Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 3/16/2022
TOLLAND – The Tolland Police Department has a new chief starting this week, after the retirement of former Chief Ed Deming.
Westfield Police Officer Steve Carrington, a Tolland resident, is taking Deming’s place. Carrington said that the timing just worked out for him as he sought to step away from the Westfield police after a 28-year career.
“With my retirement coming, it just so happened that their chief was retiring, so I applied for the position,” said Carrington.
He will continue working as a patrolman with the Westfield Police Department until August. The position of chief in Tolland is a part-time job, with Carrington only on the clock for eight hours a week, so he can balance the two until that time.
Carrington began his new job March 1, though he already knows the community, having lived in Tolland for the past four years. He said he grew up in small communities like Tolland, and always preferred them over larger ones. He and his wife also run Summit Kennels, a dog boarding business in Tolland.
Carrington reflected on his nearly three decades with the Westfield police, and said that he was grateful to have been given opportunities to take part in different types of policing over his career.
“As an officer I had a lot of chances for specialty assignments like bike squad and ATV squad, and five years as a K-9 officer,” said Carrington. “Westfield as a police department is a great place to work, and a good community.”
Tolland will be a different type of community to police than Westfield. Westfield has an estimated population of a little over 40,000 people. In Tolland, the population is 471 as of the 2020 census, the smallest town in Hampden County by population. The department employs five part-time officers.
“There is more community policing,” said Carrington.
Though he is only paid for eight hours a week, Carrington said he expects to be on the job practically 24 hours a day, seven days a week