The North Haven Police Department (NHPD) responded to 28,900 calls for service in 2021, a 27 percent increase compared to the average of the previous five years. Chief Kevin Glenn has already seen a similar start to 2022 as “our calls for service are trending high.”

In addition to the increased calls for service, Glenn and the NHPD faced several other challenges. COVID continued to cause issues as the staff of the NHPD was affected with “many positive cases” and response procedures continued to be modified in order to help protect officers from unnecessary exposures.

“One of our biggest challenges in 2021 was addressing concerns over COVID-related issues. This was external and internal,” said Glenn. “A second challenge was the increase in overall crime as nearly every crime category was up compared to previous years.”

Glenn faced these challenges as a new police chief, taking over for Chief Thomas McLoughlin, who retired at the end of 2020. Captain Edward Remington retired at the end of 2021.

“This created vacancies in our command staff allowing for several promotions and on-boarding of new staff,” said Glenn.

Looking at the year ahead, Glenn is looking to re-engage with the community as COVID allows. Prior to the COVID shutdown, the NHPD had planned to hold the first citizen police academy in North Haven in more than 20 years.

“We are hopeful to be able to host this program in 2022,” said Glenn. “We plan to partner with the North Haven School System and Quinnipiac University more to engage our younger population. We also plan to increase our recruitment efforts to encourage more people to seek a career in law enforcement.”

The biggest highlight of 2021 for the NHPD was being awarded the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) for the second time. CALEA was created in 1979 as a credentialing authority through the joint efforts of law enforcement’s major executive associations.

“The CALEA Accreditation program seals are reserved for use by those public safety agencies that have demonstrated compliance with CALEA Standards and have been awarded CALEA Accreditation by the Commission,” said Glenn. “We are proud to say we are one of only 21 municipal agencies in the state that have earned this accreditation.”