Troop C Welcomes New Commander

On Dec. 9, Lt. John Albanese was promoted to Commanding Officer of the Troop C barracks in Tolland, and officially took over the job on Dec. 12. He takes over for , who was transferred to the Statewide Narcotics Taskforce.

Albanese is approaching his 20th year with the agency and just prior to this, was the executive officer at Troop H in Hartford. He was there for almost four years and calls this move “a bit of a shift.”

“This is a little bit of a shift for me to go from the big city in Hartford, which is mainly highway issues that we deal with, now transitioning to resident trooper towns,” he said. “But prior to being assigned to Hartford, I served as a resident trooper sergeant in the town of Oxford for two years, so I do have that in my background as well.”

Prior to being in Oxford, Albanese, 43, was a patrol sergeant for two years in Caanan, so he handled some small towns there as well.

Albanese also has five years with the auto theft task force – primarily in New Haven – and was a patrol trooper out of Troop I in Bethany for six years when he first started.

He has an MBA from the University of Connecticut and spent four years in the United State Marine Corps.

In his travels, Albanese has been in the Central District and the Western District, and has now made his way to the Eastern District.

“It’s just really learning the people, learning the communities,” he said. “Some of the things I’m looking at are, ‘What are the common issues that are faced in this troop area? And going through statistics, just to see what the common denominator is and see where we can best allocate our personnel to address those issues. I’m sure as I meet with the first selectmen and town managers, if they have certain issues that come to mind, we can address them in a better manner – I’ll try to adjust accordingly.”

Albanese feels that with his current position, he can have a direct impact on public safety.

“Like, at Troop H in Hartford, you’re kinda more reactive because they’re overwhelmed with a lot of accidents,” he said. “This, you can kinda see where the trends are, whether it’s maybe burglaries or larcenies, or specific areas that have accidents, you can look at where you should consolidate your resources and you can do something to impact that. A lot of it is with the resident trooper sergeants being involved in their communities and educating. I think you can definitely see more of an impact at this level.”

Is this something he’s looking forward to?

“Definitely,” Albanese said. “I like to see the results of your efforts. If we have a particular problem, and we were able to direct our resources to deal with it and over time you see that problem reduced, I think that’s great. It shows the results of all the hard work you put into it. I look forward to doing that.”

Albanese sees the resident troopers in the towns as very important.

“Community policing efforts – whether it’s just toy drives, or the resident trooper speaking at town meetings, or crime prevention – all those things, the small towns expect that,” he said. “I think that’s a service we should offer. The resident trooper program, I think, is our agency’s bread and butter – in addition to the major crime squads, and the emergency services units like the bomb tactical team – this is kinda what we should hang our hat on. It shows where we’re best at and what we can excel in.”

Albanese said that in his short time at the barracks, there hasn’t been anything in particular that jumps out at him as something to do differently.

“What I would like to do is just sit back and evaluate for a period of time and see how things are run, and make adjustments as necessary,” he said.

One thing that he is a firm believer in is if there are problems in a specific community – such as burglaries, larcenies, etc. – that the people that are committing those crimes are getting around by car.

“They’re not traveling on foot, they’re not traveling on a bicycle, they’re traveling by car, so my emphasis to the troopers here is that we really need to be proactive and conduct motor vehicle stops to uncover these people who may be committing other crimes,” Albanese said. “I want them to be out in the community, be visible, and conduct enforcement activities that potentially can lead to uncovering of someone committing another crime.”