Roll Call held by Sgt Michael Livingston 2022
Circa 1958-
There was no single police presence in the Town of Redding before 1958. Redding, like many Connecticut towns at the time, was part of the general patrol of the Connecticut State Police which were headquartered in nearby Ridgefield CT (Troop A). The first police officer to provide dedicated law enforcement services to the town was CSP Trooper Walter Benz. He generally worked out of his home on Iris Lane (Redding Ridge). Trooper Benz served the town alone for nearly a decade before a second Trooper, Louis Pinto, was added to the assignment. The two Troopers provided services to the community for almost a year before town leaders determined that a greater level of police service was needed. The area was growing rapidly at the time and many neighboring communities were moving away from the State Police model of policing.
In 1967 the town of Redding hired its first two Redding Police Officers. On October 20, 1967 Officer Henry Rasmussen and Officer Jack Schmidt joined Trooper Pinto in providing law enforcement services to the residents of Redding. This hybrid policing relationship, referred to as the Resident Trooper Constabulary Program, would continue for thirty-three years before a 1998 emergency call initiated a greater community conversation about the town’s emergency services.
By 1998 the Redding Police Department had grown to eleven full time officers with its own dispatch center. A State Police Trooper was assigned to oversee the operations of the department. The management of this particular emergency response prompted town administrators to assemble a public safety committee to study all of the town’s emergency services. After three years of study, the townspeople voted on February 7, 2002 to establish a police department independent of the State Police.
On July 1, 2002 Lieutenant Douglas Fuchs of the Ridgefield Police Department was appointed as Redding’s first Chief of Police. Redding Police Corporal John Leonard was shortly thereafter appointed to Second in Command and the two took their places as the new managers of the autonomous Redding Police Department.
The department has seen many changes since the days Officer Rasmussen and Officer Schmidt donned the first Redding Police uniform. National events, industry mandates and increasing service demands have driven the evolution of the department. Today the department is a State Accredited agency providing Redding’s residents with a full complement of professional services.
Chief Mark O’Donnell has been leading the police department since 2018.
