Crime & Safety

Jason Reid Rises in the Ranks to Detective

The Avon Police Department promoted Jason Reid Monday from police officer to detective.

When Manchester native Jason Reid was doing an internship at Travelers Insurance while attending Sacred Heart University, he did not know that working in computers could lead to a career in fighting crime and becoming a detective.

“When you work in a computer job, you don’t think of police work,” Reid said, “but the computer work is relevant."

The Avon Police Department has promoted Reid on Monday from police officer to detective, one of three candidates for the position. The job pays $77, 505 annually.

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“It’s a great day and I’m very excited,” Reid said at his swearing-in ceremony on Monday.

After graduating from Sacred Heart in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and three years of interning, Travelers hired Reid full time. A year later, the Avon Police Department hired him as a patrol officer and he followed in his father’s footsteps.

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“My father was a drug enforcement agent in Hartford,” Reid said. “My dad is someone I always looked up to.”

While in the department from 2006 to 2008, Reid also worked as a U.S. deputy marshal on special assignment with the Federal Bureau of Investigation Connecticut Computer Crimes Task Force.

The Capital Area Substance Abuse Council honored him with the Law Enforcement Award in 2008 for efforts in drug seizures, the same year that his supervisor credited him for the "seizure of a large quantity of marijuana that resulted in the arrest of three criminal suspects on fourteen criminal charges," Avon Police Chief Mark Rinaldo said before swearing Reid in.

"Part of the strength of this organization, or of any organization, lies in its upward mobility, and its capacity for bringing new talent up the ladder," Rinaldo said. "A famous author once wrote, 'some succeed by what they know; some by what they do; and a few by what they are.' Jason has all three."

As detective, Reid will work on the department’s new regional computer crimes task force, which will officially begin in the coming months, Rinaldo said. Reid will no longer be a first responder to emergency and crime scenes, as he was when he was a patrol officer, but he will investigate criminal cases such as homicide and sexual assault.

At minimum it can take at least three years as a patrol officer before rising in the ranks, Rinaldo said, and Reid has worked at the department since 2004. Bruce Davey Associates, an independent assessment center, conducted the promotion process that included a written exam and practical test.

“He’s one of the hardest working people I know. He’s very dedicated and loyal,” Rinaldo said. “He’s a very tenacious, thorough young man with a very promising career.”

Editor's Note: If there's something in this article that you think should be corrected, or if something else is amiss, give Local Editor Jessie Sawyer a ring at 860-356-6339 or shoot her an e-mail at Jessie.Sawyer@patch.com.


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