Deputy Chief Davis reports homicide arrest, staffing shortfalls and $1 million traffic-enforcement grant at Middletown commission meeting

Deputy Chief Davis told the Middletown Police Department Public Safety Commission on May 18 that officers arrested a suspect “in cuffs, in custody within 2 hours” of a shooting in Hartford and quickly resolved a separate threatening incident involving a facsimile firearm.

“The family was very appreciative,” Davis said of officers who responded to a rollover crash; he also singled out Officer Spencer, who will receive a state-level photographer/"officer of the year" recognition this week. “We had a homicide…We had the suspect in cuffs, in custody within 2 hours of that shooting up in Hartford,” Davis said. He added that a threatening incident involving a facsimile firearm was “resolved within 20 minutes and had 2 brothers in custody as well.”

The department reported operational pressures: overtime was up because officers have been training on a new firearm platform, and the department is short-staffed with two officers on workers’ compensation and a net loss of five officers. Davis said the department hopes to send one officer to the academy in August or September. He also said the crisis-intervention team’s caseload and overdose calls have increased.

Davis gave activity and community-engagement highlights, saying the department handled 5,263 calls for service, up from about 4,600 in March, and that downtown quality-of-life issues had increased in the North End. He listed recent public events and exercises the department joined, including the Middlesex County career fair, Saint Sebastian’s festival and an active-shooter tabletop exercise with Liberty Bank.

On internal changes, Davis said the department has implemented a new performance-evaluation system with reviews conducted up the chain of command to captains. He also noted “some significant training with firearms” and said officers would complete that training next week before deploying the new platform.

Davis raised two policy items briefly: an amendment or discussion related to a local cannabis ordinance (he described it as coinciding with open-container rules) and a $1,000,000 automatic traffic enforcement safety grant. The commission chair asked whether the grant had already been approved at an earlier meeting; participants in the recorded segment disagreed on whether a prior vote occurred, and Davis did not state a new formal motion or recorded vote on the grant during this session.

Votes at a glance: the commission approved the minutes for April 27, 2026 (motion seconded and called; members voiced “Aye”) and later moved to adjourn; both routine actions were recorded as passed in the meeting transcript.

The chair reopened public hearing time for matters not on the agenda and said no members of the public had raised matters online or in the room. The meeting adjourned at 6:53 p.m.

What happens next: Davis said the department expects to finalize firearms training the following week and to send an officer to the academy later this summer; he did not provide a timeline or next step for the traffic-enforcement grant vote during this meeting.