The office of superintendent of police was inaugurated and Eugene Birmingham, who at the time was a Captain, was positioned in office on April 23, 1895. Chief Birmingham, the department’s first Superintendent of Police, headed a department consisting of two captains, two lieutenants, ten sergeants, 77 patrolmen, and three detective sergeants. By 1913, the personnel strength had grown to four captains, nine lieutenants, nine sergeants, 130 patrolmen, one clerk and twelve doormen. He served as superintendent of police until his sudden death (of unknown causes) on April 8, 1916.
John H. Redgate succeeded Chief Birmingham on June 1, 1916 and served as superintendent until his retirement on July 7, 1920.
Superintendent Lyddy was sworn in as superintendent in 1943 till 1960
First “from the ranks”
Succeeding Lyddy, was Joseph A. Walsh. He was appointed Superintendent of Police on March 29, 1961. He was the first police officer in the City of Bridgeport to come up from the ranks from Patrolman to Superintendent of Police, all through the Civil Service system.
Joseph A. Walsh was appointed to the Police Department on December 21, 1941, at the age of 25. But because he was a member of the Army Reserve, he was called to active duty on December 22, 1942. After courageously serving his country, he was discharged from the Army in 1945 as a First Lieutenant and returned to the Bridgeport Police Department.
As a patrolman, Walsh was assigned to the second precinct. Three years later, in 1948, he was promoted to Sergeant and assigned to the Detective Division, where he excelled as an investigator. It was said that he could figure out what phone number a person was dialing just by listening to the dial turn! In 1953 he was promoted to Lieutenant and to the rank of Captain in 1958.
Superintendent Walsh, an ardent advocate of police professionalism and resourcefulness, established a number of modern innovations in the department, including the canine corps, Tactical Squad and Mobile Patrol. He instituted a complete re-alignment of all major divisions of the Department prior to moving to the new Police Headquarters (currently located at 300 Congress Street) in 1966, which resulted in an efficient, centralized organization. Superintendent Walsh is also credited with establishing a computerized Records system that is renowned by the law enforcement community as the most efficient in the state. Affectionately known as “Boss”, he retired on October 5, 1988 with almost 47 years of dedicated service to the City of Bridgeport.
Reestablishing the position of “Chief”
Following Superintendent Walsh’s retirement, the City of Bridgeport (under the administration of then Mayor Leonard S. Paoletta) reestablished the position of Chief of Police with a newly voted referendum. Two years later, after an extensive nationwide search, Thomas J. Sweeney was sworn in as Chief of Police on September 14, 1990. He previously served as the Deputy Commissioner of the Westchester County (New York) Police Department and Director of Staff Services for the Yonkers (New York) Police department.
Chief Sweeney’s career also included stints as a police officer in Portsmouth, VA and as an administrative specialist with the Kansas City, MO Police Department where he was, in part, responsible for a landmark research project in preventive patrol and response time. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Manhattan College and a Master Criminology degree from the University of California, Berkeley. He is also a graduate of PERF’s Senior Management Institute for Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Executive Institute. He has undertaken consulting and training assignments in over thirty police departments throughout the country and has several publications, the most recent of which has been the chapter on the Patrol Function in the 1990 edition of the ICMA’s Local Government Management. He left the Bridgeport Police Department on July 16, 1999 to assume the position of Chief of Police in Glastonbury, CT
