Brookfield Police Chief Dan Faustino receives a retirement gift from the Brookfield trustees. Shown are, from left, Trustees Dan Suttles and Shannon Devitz, Faustino and Trustee Mark Ferrera.
Although Dan Faustino is the fourth generation in his family to enter the police service, it was not a foregone conclusion that that was the career path he would choose.
“As a kid, it wasn’t my plan,” said the just-retired Brookfield chief of police. “I was planning on an interest in a park-ranger-type scenario. Then, you end up in the military and end up in a police-type job.”
He ended up where he was supposed to be, he said.
Faustino, whose last day was June 30, leaves behind 33 years of full-time service to Brookfield, 29 as chief. Although he grew up in Vienna and Liberty, he knew a little bit about Brookfield when he started working here. He remembers helping his grandma and an uncle with newspaper delivery routes that included Brookfield, and his father, Fred, captain of detectives at Liberty Police Department, would stop at the old Brookfield police station on Route 7 in Brookfield Center to say hi to the Brookfield cops.
Faustino’s mom, Carol Morris Faustino, was a Trumbull County sheriff’s deputy and dispatcher. She would bring him to work at the old sheriff’s post on Route 7 in Brookfield, where the county home once was, when she couldn’t find childcare. The sheriff had a mounted unit at the time and would keep the horses there.
Faustino, 61, served in the air force from 1981-84, and was first hired as a part-time patrolman in 1985 under Brookfield Chief Jesse Riggleman.
“He just had a good bunch of guys here,” Faustino said.
Faustino left to work for Weathersfield but stayed in touch with the guys in Brookfield.
“I came back and talked to (Chief) Tom Jones and I really liked Tom,” Faustino said. “Nice guy, comfortable. They offered me part time to come back and that worked into full time.”
Faustino started working full time in 1991. He quickly earned a reputation as, as one cop put it, a “drunk cop,” meaning a guy who could detect drunken drivers. Although Faustino said he doesn’t remember having such a reputation, he acknowledged that working midnight turn put him in a position to encounter drunken drivers, and society was putting more of an emphasis on stopping drunken driving, which resulted in more police training on the detection and apprehension of impaired drivers.
As chief, he has strived to have the department “well taken in the community; that is, a balance of your community policing while keeping the enforcement and always giving the residents here the best that we can at the lowest cost,” Faustino said.
“It’s hard because you have to look at the safety of the officers,” he said. “It took us years trying to get us where we should have two officers all the time. But, trying to keep that … costs go up.”
The trustees have soundly praised Faustino’s handling of department finances. It’s something he had to learn, he said.
“I just know to look out,” Faustino said. “I always take other people’s property and their money and probably treat it better than my own.”
Faustino credited Ed Manion, who was township clerk when he was named chief, with educating him on how to handle money.
“I’m definitely not an expert at it but worked hard to make sure the funds that were there were spent properly,” Faustino said. “What we needed we got. We didn’t go get fancy stuff.”
Faustino, who patrolled the streets many times after becoming chief when there was a staffing shortage, said he believes the values he has stressed, the fiscal responsibility, the empathy for the people the police come in contact with and the sense of community service, has been instilled in the department.
“You have good staff here, good leadership,” he said. “The things we’re getting done – the carport and the updates here, the finances, the fleet – I’m not leaving because it’s a train wreck. I’m leaving because I feel good. I’m in a good place.”
Aaron Kasiewicz, who has been with the department since 2005, is the new chief.
Faustino plans to take on “A lot of projects that were put off because of obligations here, time spent here. A lot of catch-up on stuff, spending time with granddaughters and family. Where I haven’t had time for family, I have a lot of make-up time to do.”
Faustino is married and has one son and two granddaughters.
“It’s been a pleasure serving everyone. Lot of years here. More than half my life at this place. It’s been nice working with the people, the officers over the years, just meeting all the residents. How do you put a price tag on that?”
For those interested in Faustino’s family’s record of police service, one great-grandfather, Ambrose Perkins, was Youngstown police chief in the early 1900s, and another, Benjamin Morris, was Mahoning County sheriff in 1919-22. His grandfather, Vernon Morris, was a Mahoning County deputy sheriff in the ’60s, and a cousin, Fred, was a Broward County, Fla., deputy sheriff in the ’80s. The line of service ends with Dan Faustino.
