Nov. 19--BRISTOL -- In the latest sign of transformation at the police department, the city has promoted two officers who aggressively pursued investigations that contributed to ousting a troubled administration.
Dozens of detectives, patrol officers and supervisors applauded at a ceremony at headquarters Friday when Detective Lt. Thomas Grimaldi was promoted to captain and Lt. Kevin Morrell was promoted to detective lieutenant.
"We're moving forward with the police department," Mayor Art Ward said.
Grimaldi will command the patrol division, the largest division in the agency. Morrell will direct 21 detectives in the investigations, narcotics and evidence units.
Chief Eric Osanitsch called it a proud day for the department that he took over last winter. Ward appointed Osanitsch when the city pushed Chief John DiVenere out of the job following years of scandals and embarrassments.
Despite budget constraints and manpower shortages, patrol officers have said morale is up sharply under the widely respected Osanitsch. After the ceremony, Morrell and Grimaldi said they agreed with that assessment.
"We're a totally different department than we were," Morrell said.
"There's a vision now for what we want to do," Grimaldi said. "We're not there yet, we're a work in progress, but there's a completely different feeling here now. People want to come to work. The ability of our officers was never in question, but now we have the leadership and direction."
Over the past six years, Morrell and Grimaldi headed investigations that revealed misconduct and patterns of high-level mismanagement. Their work made them unpopular with most of the command staff at the time, and DiVenere at one point tried to push Grimaldi from internal affairs investigator into a third-shift patrol supervisor's job. Most of the senior commanders from that period have since resigned or retired.
Prominent among the people celebrating at the ceremony Friday was Bryce Linskey, who retired earlier this year as sergeant and took a police job in Burlington. Linskey had incurred the wrath of DiVenere and then-Capt. Daniel Britt by going public with accounts of police misconduct, including stories of Britt's driving recklessly or drunk and then using his rank to avoid punishment. Much of the department initially shunned Linskey, but gradually shifted to support him as evidence emerged that he was right.
"This department has never been as good as it is right now," Linskey said.
Copyright 2011 - The Hartford Courant, Conn.
