Paul Bass Photo
After 25 years serving the city, Lt. Marty Tchakirides is handing in his stripes — and making way for a new top cop in Westville and West Hills.
That is one of two changes of the guard taking place in New Haven’s community-policing districts.
Tchakirides (pictured at Tuesday morning’s weekly police data-gathering CompStat meeting, where he reported on the theft of a 15-year-old fridge from an unsecured garage) retires at the end of the month. Starting next week he’ll help Sgt. Renee Forte, a two-time Independent “cop of the week,” take over the policing district, which includes Westville and West Hills. Sgt. Joshua Armistead will continue serving as number-two in command of the district, including overseeing the night shift.
Before running that district, Tchakirides supervised downtown and Wooster Square. (Click here to read a story and watch videos demonstrating his calm personal touch with the public.)
“It was a nice career,” Tchakirides told his colleagues at CompStat. “I’m going to miss everybody here.”
Also this month, a new district manager is coming to the Dwight/Kensington neighborhood: Sgt. Stephan Torquati will replace Sgt. Rob Criscuolo, who is moving over to a citywide traffic supervision slot. The district also includes the West River area.
Forte with her former partner, Bitang.