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All New Canaan Police Officers To Start Using Body Cameras within Two Weeks

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All New Canaan Police officers on patrol will be wearing body cameras within about two weeks, following a trial run of several months with one of the department’s seasoned officers, the chief said. Designed to help officers do their jobs and to show, if not ensure, that officers are carrying out duties appropriately, the FirstVu-brand body cameras are being purchased with donations as well as state funds and through the regular budget process, officials say. “From beginning to end, they will show exactly what happened and what was said and done,” Police Chief Leon Krolikowski said. “I have great faith in our officers, that they make the right decisions, and these [body cameras] are out there for the best interests of everyone.”

New Canaan ranks among the first municipalities in the area to introduce the technology, the chief said. Officer Ron Bentley, a 1994 New Canaan High School graduate and longtime assistant coach of the Rams varsity baseball team, has been testing the FirstVu model and said “it’s a fantastic tool.”

“It’s good for both me and it’s good for the public,” Bentley said.

News

New Canaan’s Bentley and Silvestri: A Diamond Reunion

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The New Canaan Rams baseball team has something special going this season, with a deep and balanced roster that has them sitting near the top of the FCIAC. What many may not know is that there’s also something special within head coach Mitch Hoffman’s staff in 2014, as longtime assistant coach Ron Bentley has been reunited with an old friend: first-year assistant baseball coach Chris Silvestri. “It’s nice to see Ron every day,” Silvestri told NewCanaanite.com. “A lot of memories come back when I’m with him.”

The memories stretch back about 30 years, when the two first became childhood pals at East School. The bond grew stronger as Bentley and Silvestri progressed through Saxe Middle School and on the youth baseball and football playing fields, with both blossoming into excellent–but very different–athletes at New Canaan High School.