Cost Will Depend on Results of Legislative Session
By Wiley Wood

Voters will face a choice at Norfolk’s town meeting on May 11 whether to renew the resident trooper contract for another two years.

Under Governor Malloy’s proposed budget, the state will no longer subsidize 30 percent of the cost as in past years. If the governor’s measure passes, Norfolk will pay $186,000 for a resident trooper. At 70 percent, the cost will be $130,000.

In a tight budget year, some at town hall are looking closely at what Norfolk gets for its money. The state provides police protection for towns, whether or not they are enrolled in the resident trooper program.

“At full price, the trooper alone is over half a mil,” said Michael Sconyers, chairman of Norfolk’s Board of Finance. The tax rate is currently at 22 mils, and half a mil represents $146,000 in tax revenue to the town. “If we don’t have a trooper at all, we not only can give the selectmen some money to fix potholes, but there’ll be a tax decrease,” said Sconyers at a recent budget meeting.

The resident trooper is an employee of the state, although the town carries the costs of his salary, expenses and benefits. Troopers generally work an eight-hour day, five days on and three days off. At night and on the trooper’s off-duty days, Norfolk is covered by Troop B barracks in Canaan or Troop L barracks in Litchfield.

While the resident trooper spends most of his active-duty time in his assigned town—Norfolk’s trooper, Greg Naylor, has an office in the new ambulance building—he can be called to a neighboring town in an emergency. According to Sgt. Shane Hassett, a public information officer for the Connecticut State Police, the trooper returns to his town after providing initial back-up and is not assigned primary investigative responsibility for the incident.

“The resident trooper is the point of contact for all law enforcement activities in the town,” says Hassett. “He takes an ownership interest in the community.”

Canaan has a resident trooper, as do Barkhamsted, Litchfield, Salisbury and Kent. Colebrook and Goshen do not. Winsted has its own police department.

In Colebrook, says First Selectman Tom McKeon, the resident trooper is not missed. “If we have a recurring problem, I can call Troop B in Canaan, they’ll put it on their log, check into it periodically,” said McKeon. “We did have some break-ins at one time, but thanks to Greg Naylor, the guy is in jail now.”

Naylor, once a resident of Colebrook, now lives in Falls Village. He received a Connecticut State Police medal for his investigative skills and has been unusually successful at solving residential robberies. “He is like a dog with a bone,” says First Selectman Sue Dyer. Naylor made the arrests in the copper downspout thefts of 2013, matching boot prints in the snow with the suspect’s footgear.

He also takes part in D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) for sixth-graders at Botelle School, where he gets to know the community’s pre-teens. “My kids love him,” says a Norfolk parent.