The Town Council Monday night gave the Board of Police Commissioners the go-ahead to ask Attorney General Richard Blumenthal to review allegations concerning Police Chief Jack Daly. The allegations are contained in a complaint filed with the commission by the police union on Dec. 30.
The council approved the commission's request after Town Attorney Mark Sciota advised the commissioners to contact a state agency regarding the union's complaint.
"This thing is taking on a life of its own," Town Council Minority Leader Michael A. Riccio said. "We felt we should step back and get an independent look at it. We hope everything comes out fine and we get a fresh, clean look at it."
Riccio and two other Republican councilors sent out a statement Monday morning urging their colleagues to initiate an investigation of Daly.
"I believe it's a unified council that supports this," council Chairman John N. Barry, a Democrat, said at the meeting. He said an independent review would be the best for the community, the chief and the rank and file of the Police Department. "(The state) will conduct an investigation that's nonpartisan and with someone not involved in the day-to-day activity" of the department.
Members of the police union allege that Daly has violated the department code of ethics, department general orders and, possibly, state statutes. Stephen Salerno, president of the Law Enforcement Alliance of Southington, called for an investigation of the complaint by an impartial organization from outside the town.
The complaint alleges that Daly let his children wander unsupervised through the police station and crime scenes with complete access, brought his wife on liquor-control operations, allowed his wife to get shooting instructions from a department instructor on overtime and removed a tarpaulin at the scene of a fatal auto accident to show his wife the body.