Department History

No history of a law enforcement agency can be complete without an historical perspective of the community that it serves.  It is in fact the nature and character of a community that defines a police department's mission and style of policing.

During the colonial era, present day Bloomfield was part of what was known as the Wintonbury Parish.  Wintonbury was in fact a combination of the names of three existing towns; Windsor, Farmington and Simsbury.  Wintonbury Parish came into official existence in 1735 upon being granted a charter by the Connecticut state legislature.  Over the years Wintonbury began to be unofficially referred to as Greenfield.

In 1835, the town incorporated and adopted the name Bloomfield.  Bloomfield's town seal incorporates symbols which speak to its past and reveals the contributions the town made in the founding of our nation.  During the American Revolutionary War, there were only two manufacturers in the colonies that were capable of producing quality muskets for the Continental Army.  Bloomfield was home to a clandestine musket factory and would one day have a street, Gun Mill Road, named for it.  The British located the original mill and burned it to the ground during the war.  A new foundry would be built deeper in the Bloomfield forests and would continue to produce muskets throughout the balance of the war.  Bloomfield’s Brown Brothers produced all of the Continental Army’s drums.  Originally the drums were built on the present day Brown Street.  For security reasons, the drum shop was moved to the present day Drummer Trail. In 1943 Bloomfield was predominately a farming community.

Police services were provided by a single constable, and later by a small number of part-time constables.  The town fathers petitioned the state legislature to revise its charter.  It was recognized that with the end of World War II, twelve million service men and woman would be returning home and the country would experience unprecedented growth.  The demands on local governments would increase, including those for police services.  Hartford Police Officer Thomas P. Bowen was hired by the town to oversee a committee of local residents seeking to create the local police department.  The committee labored for two years to complete its mission.  In October 1945, a special town meeting was called.  The committee was disbanded with the official creation of the Bloomfield Police Department.  Officer Bowen would be named the Department's first police chief and would serve in that capacity until 1947.

By 1955 the department had grown to five-full time and thirteen supernumerary (part time) officers supported by a full time clerk and a policewoman.  By 1975 the department employed 40 full-time sworn officers, 6 supernumerary officers, 4 auxiliary officers, 2 dispatchers and 3 civilian employees.

Today, the department's authorized strength is 46 sworn officers, 7 dispatchers, an animal control officer and 6 civilian employees; serving a community of approximately 20,000 residents.

The department is also an active participant in shared police services.  Bloomfield Officers are assigned to specialized units, including Narcotics Enforcement, Fatal accident reconstruction, SCUBA, Emergency Services and others. These officers work with officers from other local, state and federal agencies to provide specialized services to the Bloomfield residents and many others.

 

Department Links:

Links to other Bloomfield Police Department pages can be accessed by placing your cursor over the "police" tab to the left.  A list of department links will populate.  Select the page you wish to visit.