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08/01/2018 08:30 AMIn his 27 years of service on the Police Board of Commissioners, including 10 years as chair, Joe D’Errico, Sr., has seen (and started) some significant change in the police force. With the completion of his latest effort, having an officer stationed in each North Haven public school, Joe offered his resignation from the board on July 5.
“When I became the chairman for the Board of Police Commissioners with former chief Jim DiCarlo, First Selectman Mike Freda, and myself, we took the North Haven Police Department from Mayberry, USA to one of the top police departments in the area,” says Joe. “I think I’ve done an awful lot. It’s just time for me to move on. Twenty-seven years I’ve given to this town [on the Board of Police Commissioners], 34 years [total] I’ve given to the town.”
D’Errico moved to North Haven in 1965 a few years after marrying his wife Rosalie (1960). Together, they have three boys, Joseph Jr., Kenneth, and Robert, who were all raised in the town. It didn’t take long for him to become involved in town governance.
“I joined the Republican Party in 1970 and joined the Republican Town Committee in 1971, 1972—sometime around there during Walter Gawrych’s administration,” Joe says. “After a period of time I was on the town committee, they asked me to be on the Parks & Recreation Commission and I became the commissioner on the Parks & Rec Commission, that was for six or seven years.”
After that, a spot opened up on the Police Board of Commissioners, an elected office, though Joe first came into the position in a different manner.
“First Selectman Anthony Rescigno said there was a desk on Board of Police Commissioners,” Joe says. “One of the commissioners had passed away and he asked me to fill out the rest of his term.”
The plan was, according to Joe, that the town would select someone else in the next election.
“Needless to say, they decided to run me and I’ve been there for the last 27 years,” says Joe. “I just became a regular commissioner and learned from other commissioners on the board at the time and Paul Abercrombie, who was the chair of the Board of Police Commissioners at the time.”
When Abercrombie passed on, he Joe took over as chair. During his time as chair, Joe says he was instrumental in several advancements of the Police Department and the town.
“When Mike Freda became first selectman, I got the first dog [for the Police Department]. Shortly after...I got a second dog,” he says. “I started a program, we never had a dog before. And I’m one of these people that goes on the website a lot for the FBI and I learned that most departments have a police dog and they’re a big asset to the communities. You always need a good police dog.”
They started with a German shepherd and through his research Joe found that yellow labs are also well suited as police dogs. His achievements don’t stop there though.
“I was instrumental in getting the SWAT Team together and doing the Regional SWAT Team,” he says.
He also helped the North Haven Police Department become certified by Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement (CALEA).
“We are one of 17 departments in whole state of Connecticut [that has been certified] and I initiated that program as well,” he says. “We were just certified last year.”
Toward the end of his term, he shifted his attention to a national issue: school shootings. The inspiration came when he was watching a broadcast about a school shooting that took place in Maryland in March.
“That there struck a chord in me,” he says. “We only had one resource officer, which we had in the high school.”
That one officer in school was a project that he himself had initiated years ago.
“I said, ‘It’s time,’” he said. “I got up at 2 or 3 in the morning and put together a program.”
Afterwards, he called First Selectman Mike Freda and together they went over his plans before bringing it to the chief of police. Now, Joe says, there’s a cop in every school in the Town of North Haven.
“I’m very happy that it passed as a town ordinance,” says Joe.
That was his final project—for that board. Now, he is working at the recycling center in town four hours, four days a week to keep himself busy. He says he like seeing people there.
“I love this town, this is my town,” Joe says. “It’s just a great place to raise your family, you’ve got great people that live in this town.”