Hamden Police Chief Retiring

Hamden Police Chief John Sullivan is retiring after a quarter-century with the department, effective next Monday.

Mayor Lauren Garrett confirmed the news Monday afternoon.

She said she will work with the Legislative Council to create a search team and list guidelines for the process.

In the meantime, Timothy Wydra — who is scheduled to be promoted Monday evening to the position of deputy chief — will serve as acting chief until a new chief is found.

“We didn’t expect to have to make this decision so soon,” Garrett said.

Sullivan could not be immediately reached for comment.

The changing of the guard in Hamden occurs as New Haven, too, is in the process of searching for a new chief. Its acting chief, Renee Dominguez, is expected to leave her post this week, with New Haven Chief Administrative Officer Regina Rush Kittle under a tentative plan is expected to run the department pending the hiring of a permanent new chief, although that information hasn’t been publicly announced or confirmed.

Sullivan’s retirement comes at a time of transition in Hamden. A new slate of Democrats came into office last fall promising, among other goals, increasing police accountability in response to protests over the past two years. Most recently a newly appointed police commissioner, Daniel Dunn, requested years of civilian-complaint records through a Freedom of Information Act request — and over 100 documents were subsequently shredded. (Read about that here.)

Sullivan has been with the force for 25 years. In a recent interview, he said he decided as a Hamden High student that he wanted to pursue a policing career. He saw it as a way​“to help people.” He pursued a double major in criminal justice and political science at University of Connecticut, then returned home to work for the Hamden PD. 

Over that time Sullivan has worked in pretty much all aspects of the department. He returned to Hamden High — as the first ​“school resource officer,” a position now at the center of debates over student safety. He worked in patrol, in narcotics, as night-shift supervisor. 

The assignment that may have best prepared him for his current job, Sullivan said, was in the ethics and integrity unit — aka, internal affairs. The job where you sometimes have to get your friends in trouble if they mess up.​“You deal with a lot of personnel issues” as chief, he said.

Over the past year he has been working on a community policing effort based on a model developed by Camden, N.J., and bringing cops together with developmentally disabled youth, among other initiatives.​“We want to engage with the community” to find ways other than arrests to solve problems, he said.