-based and data-driven policing strategies.”
The Legislative Council still has to vote on whether or not to move Wydra up into the position.
Wydra is the brother of former Hamden Police Chief Thomas Wydra.
Chief of Police John Sullivan said he was “excited” to have Wydra, “a very capable officer,” brought onto the job. “I haven’t had a deputy chief for most of my tenure here,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan was sworn into office on Jan. 6, 2021. Both of his deputy chiefs retired in late November. One of the jobs was a union position, for which a replacement was hired internally and immediately. The second was non-union, meaning Garrett was responsible for proposing a candidate.
At the time that non-union Deputy Chief Gabriel Lupo left the force, Garrett said that the town should focus on filling patrol officer positions before making promotions to replace supervisory and upper-level individuals, primarily on the basis that higher-ranking officers make significantly higher salaries.
Back in November, the department was short staffed by around 15 officers, which meant that many higher-ups were working overtime to perform patrol work.
On Thursday, Chief Sullivan told the Independent that the department is still down 16 officers. Two additional officers, he said, are also planning their retirements by the end of the month.
While the department remains short staffed, Sullivan said having Wydra in the position of deputy chief will make a big difference in how the department runs.
“This is going to allow me to concentrate better on the things I need to get done,” he said. “It’s been really tough to operate the department without that position.”
Wydra will help manage departmental finances and overlook “professional standards,” Sullivan said, which includes supervising the ethics and integrity unit and officer training.
Commissioner Still Seeking Civilian Complaints
It was a sergeant from the ethics and integrity unit who recently submitted a request to destroy 100 unsubstantiated internal affairs investigations while an FOI request for civilian complaints and use of force reports was pending. Read more in this article.
Mayor Lauren Garrett has since reported that electronic copies are available for all of the records, even though paper copies were shredded. (See more below for a recent press release sent out by Garrett about this incident.)
But the question still stands of why the documents were ever submitted for destruction and why the town did not inform the state — which approved the request before later putting a hold on all dispositions by the Hamden PD — about Dunn’s related FOI requests.
Upon requesting civilian complaints, Police Commissioner Daniel Dunn was provided with a civilian complaint log by the town attorney rather than full reports. That log shows that Lt. Wydra had at least one complaint lodged against him and several other officers in 2017. That complaint was not sustained, meaning an investigation into the matter failed to disclose sufficient evidence to prove the allegation.
Dunn has only received six full reports since putting in his request for all civilian complaints spanning from 2016 through 2022. He does not have a copy of the complaint detailing Wydra’s actions, though it is unlikely that the 2017 exchange was included in the batch of records filed between 2018 and 2020 that were destroyed this spring.
That complaint, however, may have been lost in a separate round of record destruction. Another hundred volumes of unsubstantiated internal affairs investigations from 2016 through 2017 were previously disposed of (though, of course, at that time there was no FOI request to review them).
Chief of Police John Sullivan claimed the department does have a copy of the civilian complaint aimed at Wydra, which will be provided to Dunn as soon as Town Attorney Sue Gruen has reviewed the document along with all other files requested by the commissioner. “We’ve given everything to Sue Gruen,” he said.
Wydra was also involved in litigation over excessive use of force in 2008, though the plaintiff, Robert Tagliaferi, ultimately agreed to drop the federal lawsuit for a monetary settlement.
Tagliaferi, who has been imprisoned for burglarizing Hamden residences, claimed he suffered head lacerations, traumatic brain injury, partial loss of vision and permanent scarring from the incident, according to this New Haven Register article. He also alleged supervisory liability against Wydra’s brother, the then-chief, for failure to properly train his officers to prevent excessive use of force.
“There was no finding of wrongdoing, and in many cases like this, settlements are made as a cost-saving measure,” Chief of Staff Sean Grace said to the Independent on the matter.
The mayor’s recent promotion of Wydra prompted Dunn, who located evidence of the past records described above, to question the intent behind destruction of public documents and affirm the importance of maintaining and reviewing officers’ past files.
“It’s important that we have a process with integrity,” he said of hiring and promoting within the police department. “It’s important that the sworn officers we have can’t act with impunity. The records that were destroyed were records of the public. They weren’t the police’s records, they weren’t the commission’s records, they were records generated by the public and entrusted with the town.”
Because the deputy chief position is a non-union role, it is up to the Legislative Council rather than the Police Commission to vote on whether or not to approve Wydra’s promotion.
“If the Legislative Council is doing their job, they will thoroughly review this appointment and question the record, question the previous behaviors and come to the right decision,” Dunn said.
Garrett Weighs In On Shredded Documents
Also Thursday, Garrett released the following statement about the revelation — described in this article — that Hamden police shredded over 100 internal reports after a police commissioner filed a Connecticut Freedom of Information Act request to view them.
The availability of public documents under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) serves a critical role in ensuring trust in public institutions. I was alarmed to learn Thursday that, after certain documents were requested by a member of the Police Commission under FOIA, the Police Department sought permission to destroy those documents from the state Freedom of Information Commission. Those documents included citizen complaints, and though we still have most of the requested documents, the timing of this request gives an appearance of impropriety.
The situation frustrates me because I take our obligation to be transparent to the public seriously. Before the destruction of records can lawfully occur, the Town must obtain permission from the State of Connecticut. The application process for such permission involves the Chief of Police, the Mayor, and the Connecticut State Library. These permissions are not intended to override state regulations concerning record-keeping, record retention and FOIA requests, but only to certify when certain records can be disposed of consistent with those regulations.
I have ordered an immediate stop to any further destruction of records town-wide while I review and initiate policies and procedures to ensure that requests for documents for destruction are communicated openly between Town and State officials, and to make sure that Hamden complies with record-keeping and record retention laws and also with the Freedom of Information Act. Effective immediately, I have ordered that a copy of each civilian complaint made to the Police Department be provided to the Mayor’s Office upon receipt. My office is committed to preventing any recurrence in the future.
We will continue to communicate with the Connecticut State Library, the agency that authorizes record destruction, as well as with the Freedom of Information Commission, for counsel and guidance in order to ensure that the Town of Hamden is in full compliance with these important laws.
