News

‘She Even Had a Bottle of Water for Me’: Letters of Appreciation for New Canaan Police

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Police Chief Leon Krolikowski on Wednesday night spotlighted some of the outstanding work of the department’s officers. During the Police Commission’s regular meeting, he cited a series of letters of appreciation from the community. 

“I think it’s important to better recognize the good work of our officers which we do not do often enough,” Krolikowski said at the meeting, held in the New Canaan Police Department. 

He added: “I’m sure myself and on behalf of the Commission, we should extend our thanks to all of our officers for the work that they do. We are about to enter into budget season when we are talking about statistics and numbers and costs and some things are difficult to measure, and these letters that we get are the kinds of things we should be highlighting.”

Here are excerpts:

Officer Roy Adams

“I am writing to express my wife’s and my own thanks and gratitude to your Department and especially to your officer Adams … On July 18th at around 7:30 a.m. my wife fell in our apartment at The Inn where we reside. While unhurt, she was unable to get up on her own even with my insufficient strength to help (we are 92 and 94 years old)—911 was called. Officer Adams showed up first, took in and evaluated the situation.

Animal 411

New Canaan Police, Wilton Vet Aid Mead Park Snapping Turtle with Fishhook Caught in Its Mouth

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New Canaan Police and a Wilton-based veterinary group this weekend worked together to ensure the safety of a large snapping turtle at Mead Pond that had a fishhook caught in its mouth. At about 12:40 p.m. on Saturday, the police department’s Animal Control section received a flurry of calls regarding a large snapping turtle in the middle of Richmond Hill Road, according to Officer Diane Apicelli. Arriving, Apicelli said she found a crowd gathering around a 33-pound snapping turtle with an 18-inch long shell. Police Officer Dave Rivera was directing motor vehicle traffic around the turtle that clearly had a fishing lure caught in its mouth, according to Apicelli, of the Animal Control section. She crated the turtle and transported the reptile to South Wilton Veterinary Group, which “has a wonderful ‘exotic animal’ veterinarian on staff,” Apicelli said.

News

New Canaan Police Seek Permission To Acquire Labrador Retriever As Second K-9 Dog

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Saying it would bolster the town’s efforts to rid New Canaan of drugs such as heroin, police on Wednesday proposed acquiring a second K-9 dog for the department. A Labrador retriever’s work would include drug detection and tracking—much as the dog in place since last summer, Apollo the German shepherd, performs those duties and additionally is trained for patrol and apprehension—and also would boost the department’s community relations, K-9 Officer David Rivera told members of the Police Commission at their regular meeting. “A lot of times when I do demonstrations, I restrict people petting him [Apollo]— that is just me being a good handler to the town,” Rivera said at the meeting, held at NCPD headquarters. “That being said, getting Labrador retriever, all the kids would be able to pet the lab and we would be in a really great position to provide this community with something that a lot of communities do not get, and that is interaction with police officers.”

He added: “I feel we have an opportunity in working in one of the best police departments in the state of Connecticut to have the best K-9 program. What would really help with combating the heroin epidemic and drugs we see coming into the town would be the implementation of another K-9.”

The police department’s K-9 program is paid for entirely out of a private fund that’s supported by donations.

Animal 411

‘He’s Eating Well’: New Canaan’s Pet Pantry Feeds NCPD K-9 Dog Apollo

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Since the New Canaan Police Department acquired its new K-9, Apollo, one year ago, and especially since the German shepherd dog started working at the July 4 Waveny fireworks, the animal has assisted in drug arrests, pursued burglars, trawled the high school for narcotics and searched for missing people. The dog works up a healthy appetite doing all that work, and requires a nourishing, nutritious diet to stay sharp, according to K-9 Officer David Rivera. And since Apollo started in the job, his food has been 100 percent provided for by a local business: Pet Pantry on Grove Street. “It’s very convenient. It’s awesome,” Rivera said from outside the business on Monday that he visits regularly to pick up Apollo’s Orijen-brand food.

News

Police K-9 Unit Sweeps New Canaan High School for Heroin, Other Drugs in Training Exercise

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New Canaan Police K 9 Apollo at NCHS
The New Canaan Police Department’s newly deployed K-9 unit swept through New Canaan High School’s hallways Wednesday morning, sniffing lockers during a demonstration and training exercise that could yield a more regular effort to use the drug-sniffing dog to combat substance abuse among local youth. Apollo, a German shepherd dog that since completing training in July has worked throughout town with NCPD Officer David Rivera—making his public debut at the Family Fourth at Waveny and already helping police with drug arrests in town—spent more than one hour sniffing lockers up and down NCHS hallways. The keenly sensitive, drug-sniffing dog successfully detected marijuana and heroin planted by NCPD officers during a tightly controlled test, and is able additionally to detect crack-cocaine and cocaine, among other drugs, Rivera said. “Once he tells me he is entirely sure, that’s when I am good with it,” Rivera said during the session, as a leashed Apollo in sweeping the lockers throughout the hallways stopped and lay down in front of those where School Resource Officer Jason Kim had planted the drugs as a test. Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi, Police Chief Leon Krolikowski and NCHS Principal Bill Egan followed Rivera and Kim through the school.