NewCanaanite.com (https://newcanaanite.com/tag/leon-krolikowski/page/4)
Very soon, hundreds of New Canaan students will move to a nearby city or across the country to pursue their studies. Becoming independent almost overnight comes with specific risks and responsibilities. Street crime is on the increase in most large United States cities. Crime is also growing on campuses and in small communities. No college is immune to crime.
Police say a compact SUV was reported stolen Sunday from the driveway of a Cheese Spring Road home. The 2014 Audi Q5 had been left unlocked with the keys inside the vehicle, according to a press release issued by Police Chief Leon Krolikowski.
Reported stolen at 7 a.m. on July 3, the vehicle was seen on video surveillance being driven out of the driveway at 4:15 a.m. that day, the press release said. It was recovered about 24 hours later, at 5:45 a.m. on July 4, in Waterbury, according to Krolikowski. “There was no damage to the vehicle and it was found locked, but the car keys were not in the vehicle,” he said in the press release. Police received four reports of stolen vehicles in May, according to data released by Krolikowski at the June meeting of the Police Commission.
In the wake of the May 24 school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, New Canaan Police are requesting $110,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds in order to increase the presence of officers in public and private schools in New Canaan. Dedicated school resource officers or “SROs” already are assigned to Saxe Middle School and New Canaan High School, and NCPD has “liaison” officers at all schools in town and trainings for officers within schools, Police Chief Leon Krolikowski told members of the Police Commission at their June 15 regular meeting.
Yet the elementary and private schools in New Canaan “do not get a whole lot of police presence,” Krolikowksi said at the meeting, held at NCPD headquarters and via videoconference.
The chief said that given the school shooting in Uvalde, where 19 students and two teachers were fatally shot, he re-wrote a request for ARPA funds for the Police Department—originally a request for public education and enforcement for stolen vehicles and thefts from vehicles, a portable finger-printing device and secure cabinets—to hire an officer to check on each school every day. The program would start in August when the new academic year begins and run through the 2022-23 school year, Krolikowski said. It likely would be an assignment covered by multiple officers and ideally would yield 16 additional school checks daily, he said. The $110,000 allocation “would allow us to fund that and hire an officer dedicated just to patrolling and checking through all of the schools and that would be their sole focus,” he said.
Police say they’ve received several reports of thefts from vehicles in New Canaan, as well as at least one stolen car, within the past week. On Monday, officers responded to Locust Avenue on a report of a stolen 2022 Nissan Rogue, according to a press release issued by Police Chief Leon Krolikowski. The vehicle was recovered Tuesday in Ansonia, undamaged, and with the key fob inside, the press release said. Also on Monday, officers responded to a construction site on Lakeview Avenue to investigate the theft of tools, it said. On Saturday, a West Road resident called police to report a set of golf clubs that had been stolen from their garage, Krolikowski said in the press release.
On May 30, Memorial Day, we honor those veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice by giving their lives for our great county. Memorial Day honors their service and sacrifice. Nearly 850 Veterans are buried in Lakeview Cemetery. Before Memorial Day, New Canaan war veterans distribute poppies to honor the ultimate sacrifice of our nation’s veterans. The significance of the poppy in honoring our nation’s war dead is traced to World War I.
From the battlefields of World War I, weary soldiers brought home the memory of a barren landscape transformed by wild poppies, red as the blood that had soaked the soil.