The Legacy of South Windsor's Deputy Chief Richard Riggs

Richard Riggs, the outgoing deputy chief of the South Windsor Police Department, has received numerous awards and accolades during his 34 years of service with the town.

Indeed, he is the recipient of the following:

• a Special U.S. Congressional Recognition Official Certificate;

Riggs has also been credited with saving a woman’s life during a medical call, delivering a baby and apprehending four murder suspects. He’s rescued a suicidal person who was about to jump off a bridge; he subdued a person wielding a knife and apprehended a number of other robbers, burglars and fugitives.

Yet in speaking with Riggs about those situations, he views himself almost as a fungible commodity. As in, any South Windsor police officer would have responded in the same manner he did.

“I happened to be the person who handled the call,” Riggs said in a telephone interview last week. “Any number of officers would have done the same thing in an equally professional manner. I try to stress that as much as I can. Whether you’re in South Windsor, or New York or Los Angeles. [Police officers] try to do the right thing for their communities or states. It’s a very difficult job at times.”

So it isn’t surprising that Riggs doesn’t view the individual awards and achievements as the real legacy that he leaves behind at the department.

Instead, it’s the time he had in help training his fellow officers - the “coaching and the mentoring,” as he puts it - in which he takes the most pride.

When a new officer is hired, he or she must go through four months of field training with an experienced officer before the new hire can ride on his or her own.

Chief of Police Matthew Reed said that Riggs has served as the field training officer for more South Windsor officers than anyone else in the history of the department.

It’s a role that Riggs relished.

“When you are in field training, you get to know the other person,” Riggs said.

Riggs was Reed’s FTO 25 years ago.

“He has such a great personality,” Reed said. “He’s incredibly competent and he knows the town’s history. He knows the people in the department, he knows all the people in the town.”

And while Riggs also has an encyclopedic knowledge of police procedure and state statutes, it’s his sense of humor and his humanity - treating people with respect and dignity - that is his greatest asset, Reed said.

“I learned from him, but we also laughed a lot,” Reed said. “In this line of work, it means a lot.”

Reed said that the officers he’s trained in the field were both educated and entertained.

“His breadth of knowledge in procedure and the law is remarkable,” Reed said.

What also means a lot to Riggs is the job itself. Police work isn’t what people see on television or in the movies, he said.

“People don’t appreciate what the men and women in law enforcement do on a day to day basis,” Riggs said. “People don’t appreciate the demands on law enforcement. It’s not car chases and action-packed. Oftentimes it’s hurry up and wait.”

But, in those times when and officer is called upon, the job can be incredibly stressful.

Yet even after 34 years on the job, he says that he is - even on the eve of his retirement - still learning.

Riggs recalled a conversation he had with an officer when he was an Explorer in East Hartford.

“I asked [the officer] when you are no longer considered a rookie,” Riggs said. “And the officers said, ‘Never. You are always learning things.’ That stuck with me. And it’s something that’s been repeated to me by seasoned officers through the years.”

Riggs said that whenever he encountered an issue he hadn’t handled before, he always had his peers to collaborate with.

Riggs is mum on what he is going to do after his final day on Aug. 9, only to say that he is looking into another opportunity in the field of criminal justice.

“The timing is right for the department and for me in my personal life,” Riggs said.

And here’s the trick when it comes to Riggs’ retirement. While it’s a huge loss for the South Windsor Police Department, it just means someone will be able to step up and take Riggs’ place. It’s something that he’s been training his fellow officers to do for years and years.

Reed said that the department doesn’t suffer from “Irreplaceable Syndrome.”