(The following was a statement provided by Newtown Police Chief Michael Kehoe at the Board of Police Commissioners regular meeting Tuesday, September 1, 2009.)
This statement is provided to the Newtown Board of Police Commissioners (Board) to update them regarding the Newtown Department of Police Services’ involvement in the recent events of the Municipal Animal Control Officer (MACO) position. Over the past several months the Board has most likely heard and read various opinions and accounts of the proceedings surrounding the MACO. To your credit you have remained silent and supportive of the Newtown Department of Police Services (NDPS) since the initiation of what I consider to be a substantial investigation by the NDPS of Newtown Animal Control Operations. Your patience and understanding is highly regarded and appreciated.
It is unfortunate after over 30 years in Newtown Law Enforcement that I have to publicly address this matter because of disparaging and intimidating statements, gossip, ill-informed comments and falsehoods directed at NDPS. This statement is not intended to be political but is a factual based statement.
The NDPS is inherently apolitical and strives to uphold those virtues. The men and women who make up the NDPS are committed and dedicated to these ideals. The MACO situation was and is a personnel matter that warrants certain elements of confidentiality and sensitivity. This statement will honor those principals. The facts stated throughout this document are a matter of public records.
Throughout the 6 months of the MACO proceedings, the NDPS has conducted itself in the most professional and credible manner possible in spite of criticisms, innuendos, rumors, ill-informed comments and fabrications of the facts.
The true facts are that in March of 2009, a courageous Town employee brought to the attention of the Town of Newtown, irregularities in Newtown Animal Control operations that compromised public safety and compromised law enforcement credibility and integrity. Subsequently, the NDPS undertook a massive and comprehensive investigation. At the same time the investigation was commenced, the NDPS was given the full duties and responsibilities of animal control operations in Newtown. Until this point in time, the NDPS was minimally involved with animal control operations, having supervisory oversight of its law enforcement functions only.
The Office of the First Selectman responded appropriately due to its general duty to protect the public. The Office of First Selectman was genuinely concerned with the public’s safety and with the reliability within Animal Control Operations. The Police Department’s response was outstanding. Numerous man-hours were spent examining a myriad of animal control investigations, documentation, and paperwork. This investigation was in addition to the other duties and responsibilities that investigators had and were already over-burdened by.
In addition, Police Department personnel reviewed all operational systems of Animal Control, had to reinstate proper procedures and protocols, and formulate new and efficient animal control methods. This was necessary to restore and enhance proper, effective and appropriate public safety measures and animal control operations for the community.
During this transitional period, Animal Control Operations under the strict control of police personnel, operated smoothly and successfully. This was due in no small part to the policemen and policewomen who were assigned those added duties and responsibilities of animal control. These efforts were somehow lost in the inordinate amount of communications that maligned the NDPS and its personnel.
We must not also forget Animal Control personnel that were called upon to fill in vacated MACO hours and tasks. Assistant Municipal Animal Control Officer Matt Schaub and Kennel Keeper Amy Andras performed remarkably and professionally.
As a result of the massive review and investigation of these irregularities, public safety was restored. The investigation led to the MACO being brought up on charges which included falsification of records, failing to enforce animal control provisions of Connecticut General Statutes, and mismanagement of the animal control functions.
After a duly provided hearing, the Board of Selectman’s finding of “clear, significant and serious deficiencies” in the performance of the MACO ranging across “a broad range of the duties and responsibilities of the position of Municipal Animal Control Officer” stood out as acceptance of the investigation. This ruling led to a suspension without pay of three (3) weeks for the MACO. This decision was due to the professional investigation of NDPS personnel.
The Board of Selectmen’s decision came with a mandate to guide and train the MACO as deemed appropriate by her supervisors. This edict again fell upon NDPS personnel to formulate a training plan for a Town of Newtown employee, who was not under the strict supervision or management of the NDPS. Numerous meetings were held and research was conducted. A comprehensive training plan was developed by police staff outlining the areas that the MACO needed remediation in.
While in training, the MACO received full-time duty status and pay. This training process/protocol is similar and not unlike other training protocols police officers receive. The training plan incorporated all aspects of appropriate learning methods; visual aids, audio/communicative techniques, and kinesthetic learning tools. Police staff identified three main areas for remedial training that became apparent with our review and investigation of the irregularities surrounding Animal Control Operations: report writing, knowledge of the law, and proper animal control management practices and protocols. All of these topics are a significant part of the MACO’s primary duties and responsibilities.
Again, police personnel conducted the training in the most professional manner possible, not forgetting, that police personnel were still managing Animal Control Operations and assisting in delivering Animal Control service to the community. The training occurred in the lower level of 3 Main Street where the MACO would not have the distractions of a busy police facility or the distractions of the Animal Control facility. The lower level of 3 Main Street houses staff associated with Social Services, Parks and Recreation, and building maintenance. In addition, because of serious space considerations, the Borough room was the only available quiet room.
The training plan’s goal was to the extent possible, a daily and weekly evaluation of the MACO’s skills, knowledge and abilities in a broad range of duties and responsibilities that the MACO had been deemed deficient in (as outlined the Board of Selectmen’s modification motion). The MACO’s progress by order of the Board of Selectmen, must be “clear, significant and sustained” in all of the duties and responsibilities of the position of Municipal Animal Control Officer. Holding to the “spirit and intent” of that very clear charge, and understanding that returning an employee with “clear, significant and serious deficiencies ranging across a broad range of MACO duties and responsibilities” back to work without clear, significant and sustained
improvement, could expose the Town of Newtown and the NDPS to civil liability. The Town of Newtown could have been potentially exposed to civil charges ranging from Failure to Train, Negligent Retention, Failure to Discipline, Negligent Supervision, and other Vicarious Liability statutes.
Police staff put together customized plans that included but were not limited to the following training strategies: one-to-one instruction of all 65 animal control laws; self-development of check off lists of significant animal control calls-for-service; self-development of proper animal control procedures; sustaining improvement of report writing in relation to investigative activities; and review of police practices, policies, procedures, rules and regulations affecting animal control operations.
The progress of the MACO’s training and our ability to guide the MACO in self-directed educational processes, dictated the duration of the training. The training was based on accomplishing the educational goals as outlined above, until such time the MACO showed clear, significant and sustained improvement in all of the duties and responsibilities of the position of MACO, which followed the true spirit and intent of this very clear charge. By in large, the duration of the training and guidance provided by staff further strained the available and diminished resources of the NDPS.
Throughout the training, the MACO was continuously assessed for sustained progress and significant improvement. Updates of the MACO’s progress were relayed to the Office of the First Selectman and individual members of the Board of Selectmen. The highest principals of the NDPS were brought to bear on the appropriate training and guidance that was provided. Trading these principals because of politics, popularity, angry unapprised residents and numerous faulty letters drafted to various papers would have been unwise and certainly not in the best interest of the Town. In addition, to articulate the reasons for the lengthy training period that seemed to be a topic of great debate would violate the principals of employee confidentiality and sensitivity.
As this Board is keenly aware of, I do not have any power to terminate employees, whether they are police personnel or Town of Newtown employees. Those responsibilities lie with the Board of Police Commissioners, The Office of the First Selectman, and The Board of Selectmen. The men and women of this agency deserve the utmost credit for performing in manner befitting their professional status in the Town of Newtown during the last 6 months.
In closing, I would recommend to the Commission that they take proactive steps with other elected officials to rectify a flawed system where police personnel do not have full supervisory responsibility over other Town employees. The clear lack of a Chain of Command combined with flawed supervisory responsibilities compromise our ability to properly oversee the MACO position and its operations.
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