HARTFORD, Conn. — The capitol city has a new top cop. The city council met Monday night and confirmed Jason Thody as Hartford’s new Police Chief. Thody has been the Assistant Chief of Police. Then he was tapped as Interim Chief in April of 2019 and said he’s been hoping to step in permanently ever since. Chief Jason Thody may have a new title, but he’s not new to the department. He’s served on the Hartford police force since 1996.
“One of the first things we will do now is to put a command staff in place,” said Thody. He plans to fill open positions with diverse hires.
“Shows that we reflect the community that we police,” he said.
We asked the Chief about his plans to curb issues of crime that plague most major cities, like gangs. He said he will leverage community partners and initiatives like project longevity.
“Find ways to disrupt that. On one side, that’s offering services.” And on drugs and the opioid crisis. “We cannot arrest our way out of that problem. I think it’s predominantly a mental health crisis.”
The Chief said he will bring community policing back to basics to continue developing trust with city residents.
“Make sure that more of our officers understand that they need to engage in community oriented policing and the way I’m going to do that is you aren’t going to have the same community service officer in the same neighborhood for 10 years,” explained Thody.
We asked him, does he believe there is an inherent racial bias in the criminal justice system?
He said, “When you look at incarceration rates vs the population I don’t think there’s any way to deny that there is a correlation there.” He said that Hartford has in place — implicit bias training.
On the topic of police misconduct investigations, should they be handled internally or independently?
The chief said, “I have no doubt that the Hartford Police Department is capable of doing their own misconduct investigations…I also think that oversight is good.”
Chief Thody said they’ll continue to train in de-escalation, using deadly force as a last resort:
“I think the best way is preparation. The next best thing is making sure you have sound policies, sound training, good technology and you are prepared to avoid those use of force and especially deadly use of force encounters whenever possible. But when the do occur, you have to have a thorough review process and you have to have accountability.”
Thody wasn’t the only one who got a new job title. Mayor Luke Bronin’s Chief of Staff Thea Montanez was promoted to Chief Operating Officer.