Garcia, 2 other insiders finalists for Bridgeport’s top cop

BRIDGEPORT — What was billed as a wide-ranging search for a new police chief has resulted in three homegrown finalists from within the department, including Acting Chief Rebeca Garcia. 

On Wednesday the mayor’s office and personnel department announced an outside consultant had whittled down the list of 27 candidates who applied by the July 14 deadline to Garcia, Captain Lonnie Blackwell and recently-retired Captain Roderick Porter.

Porter had been one of three finalists in the last search for a top cop in 2018, but Mayor Joe Ganim at that time instead picked good friend and then-Acting Chief Armando Perez, who two years later was arrested by federal authorities and convicted of cheating to become a finalist.

Ganim as a result of Perez’s arrest in September 2020 put Garcia, the assistant chief, in charge. Then this past spring the Ganim administration hired the International Association of Chiefs of Police to oversee the new hunt for a permanent head of the police force. According to the timeline, the association was to forward three finalists to the mayor by Sept. 16.

According to the statement released Wednesday, there will be a 30-day appeal period for rejected applicants.

“Mayor Ganim will announce in the coming weeks a public process that will unfold following the 30-day appeal period which will include community, stakeholder, City Council, and administration input prior to his final selection,” the statement read.

City Council President Aidee Nieves, who has previously said she would like to see an outsider in charge of the department to reform it, said, “I am surprised that we did not have at least one outside candidate that made it. I’m not surprised with the three candidates from within that made it. The three candidates who have come out have been known to excel in exams (and) have a history of coming up on top of any exam they’ve taken.”

She added, “Whatever candidate becomes the chief should be able to, one, work fostering better community relations, two, address morale issues and intradepartmental conflicts that have caused splinters within this operation and three, have a strong plan on retention of quality officers.”

State Rep. Steve Stafstrom, D-Bridgeport, had also publicly stated the force needs an outsider as chief.

“In an ideal world, particularly if there’s going to be a public engagement process (with the finalists), I would have liked to hear from some outside voices on ways to improve efficiency and morale in the department,” Stafstrom said Wednesday. 

But Rev. Stanley Lord, head of the local NAACP branch, disagreed, saying “the community wanted somebody from the community.”

“To have three candidates from the community is a positive and a big step forward,” Lord said. “We’re looking to working with the administration as we come together to select the next chief.”

All three of the candidates have something else in common — a history of making news for incidents within the department.

Blackwell in 2016 while head of the department’s police academy was demoted from lieutenant to sergeant after being accused of being involved in the February 2015 dissemination of a racist letter targeting black police officers.

On Feb. 9, 2015, then-Officer Clive Higgins, who is black, reported finding the letter in his work mailbox. The letter, which was on city letterhead and circulated around the police department, made negative comments about African American officers and complained that Higgins, who is Black, did not belong on the force.

The discovery sparked calls for an investigation by the NAACP and national organizations of African American police officers, and the state police launched an probe.

Higgins later confessed that he wrote the letter after being caught on surveillance video typing the letter at the Police Department.

But following his arrest, Higgins accused Blackwell of ordering him to write the letter to “bring attention to the department with respect to ongoing racial complaints,” according to the arrest warrant affidavit.

Blackwell publicly denied Higgins’ claims but was placed on administrative duty by then-Police Chief Joseph Gaudett in December 2015. Higgins pleaded guilty, but Blackwell was never charged.

Then in November 2016, Gaudett’s successor, Perez, demoted Blackwell.

Perez admitted at the time that there was no credible evidence that Blackwell directed the writing of the letter, but he said Blackwell violated department rules for the way the letter was reported to authorities.

Blackwell filed a discrimination lawsuit  against the city in late 2017. At the time his lawyer, Thomas Bucci, said, “My client was placed on administrative leave for a year and then demoted, and by any measure or standard that was excessive. We are seeking to reverse the demotion and recover monetary damages for excessive discipline by the chief of police.”

In January 2019, the city agreed to settle the lawsuit with Blackwell. As a result of the settlement Blackwell was promoted to captain.

As for Porter, this past July a federal judge threw out a discrimination lawsuit he filed against the city.

Porter had claimed the city engaged in racial discrimination when it failed to promote him on three occasions: first, when Ganim chose Perez over Porter as acting chief in early 2016; second, when Ganim chose Perez over Porter for the permanent chief position in November 2018; and third, when Ganim chose Garcia over Porter as acting chief in September 2020.

During a hearing before the judge, Ganim testified that his two decisions to promote Perez over Porter reflected his “best judgment.”  He said his decision to make Perez the permanent chief was based on a variety of factors including Perez’s “experience in the position as acting chief of police for the city of Bridgeport, community input, and input from department heads.”

In December 2019, Garcia, then a captain in charge of the police academy, was appointed assistant chief by then-Police Chief Armando Perez.

Garcia was made acting police chief following the arrest of Perez by the FBI for conspiring with former City Personnel Director David Dunn to rig the examination process that made Perez chief and lying to the FBI about it. Perez was later sentenced to a year and a day in prison and Dunn  was sentenced to four months in prison after they pleaded guilty in federal court.

In November 2021, Superior Court Judge Barry Stevens ruled the city bypassed more qualified candidates when it appointed Garcia assistant police chief.

The city’s appeal of that ruling is pending.