A city police officer resigned Wednesday — hours before he was set to appear before the police commission and potentially be fired for allegedly violating department policies around motor vehicle chases and insubordination.
The officer who resigned is named Trevor Canace.
According to the agenda for Wednesday night’s special meeting of the Board of Police Commissioners, slated to take place at 6 p.m. online, Police Chief Karl Jacobson had recommended that Canace be terminated following two Internal Affairs (IA) investigations.
On Wednesday afternoon, Jacobson told the Independent that Canace has officially resigned — and therefore won’t go up for termination proceedings after all. Police union attorney Marshall Segar also confirmed Wednesday that Canace had resigned.
Jacobson said that Canace, who joined the local police department in June 2020, was the subject of seven different IA investigations for local department policy violations that took place between March 2023 and April 2024.
Six of those cases were initiated by the chief, and one was initiated by a civilian.
Jacobson said that all seven allegations of wrongdoing were sustained by IA — and that they involved violations of the department policies around vehicle pursuits, motor vehicle stops, insubordination to a supervisor, and transport.
He said that Canace was up for termination Wednesday night on the last two of those seven IA cases, both of which involved vehicle pursuits.
“We’re never happy to do this,” Jacobson said about recommending that an officer be fired. He described this case as “an example of us policing ourselves.” He praised police supervisors for flagging Canace’s problematic behavior on the job, leading to the internal investigation and subsequent chief’s recommendation that he be terminated.
Jacobson also said that Canace has been “off the streets” since April of last year as the IA investigations took place.
Police union representatives did not respond to a request for comment by the publication time of this article, and Canace could not be reached for comment.
State law stipulates that, if a police officer resigns amidst an active investigation into alleged misconduct, then they cannot work as a police officer in any other department elsewhere in Connecticut. They can, however, try to get a job as a police officer outside of Connecticut.