Bristol Police Chief Eyes Hiring Up To 20 New Officers

Justin Muszynski, The Bristol Press

BRISTOL, CT — Bristol police Chief Brian Gould is calling on certified police officers to step up and put their name into the hat for the potential 20 officers the department is looking to hire.

Gould’s request comes on the heels of the police department and the community as a whole still grieving the loss of Lt. Dustin DeMonte and Sgt. Alex Hamzy at a phony domestic violence incident on Oct. 12, when the men were ambushed and a third officer was injured but still able to take the one shot that put an end to the slayings.

“As we move forward, we have to rebuild,” Gould told a room full of media members at the Bristol Police Department late Wednesday morning.

At the present, the police department – which is allotted for 122 police officers – has about 90 deployable officers, with more in the police academy still going through training and some injured, which includes Officer Alec Iurato who was shot in the leg before killing the man who gunned down DeMonte and Hamzy.

“What I’m looking to do is over hire,” Gould said, adding that, by doing this, the department won’t reach its capacity just to see it fall right back down through attrition.

The police chief said he’s hoping to hire anywhere from 10 to as many as 20 police officers in the near future. The positions will be open to anyone, though Gould said he’s calling on certified officers to step up and apply.

The average citizen hired to become an officer needs six months of training at the police academy before about 12 weeks more of field training with the Bristol Police Department. By the time a new hire is ready to go out and patrol by themselves, Gould said, it takes about a year from the time the candidate was hired.

Certified officers, however, can be ready to patrol on their own in about four to six weeks, sometimes less, Gould said. This is the main reason the chief is calling on individuals who have already been certified as a police officer to consider working for the Bristol Police Department.

Gould added that he’s working with Mayor Jeffrey Caggiano on the logistics of over hiring, saying that the mayor has been very helpful and cooperative.

Gould and Caggiano on Wednesday said they could not provide any updates on the investigation into the shooting committed by Nicholas Brutcher, who was 35 years old when he called 911 to report a phony domestic violence incident before ambushing the responding officers. That investigation is being conducted by the Connecticut State Police and the Office of the Inspector General.

Sources with knowledge of the investigation have indicated Brutcher had at least one interaction with police prior to the ambush. This occurred at Bleachers Bar on Middle Street, which is less than a mile away from the shooter’s Redstone Hill Road residence where the slayings occurred.

Sources say Brutcher’s car may have been towed, though it has not been made clear whether that occurred outside the bar or at an entirely different location – leaving the possibility that the shooter may have had more than one interaction with police before he made the decision to kill multiple police officers.

The closest Gould got to speaking about the investigation on Wednesday was saying there was nothing DeMonte or Hamzy could have done to prevent getting killed.

“They were completely ambushed,” Gould said.

“There was nothing they could do at that moment,” the police chief said.

Gould also said the police department has not changed any of its policies concerning an officer’s response to calls for service, including those considered domestic violence. The chief said he will have to await the results of the investigation before discussing any policies in the future that could help keep police safer.

In the meantime, Iurato remains off duty, though Gould said he’d prefer to be back with his fellow officers at the Bristol Police Department.

“If it was up to him, he would be working right now,” Gould said of Iurato.

“Officer Iurato is a true hero,” the police chief said, adding that he expects him to begin taking on in-house responsibilities with the police department “rather quickly” before he ultimately returns to a patrol position.