Nora Grace-Flood
Town Clerk Karimah Mickens swears in Wydra.
Elijah Gomez.
Timothy Wydra began a two-step ascension to the top of police department — and invoked the murder of 15-year-old Elijah Gomez in promising to tackle gun violence.
Wydra made that promise as he was sworn in as the department’s new deputy chief Wednesday morning at a ceremony in Town Hall. He is expected to then become the department’s acting chief on Monday upon the retirement of Chief John Sullivan
The ceremony took place two days after Gomez, a 15-year-old Hamden High student, was shot to death walking home from school along the Farmington Canal trail.
Timothy Wydra, who has worked in the department for 29 years, stood with his wife, twin brother and two children inside Memorial Town Hall on Wednesday morning as he mourned the tragic loss of ninth-grader Elijah Gomez — and noted his own promotion to the highest ranks of the police department.
State and local elected officials gathered to support the swearing-in of Wydra, the identical twin brother of past Hamden Police Chief Thomas Wydra.
Wydra kept a focus on the teen murder during his formal remarks at the ceremony.
“Elijah Gomez was taken from us in a vicious and cowardly act of violence,” Wydra said Wednesday while his own son, a West Haven cop, stood by. Wydra asserted that the incident should serve as an incentive for the police department to focus their energy on creating new strategies to “protect our greatest assets, our children.”
He had no new information into the current investigation of who killed Gomez. Hamden and New Haven police have been following up on leads in the case the past two days.
Wydra's son, Brian, pins on his father's new badge.
State Sen. Jorge Cabrera also spoke at the event, acknowledging the communal “hurt” caused by the killing of Gomez.
“We have to find new ways and new strategies to keep our young people safe,” he said, “to make sure our children have productive, safe places to be.”
He expressed confidence in Tim Wydra’s leadership, encouraging Hamdenites to trust in the new deputy chief.
Following the announcement of Police Chief John Sullivan’s retirement on Monday — the same day that Gomez died — Mayor Lauren Garrett said that if and once the Legislative Council confirmed Wydra’s promotion, she would name him acting chief of police in Sullivan’s absence. The council approved the appointment of Wydra on Monday of this week, and Sullivan’s retirement will be made effective this coming Monday.
Retired Police Chief Thomas Wydra with twin brother, and new Deputy Police Chief, Tim Wydra.
Wydra has quickly risen through the ranks this past year, stacking up promotions in the wake of other officers’ retirements. In November, Wydra was promoted to captain when both of the department’s deputy chiefs retired. Garrett then waited five months to name a new deputy chief, finally selecting Wydra with the intention to ultimately have him fill in as chief with Sullivan gone. (Read more about Wydra here.)
“This appointment was challenging for me,” Garrett said Wednesday. “I put it off for a little bit because it was very important.”
Taking her time, Garrett said, “made me very confident in this decision.” Wydra has “experience working in every bit of the police department,” she noted, referencing his track record as a SWAT team commander, hostage negotiation unit commander, field training office program coordinator, active shooter instructor and less lethal instructor.
Wydra told the Independent that “success” within the Hamden Police Department means “reducing crime and reducing the fear of crime” and ensuring that “our residents — our stakeholders — have confidence, faith and trust in our police department.”
“I’m a very hardworking individual, and I’m going to work even harder, as hard as I’ve ever worked,” he said, with the aim of establishing “police legitimacy” by inspiring trust, confidence and transparency.
Wydra said he hopes to accomplish those goals by growing police presence in areas prone to crime (like the Hamden Plaza, he said), pushing community programs to better engage youth and residents alike with policing and public safety efforts, and establishing a stronger system of communication between the department and the Police Commission, a volunteer advisory body.
Tensions have been high between the commission and the department lately, with commissioners calling out the police department for shredding unsubstantiated internal affairs investigations while an FOI request to review them was pending.
“I look forward to collaborating with them and finding out what they wanna see in a police department,” he said. “Our doors are open here, and I’m willing to talk with everyone who wants to listen.”
Wydra’s brother, past chief Thomas Wydra, said he appreciated that the administration hired internally rather than looking to bring an outside officer into the role, arguing that doing so would increase solidarity and familial feel within the police department. He said a strong sense of cohesion within the department translates to more trust among residents.
Since he has left the job, Wydra said, the onset of the pandemic has posed new challenges for police.
“It’s caused all sorts of struggles,” he said, leading to increased crime and gun violence.
However, “mitigating violent crime always remains the most difficult” issue facing police officers, Wydra maintained.
“Policing in a democracy is an ongoing, never ending experiment,” he said, “We do our very best to come up with a mixture of strategies and initiatives … reaching out to every member of the community is vitally important.”
Another issue which changed during the pandemic, he said, is the public’s trust in police.
“Trust ebbs and flows, it can change based on one incident,” he said.
The decision to promote his brother, Wydra said, was an important move to regain trust following recent local incidents and ongoing conversations around police accountability.
“He has the trust and confidence of the men and women of the agency, and he’s earned it.”
“This is a merit based promotion if nothing else,” he said.
The murder on Monday afternoon was a “really senseless” act, Thomas Wydra said. “It’s precisely during times like this,” he said, that communities depend on solid leadership.
“I know this is gonna sound biased,” he said. “But you found the best pick.”
I was considering moving to Hamden, as was a family member. But given the increase in crime, AND high taxes compared to other towns, we both bought houses elsewhere. I also no longer go to the Hamden shopping plazas after a number of robberies with injuries over the past year. The idea that people have taken to throwing older women to the ground, leading to serious injuries including hip fractures, is really unsettling. Though it is true that crime is up in a lot of places, Hamden has suffered disproportionately. And now a young man, just out of middle school, shot while walking home from school. Sad.