Police Commission
Town of Darien, Code of Ordinances: Chapter IX. - Police Commission
Sec. 33. - Composition, organization and procedure.
There shall be a police commission of three members, one of whom shall be appointed as of each July first for a term of three years. The commission shall choose a chairman and a secretary from its membership, and shall adopt its rules of procedure. No vote or action of the commission shall be valid unless adopted by two or more affirmative votes at a meeting called and held pursuant to its rules.
Sec. 34. - Powers and duties.
(a)Said commission shall have the management and control of the police force of the town and shall adopt rules and regulations for the government of said police force. It shall appoint the chief of police and the dog warden, each of whom shall hold office for such term as may be fixed by said commission, subject to the rules and regulations adopted by said commission.(b)Said commission may make rules for the regulation of traffic not inconsistent with the provisions of chapters 246, 248 and 249 of the general statutes [G.S. §§ 14-1 et seq., 14-212 et seq., and 14-297 et seq.], as they may be amended, or with any ordinance of the town.
The first meeting of the Darien Police Commission was held on May 28, 1925 at the office of Dr. Howard Stout Nielsen. At this meeting, motions were entertained and passed resulting in Dr. Nielsen being appointed Chairman, Francis Holmes appointed secretary, and Chauncey Tyler appointed as the third commissioner of the Darien Police Commission. The commissioners immediately set about putting together the necessary budget to form the Darien Police Department.
The Police Commission currently serves as the Town's Legal Traffic Authority and consists of three members who serve three year overlapping terms. The current members of the Commission are Kim Huffard, Kevin Cunningham and Brent Hayes.
Commissioner Kim Huffard
Kim Huffard has served on the Police Commission since April 2013. Commissioner Huffard graduated from Colgate University and earned an M.B.A. at The Tuck School at Dartmouth College. She has served on many Darien Town Boards including the YWCA, Opus for Person to Person and the Darien Library, where she was President and Co-Chair of the Capital Campaign for the New Darien Library. Commissioner Huffard is currently on the board of The Darien Foundation, she is a trustee emeritus of the Darien Library, and she is a realtor with William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty. A lifelong Darien resident, she and her husband, Flip, have two children. Commissioner Huffard may be reached at: khuffard@darienct.gov
Commissioner Kevin M. Cunningham
Kevin Cunningham has served on the Police Commission since September 2019. Previously, Commissioner Cunningham served on the Planning and Zoning Commission (secretary), Advisory Board of Health (chair) and he was a member of the Emergency Services Advisory and Blight Review Boards. He is a life-long resident of Darien, having attended Darien Public Schools, Boston University, Sacred Heart University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has been involved in Emergency Services in various capacities for over 20 years and he currently is the Director for Business Continuity and Crisis Management for a Silicon Valley technology firm. He and three generations of his family currently live in Darien. Commissioner Cunningham may be reached at: kcunningham@darienct.gov
Commissioner Brent Hayes
Brent Hayes has served on the Police Commission since July 2020. Commissioner Hayes has
a history of volunteer service in the Town of Darien and not-for-profit
organizations. He most recently served as a member of the NYC Development
Council for the United States Soccer Federation, and previously served on the
local Board of Directors for Rebuilding Together. Commissioner Hayes has been a
member of the Darien community for 20 years and was a former member of the
Representative Town Meeting, Finance & Budget Committee. He was also Chairman
of the Republican Town Committee where he identified and recruited qualified
candidates for the town’s Boards and Commissions. Commissioner Hayes has worked
at several premier alternative asset management companies with a background in
sales and marketing, and corporate communications. He is a graduate of
Fairfield University. Commissioner Hayes may be reached at:
bhayes@darienct.gov.
The Darien Police Commission can be contacted via the Chief's Office Administrator, Rick LaBella, at (203) 662-5311 or rlabella@darienct.gov.
Agendas and Minutes
Listing files in 'Police Commission Agendas & Minutes'