Ansonia was on edge as summer drew to a close.
A serial burglar had been plaguing the city’s hilltop neighborhood, committing a series of audacious break-ins in the wee hours of the morning, in some cases while residents were home.
But the spree ended one morning in September after a Derby resident reported a burglary in progress — and a detail of Ansonia cops assigned to the case had the suspect in cuffs within minutes.
The arrest was one of more than a dozen acts of meritorious service performed by Ansonia police recognized Tuesday during the department’s 14th awards ceremony at the high school.
But as many noted during the event, the routine duties cops are called on to perform every day can mean just as much in the long term.
“Without knowing it, you’ve made a difference in the lives of so many people,” Police Chief Kevin Hale told officers. “You have chosen the noblest path and the greatest profession in the world.”
Derby Superior Court Judge Theodore Tyma, a guest speaker for the event, said there simply isn’t “a more difficult mission, higher form of public service, or profession more deserving of our deepest respect than that of a police officer.”
Tyma went on to recall the story of the city’s first police chief, Daniel Hayes, who was killed in the line of duty two days before Christmas 1880 while trying to arrest a man who had fired a gun in a saloon.
Nearly a century and a half later, Tyma said, police have the same mission, but are faced with “greater scrutiny and challenges than ever before.”
Phipps Award Of Excellence
The department’s highest honor — the Brian F. Phipps Memorial Award of Excellence — went to Detective James Frolish.
Phipps was a retired Brigadier General in the United States Army National Guard and a Vietnam War veteran who served as a Police Commissioner in Ansonia for 13 years before his death in 2006.
Officers who show qualities similar to Phipps — honor, loyalty, dedication, honesty and professionalism — are considered for the award, with nominations coming from the officers themselves.
One measure of his Frolish’s loyalty and dedication, Chief Hale pointed out — the detective is recovering from surgery but still made a point to attend Tuesday’s ceremony even though he didn’t know he was going to be honored.
In his 15 years with the department Frolish has matured into a “smart, assertive go-getter,” Hale said.
“Jimmy is becoming a tremendous detective,” the chief said. “He’s really grown into the role. You can see his dedication tonight. He can barely walk but he wanted to be here.”
Awards For Outstanding Performance
For their chasing down and arresting the alleged serial Hilltop burglar last summer, Officers Peter Lovermi Jr., Matthew Diaz, and Mark Guillet were presented with departmental citations, and Officer Barry McMahon received a certificate of recognition.
Other awards and citations awarded Tuesday:
- Officers Joshua Roussel and Steve Martins received certificates of recognition for their arrest of a man caught stealing scrap metal from a Main Street construction business last January.
- Officer Joseph Jackson received the department’s Life Saving Award — the fifth of his career — for rescuing a man who had had a seizure and fallen into a pond near North Main Street and West Brookside Avenue Nov. 7, 2014.
- Officer Paul Smith received a Life Saving Award for rushing to the address of a 73-year-old woman who was not breathing one night late this February. Smith performed CPR on the woman and EMS arrived on scene soon after, and were able to regain a pulse.
- Detective John Rafalowski and Officers Kevin Coonan and Peter Lovermi Jr. received Distinguished Service Awards for their pursuit and apprehension in August 2014 of a man accused of pulling a gun on another officer the week before. Officers Joseph Jackson also received a certificate of recognition.
- Officers Michael Colwell and Richard Esposito received departmental citations for their arrest of a man found to be in possession of drugs and a loaded handgun during a September 2015 motor vehicle stop.
- Officer Peter Lovermi III was given the department’s Medal of Exceptional Service for risking his life while responding to a fatal July 2015 fire on Colony Street.
- Sgt. Alex Barreira, Detective James Frolish, and Officers Matthew Diaz, Michael Sterling, and Peter Lovermi III received departmental citations for their the investigation of and arrest of a suspect in an assault last July that left a man brutally beaten.
- Lt. Andrew Cota, Sgt. Alex Barreira, Detectives James Frolish and Gerald Tinney, and Officers Richard Esposito, Barry McMahon, and Nathan Anderson received certificates of recognition for their efforts in the safe resolution of a standoff at the Beaver Brook Apartments last May.
- Officers Michael Colwell and Joshua Roussel received Distinguished Service Awards for an incident in April during which they apprehended an armed man wanted by Bridgeport cops for assaulting his ex-girlfriend.
- Officers Richard Esposito and Edward Magera received departmental citations for arresting a drug dealing suspect in the Riverside Apartments on Olson Drive last November.
- Officer Joseph Jackson received a Distinguished Service Award in connection with a harrowing incident on the Maple Street Bridge in February 2014 during which he shot an armed hit-and-run suspect, who is now serving a four-and-a-half-year prison sentence.
- Years of Service Certificates were presented to Chief Kevin Hale, Lt. Wayne Williams, Detective Sgt. Patrick Lynch, Sgt. Christopher Flynn, Detective Gerald Tenney, Officer Nathan Anderson, Sgt. Edward Henry, Officer John Fitzgerald, Detective James Frolish, Officer Phillip Landona, Sgt. Alex Barreira, Officer Edward Magera, Officer Michael Barry, and Officer Richard Esposito.
Others on hand for Tuesday’s ceremony included Mayor David Cassetti, a former police commissioner and himself the son of an Ansonia cop, who thanked officers for “the sacrifices each of you make every day.”
Members of the Board of Police Commissioners, Aldermen, school board, fire department, Ansonia Rescue Medical Services, and state Sen. Joseph Crisco and state Rep. Linda Gentile were also present.
Torin Bourke, a seminarian at the Church of the Assumption, offered an invocation, and Rev. Alfred Smith of Macedonia Baptist Church closed Tuesday’s ceremony with a benediction.
