Local Nonprofit Steps Up With Generous Donation To Darien Police

DARIEN, CT — The Darien Foundation has stepped up once again to help the local police department.

The Board of Selectmen this week unanimously voted to accept a donation of crime lab and computer lab equipment from the nonprofit to help further investigative techniques at the Darien Police Department.

The Board of Selectmen meeting is available to watch on demand on DarienTV.

Valued at $71,756, the donation must also be approved by the Representative Town Meeting.

Included in the equipment police will be receiving is a forensic workstation, imaging kit, macro photography kit, fuming chamber, narcotics testing chamber, a 360-degree camera, black box/blocker locker, network attached storage/hard disk drive, and forensic photo lights.

There are no maintenance costs with the equipment, except for yearly fees to run the fuming chamber and the narcotics chamber, according to submitted documents.

Capt. Alison Hudyma of the DPD told the selectmen the equipment replaces a lot of what police are already using, but there are some new tools that will help investigators, particularly in the collection of digital evidence.

"Right now, the turnaround time to examine digital evidence takes a couple of days. I would usually let a device run overnight and come back the next day and start reviewing it. The forensic workstation is going to cut that time in half, probably more than half," said Det. Sgt. Mauricio Vigil during Monday's meeting. "A lot of the other specialized tools that are available are going to be used to process and analyze digital evidence much quicker, and it's going to help the community and victims get an answer faster."

Vigil said the equipment will also help police secure data and evidence properly so it can be presented to prosecutors.

The new equipment will be vital when it comes to tackling investigations involving juveniles, Vigil noted, saying the department sees cases ranging from "sextortion" to recovering child sex abuse material.

"A lot of the cases we touch, most, if not all, have some digital evidence component to it," Vigil added. "Everyone has a cellphone, so there's always that aspect of trying to process that digital evidence."

Last year in an assault case involving a juvenile, Darien investigators had to process two cellphones - one for the victim and the other for the suspect.

"That gave us a great piece of evidence when we processed the suspect's cellphone. We were able to get that evidence that he thought was deleted, we were able to extract that based on the tools we had at the time, and we had to get help from some outside agencies as well," Vigil explained. "We're hoping the tools that we get are going to help us get this much quicker. It's really important when it comes to juveniles."

Should the RTM grant final approval, Vigil said it could take up to two months to have everything up and running.

"We already have the vendors lined up, and we have been working with the Darien Foundation to get the quote and purchase order in place. Hopefully, it should be rather quick," he said.

First Selectman Jon Zagrodzky thanked the Darien Foundation for their generosity.

The nonprofit has donated in the past to first responders, including a $124,000 grant to the DPD for boat technology upgrades in 2023.

"You've made such a difference in town, and this is just another example of that," Zagrodzky said of The Darien Foundation. "We're very excited and very grateful to have this kind of support for such an important investment like this. I think it's fantastic and very much appreciated."