Department History

During the colonial era, present-day Bloomfield was part of what was known as the Wintonbury Parish. Wintonbury was a combination of the names of three existing towns: Windsor, Farmington, and Simsbury. Wintonbury Parish came into official existence in 1735 upon being granted a charter by the Connecticut state legislature. Over the years, Wintonbury began to be unofficially referred to as Greenfield.

In 1835, the town incorporated and adopted the name Bloomfield. Bloomfield's town seal incorporates symbols that speak to its past and reveals the contributions the town made in the founding of our nation. During the American Revolutionary War, there were only two manufacturers in the colonies that were capable of producing quality muskets for the Continental Army. Bloomfield was home to a clandestine musket factory and would one day have a street, Gun Mill Road, named for it. The British located the original mill and burned it to the ground during the war. A new foundry was built deeper in the Bloomfield forests and continued to produce muskets throughout the balance of the war. Bloomfield's Brown Brothers produced all of the Continental Army's drums. Originally, the drums were built on present-day Brown Street. For security reasons, the drum shop was moved to the present-day Drummer Trail.

In 1943, Bloomfield was predominately a farming community. Police services were provided by a single constable, and later by a small number of part-time constables. The town fathers petitioned the state legislature to revise its charter. It was recognized that with the end of World War II, twelve million servicemen and women would be returning home and the country would experience unprecedented growth. The demands on local governments would increase, including those for police services. Hartford Police Officer Thomas P. Bowen was hired by the town to oversee a committee of local residents seeking to create the local police department. The committee labored for two years to complete its mission. In October 1945, a special town meeting was called. The committee was disbanded with the official creation of the Bloomfield Police Department. Officer Bowen would be named the Department's first police chief and would serve in that capacity until 1947.

By 1955, the department had grown to 5 full-time and 13 supernumerary (part-time) officers supported by a full-time clerk and a policewoman. Today, the department's authorized strength is 48 sworn officers, 7 dispatchers, an animal control officer, and 7 civilian employees, serving a community of approximately 20,000 residents.