If the question were ever to be asked, how many Hispanic officers did The Hartford Police Department have on the force in 1979? The question could have easily been answered with one hand (5). With a 400 plus member police force, the numbers, when we speak in terms of percentage, work out to about .01 percent of the force being Hispanic.

By the spring of 1980, when six new Hispanic officers were added to the department, it brought the grand total to 11, which was an extremely low number at the time, considering that the Hispanic population in Hartford was between 25 - 30 percent. The additional installment of Hispanic officers was clearly not representative of the growing Hispanic population in The City of Hartford.

Besides the number of Hispanic officers on the job being so low, other concerns began to surface. For example, when we looked at issues surrounding promotions, it showed that out of all the detectives on the job at the time, only 1 was Hispanic. In addition when we looked at all the supervisory positions in the department, not one was Hispanic. When we looked at the patrol assignments (which numbered in the sixties on all three shifts), it showed that there were only 3 Hispanic officers assigned to permanent cruiser and/or walking beat assignments, and none in specialized units i.e. like the traffic division.

Another issue of great concern to the Hispanic officers on the street, had to do with being “cut off” during radio transmission with the dispatcher (something that’s not possible with today’s radios) on a regular basis. It was an area that a few years later on August 4th, 1984 became part of a story written by the Hartford Courant titled “Hispanic Police Blame Racism for Rookie’s Resignation”. In the article by Tracy Gordon, it touched on issues of racism, harassment, and Hispanic officers purposely being “cut off” on their radio transmission. The issues were of such concern that it lead to Hartford Police Chief Bernard Sullivan, to acknowledge that there was a “minor” racial problem within the department that needed to be addressed.

Finally, another issue that wasn’t part of the article had to do with the lack of cultural sensitivity among some of the white police officers and their choice of words when describing a particular class of minority individuals. For example, whenever a Hispanic male or female was involved in a crime or an incident on the streets and a description for the culprit was broadcast over the police radio; it wasn’t an uncommon practice to classify every Hispanic suspect out there as “Puerto Rican”, instead of the more appropriate term “Hispanic”.

So we would ask, was it international or was it just that the officers did not know any better? Or can it be blamed simply on the lack of proper cultural sensitivity training? In either case, what was important to know is, that it was offensive to many and it took way too long before the proper word usage was finally instituted as the correct protocol. In retrospect it was issues like these (along with a host of many other ones), which ultimately became the driving force behind the movement to unite all the Hispanic officers on the job, in order to effectively address some of the most common issues and concerns affecting us all.

The first attempt at forming an organization initially took place sometime during the mid 70’s, when a small group of officers (most of whom had retired or left the job prior to 1979) got together to try to form an organization that would deal with some of these troubling issues first hand. The idea however was grounded before it had a chance to make any formidable impact because of the presence of strong opposition and lack of members.

The idea remained dormant for many years until the 1980’s. It was then that a new flock of officers energized with a new vision and an undying determination to bring about change decided to unite and form what we know today as The Hispanic Officers Association. It all began in the spring of 1983. That’s when the total number of Hispanic police officers had more than doubled to 25 from the original number of 11 in 1980. We now had the numbers in place to make a viable impact.

Looking back, the increase in numbers can be attributed in part to an aggressive recruitment campaign carried out by City of Hartford in order to deal with some of the needs and concerns of the Hispanic community: Newspaper Article 1 / Newspaper Article 2 / Newspaper Article 3.

Riding on the success of that campaign, and the positive outlook of more Hispanics coming on board, lead to the decision to go forward with forming an organization. With a decision now in place and a strong backing from community leaders to go forward with the organization, all that was needed was the implementation of an Executive Board, a Board of Directors, and last but certainly not least, the support and trust of what we called “the back bone of the organization”…its members.

By May of 1983 “The Hispanic Officers Association” was born, and by April of 1984 it was officially chartered and recognized as an organization entity, with The City of Hartford and The Hartford Police Department. It was during that year (1983) that the late, Officer Wilfredo Rivera, who later went on to become the 2nd Hispanic Sergeant on the force, was voted in as the organization’s first President. A position he would hold for 7 years, before electing not to run for office again.

Other founding members who were voted to The Executive Board were as follows:

• Vice President Officer Bert Huertas (who later on became a Detective and Sergeant)
• Treasurer Officer Jose A. Morales (who also later on became a Detective and Sergeant)
• Secretary Officer Luisa St. Pierre (later went on to become the 2nd Hispanic female Detective)
• Sergeant at Arms Officer Roberto Alfaro (the 1st Hispanic mounted officer)

As well as, a talented group of Board of Directors that consisted of the following members:

• Detective Joseph Marrero (who in 1988 went on to become 1st Hispanic Sergeant on the force)
• Detective Jose L. Morales
• Detective Carlos Santiago
• Officer Josue Rivera
• Officer Orlando Allende
• Officer Luis Vera

With an organization in place and a determined leadership ready to make changes; our next step was to formulate a constitution and by-laws by which to govern the association. To get help in that area the organization turned to New York City, who had a well known and established organization of Hispanic Police Officers called: “The Hispanic Society of Police Officers”. Thanks to their assistance and guidance, we were able to garner enough information from their by-laws to draft our own to fit the goals and needs of our organization.

As the months went by, the organization, which was known and recognized by the department and the general public via the media, soon encountered opposition from a small group of officers within the department. One white officer was quoted as saying that the association was a “dividing organization with racial overtones”. Our response was and has always been that we as Hispanic officers should have equal rights and opportunities afforded to everyone wearing a badge and a blue uniform. However others had a different outlook on the organization and quickly rallied to form their own group that rivaled the Hispanic Officers Association. Sometime between 1984 - 1985, “The Centurions” was established. “The Centurions”, was an all white organization who strived on the motto “if they could do it, so can we” and operated under a different set of goals and objectives. They folded quickly however due to lack of membership participation and support.

By 1984, the Hispanic Association had gotten more than its share of positive media coverage, and soon became a well known and respected organization highly praised by the leaders of the Hispanic community. The number of Hispanic officers steadily began to increase over the years, reaching a high of 40 by 1984. The steady increase in numbers can be attributed to two factors: the push from the organization and the community to have more Hispanics join the force, and a more effective and aggressive minority recruitment effort by the department and City Hall. A minimum of at least 2 Hispanic police officers (sometime more) were assigned as part of the recruitment team by then Chief of Police, Bernie R. Sullivan. The Association also pushed for and got more Hispanic detectives during this time as well (5 promoted in 1984) which more than quadrupled the amount already present (1). With the increase in more Hispanics on the job, the Association also fought for and got more Hispanic officers assigned to permanent cruisers, walking beats and specialized assignments.

In May of that same year “El Periodico”, a local supporter of our causes decided to interview the President of the organization, Officer Wilfredo Rivera, about our goals and aspirations for the association. According to Officer Rivera “our goal is to one day have at least 100 Hispanic police officers on the job…so as to reflect the percentage of the Hispanic population in The City of Hartford. He then added that “along with that, the dream of the organization is to one day help build on the administration and command level of the department, by having Hispanic Sergeants, Lieutenants and Captains” (Newspaper Article: El Periodico).

By 1988, the Hispanic officers on the job had their first Hispanic Sergeant in the history of the Hartford Police Department, when they promoted Detective Joseph Marrero. It wasn’t until February 2, 2007 that the department promoted Detective Glendaly Macci to the rank of sergeant making her the first Hispanic female to be promoted to such rank.

Sadly, our founding President, Sergeant Wilfredo Rivera, who fought so courageously and tirelessly during his presidency to bring about some of the changes and benefits we see today as members of the department; never saw the rest of his dream realized. He passed away in 1999 at the age of 46 before seeing one of his best friends and colleagues, then Lieutenant Jose Lopez Sr., rise through the ranks of The Hartford Police Department. Lieutenant Lopez went on to become the first Captain, Deputy Chief and finally the first Hispanic Assistant Chief ever in the history of the police department.

One of the contributing factors in the organizations quest for change can probably be attributed in part to the Associations use of Chief Bernie R. Sullivan’s “open door policy”. This afforded us the opportunity to sit down with the chief to express our views on issues of concern regarding promotions, assignments, and even unfair disciplinary actions that were affecting us all during that time period.

On a much lighter note, even though we had an established organization and changes were slowly starting to emerge, we still had an ongoing problem on our hands, namely…where to hold our regular monthly meetings. Although monthly membership dues were in place and we were able to raise money through fundraisers (dances), most of the money generated went to association expenses, special events and donations to non-profit youth organizations. In the end, we were left with very little funds to able to afford paying for office space. That meant having to scramble for free space in order to conduct our monthly meetings.

It was not unusual (especially in the beginning), to hold our meetings at one of the members homes. Other places like the San Juan Center, as well as various Spanish restaurants throughout the city also became common gathering places in which to conduct our meetings. One day the Association received an offer that we just could not refuse. It came from the owner of a funeral home who offered to let us use his place of business to have our meetings, free of charge. And although we knew up front that there were going to be days when the rooms were not going to be totally empty (some had closed caskets in them), we gracefully accepted the challenge and it ultimately became our regular place to hold our quarterly meetings, for the next couple of years.

While many of our goals with the association were to bring about changes within the department for the benefit of our members; on the other side of the spectrum we also did a lot for the members and their families. Assisting members in hard times during certain economic situations also became a priority of the association. This included helping those involved in long term injuries that required monetary assistance just to get by. Looking after the needs of our members was, and should always be a main priority.

Another area of interest that historically has become a very special part of the association through the years has been to provide social events and activities to our members and their families. Events and activities like the annual dances, picnics, movies passes etc…are all fun filled events that bring our members together socially.

In 1985, it was suggested that the members should get together and have one big “Christmas party” for all to enjoy. The membership agreed and on December 8th, 1985 we had our “First Annual Christmas Party”. Using some of money in the account, we went out and bought Christmas gifts for all the kids. Then we asked our members wives, girlfriends or the individual members themselves to bring in a special dish of their choice to share with the membership. We also rented The American Legion Hall in Hartford, decorated it with a Christmas tree, provided music, and even had one of our members (Sgt. Joseph Marrero) dress up as Santa Claus to hand out gifts to the kids (Christmas Party Photo / Original Christmas Party Announcement - and the alterations that were made using the same letter to cover the following year’s event in 1986). In the end, a good time was had by all and it became an annual event that lasted many years.

In recapping all that has been said, although many years have passed since the inception of the association in 1983, and we have endured many bumps and disappointments along the way; all things considered we have come a very long, long way from where we started. Through the years we have seen noticeable changes within the department, from the make-up and the influx of more Hispanic on the force, to changes within the administration, the investigative field, and finally the patrol and specialized units. The most noticeable change can probably be found in looking at the total number of Hispanic officers in the department which right now (as of December 30th, 2008) stands at 91, that’s a difference of 86 more Hispanics on the job now than 1979, when there were only 5.

While on the supervisory level the numbers are still low, with only (2) lieutenants and (6) sergeants; those numbers will hopefully increase over the next couple of years. The biggest increase can probably best be seen in the investigative field area, where currently there are 22 detectives. A huge difference in both categories considering that twenty five years ago, we had no Hispanic supervisors and only 1 detective in each respective area.

Other areas of interest where in the past we had little or no Hispanic representation were in some of the specialized or newly formed units that have emerged within the past 15 – 20 years. The break – down for some of those newer units is as follows:

• In the street crime unit: 1
• Community response division: 1
• Community service officers: 4
• School resource officers: 5
• Police academy: 2
• Traffic Division: 2
• Mounted unit: 2
• Union president: 1

And finally, the remainder of Hispanic officers in the department that are not on the list above, and are currently assigned to the patrol division are: 42.

Although, we still have a long way to go and of course, more ground breaking to make in the future, our focus and goals should always be in the forefront of this long journey and that is: to continue to strive for the optimum success not only for the good of the association and its membership now, but also for the benefit of future generations of Hispanic officers.

In conclusion, I would like to say that as the first Sergeant at-arms in The Hispanic Officers Association, I have had the privilege of seeing the organization grow from the very beginning to the present time. Through the years I have seen all the struggles, heartbreaks, and disappointments that we have endured as minorities first hand. I have also had the privilege of seeing all the victories, success and strides we have made as an organized entity over the years as well. It gives me great pleasure to know that in some way or another I have been a special part of the journey that started from scratch and evolved into one of the most respected organizations within the department. It is for that reason that I volunteered to write about the organization. I did not hesitate for one minute to share my thoughts and experiences with the younger generation of Hispanic police officers on the job today that were not familiar with the grassroots effort that it took to build the organization. The Hispanic Officers Association is about a profession and an organization that has always been dear to my heart, and one that I take great pride of in being a lifetime member.

Continued luck and success!

Sincerely,

Roberto (Bobby) Alfaro
Ret. Police Officer &
First Sergeant At-Arms
For The Hispanic Officers Association