Fairfield plans police town hall on Saturday

FAIRFIELD – The city of Fairfield is putting on a town hall Saturday where residents can ask questions about the police department.

The event will be at the Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts inside the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center and last from 9-11 a.m. It will be broadcast on Fairfield Media Center's YouTube page at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkxMAcMgEuc

Residents will have a chance to submit questions either in person or by commenting on the YouTube page.

The town hall will feature Mayor Connie Boyer and Police Chief Dave Thomas on stage, where Boyer will direct questions to Thomas. Some of them will be her own, and some will come from the audience and online viewers.

Boyer said the idea of a town hall featuring the police has been more than a year in the making. When Boyer won election in 2019, she announced a plan to hold a community forum once every quarter to educate residents about local government and discuss topics important to them. Boyer was able to organize a forum on 5G cellular technology in February, but that would be the one and only forum in 2020 as the coronavirus nixed plans for large gatherings.

'Looking back, we could have done them over Zoom, but the whole idea was to get people closer to their government, and that's much better to do in person,” Boyer said. 'But I think we're ready to move forward now. Those who feel comfortable to come in person can, and those people who want to watch it from home can do that, too.”

Boyer has been wanting to do a town hall with the police ever since a string of burglaries hit the town in 2019 that included businesses such as Fairfield Golf & Country Club, La Hacienda, Eagles Club and four others.

'It was taking some time to get some forensic evidence before an arrest could be made, and people were complaining,” Boyer said. 'You can understand that, but once they understand the process and the challenges the police department faced waiting on crime labs, they will see there was nothing much we could do until we got more evidence.”

Boyer said she hopes the town hall will give the police a chance to explain how investigations are conducted, why they take time, and how police prioritize calls from the public.

Boyer said she's planning to ask a few questions of her own. One concerns loose dogs, since she knows of several occasions where a dog attacked a person or another dog without provocation, and she wants to hear how the police will address it.

The Fairfield Police Department has already done some community outreach to educate the public about its procedures. Boyer noted police had a meeting with representatives of Maharishi International University, including its president and dean. MIU leadership is planning to have Chief Thomas visit the campus to address the students, especially the international students, about what's expected of them and what rights they have.

Boyer said the police want to continue their outreach to young people, too, 'to know not to be afraid of police because they're here to help.”

'That middle school age is when things can turn the corner, and we want as many students as possible on the right path for their life,” Boyer said. 'Dave has stories of people who have turned their life around, and it's heartwarming to hear those stories.”