News

‘I Was Meant To Be Here For a Reason’: New Canaan Police Capt. Vincent DeMaio To Retire At Month’s End, Begin as Clinton PD Chief

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Growing up in Stamford, Vincent DeMaio’s dream had always been to work for the Connecticut State Police with the agency’s Troop F in Westbrook. A 1985 Westhill High School graduate (he had spent three years at Wright Tech) who went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Connecticut, DeMaio only took the New Canaan Police Department test 27 years ago because he had a buddy who didn’t want to sit the test alone. “He prodded and prodded, and finally I gave in and did it,” DeMaio recalled Wednesday afternoon. In the end, though his pal didn’t end up getting hired, DeMaio landed a job as a New Canaan police officer. That was in 1989, and he’s been serving the department ever since.

News

‘It’s Beyond Our Control’: No Ready Solution To Morning Traffic Back-Up from NCHS Parking Lot

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Town officials, after receiving a resident’s complaint about traffic backed up on Old Stamford Road at Farm Road in the mornings, reached this conclusion: There’s no feasible solution to the problem, short of an expensive New Canaan High School parking lot redesign for which no one has an appetite. Police sent a shift out to investigate the complaint and what the officers discovered is that “it’s not a timing of the light issue,” Capt. John DiFederico said during the Police Commission’s Nov. 18 meeting. “What the issue is, is that there is a very short period of time—maybe 15 minutes—when there is so much volume going into the high school that it backs up all the way down Farm Road so there are cars that cannot turn from Old Stamford Road onto Farm,” DiFederico said at the meeting, held in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department. “It has nothing really to do with the light and it has nothing to do with us—it’s just a poorly designed high school parking lot which makes ingress of vehicles so difficult for those 15 minutes.”

A big part of the problem, Police Capt. Vincent DeMaio said, is that the lot is designed so that kids park at the far side—to the right of the access road as you come in—so that they then must cross the road in order to get to the building, which holds up traffic.

Government

More ‘No Parking’ Signs Coming To Church Street

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Saying motorists are veering into the oncoming lane to avoid cars parked along a bend in the road, officials are installing two ‘No Parking’ signs on Church Street. The Police Commission voted 3-0 at its Nov. 18 meeting to install the signs on the north side of Church Street around where Green Avenue comes into it. Police Capt. John DiFederico said that on the straight sections of Church Street, parked cars are “not much of a problem, but on that curve it’s a real hazard.”

“[The commission] voted last year to designate ‘no parking’ on the south side of Church Street because there’s a curve there and what was happening was that cars were parked along the curve and cars going around them would go across the center line,” DiFederico said at the meeting, held in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department. “Now they’re parked right on the apex of that curve but on the north side and there are vehicles there all day—I think there is a house under construction, so there are constantly vehicles parked right on the curve.”

Motorists still will be allowed to park on the north side of the street along the straight sections of the road.

News

Police: One Gang Likely Committed 18 of 20 Illegal Car Entries Last Week

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Police say last week’s overnight thefts from unlocked cars throughout New Canaan—including one instance where a Range Rover itself was stolen, with a Waterbury teen later arrested for that—represents what is likely a gang-related crime spree. In all, 20 vehicles were entered overnight on July 7 to 8 (18 total that night) and again on July 8 to 9 (two more), according to New Canaan Police Capt. Vincent DeMaio. Police saw a concentration of those entries on River Street, lower New Norwalk Road, Brinckerhoff Avenue and Mortimer Street, and Four Winds Lane and Ponus Ridge, DeMaio said. Detectives have processed more than six of the entered vehicles, swabbing for DNA, and will send test samples to a state laboratory in order to find out if there’s a match, he said. “We feel there was a number of individuals who came into town that night and were working together,” DeMaio said.

News

PHOTOS: New Canaan Police Welcome Two New Officers

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On Wednesday morning, at Lapham Community Center, Kelly Coughlin and William Sheehan were officially welcomed as new officers in the New Canaan Police Department, following a swearing-in by the Town Clerk. They were two of 140 applicants to be selected by NCPD. They were given badges numbered 168 and 169, respectively, by Police Chief Krolikowski. Coughlin is the first woman officer the department has hired in about eight to 10 years, officials have said. After this week, they will both go to the CT Police Academy for about six months of training.