Mayoral hopeful David Daniels wants to put public safety first

There is little doubt that petitioning mayoral candidate David Daniels’ lengthy career as a Bridgeport police officer is a main reason he believes public safety to be a main issue in this campaign but he is also quick to point out that his Park City roots are a main reason he wants to be in the mayor’s office at City Hall.

“Well, I’m from P.T. (Barnum housing projects) and I’ve lived in Bridgeport most of my life so I definitely have a passion and I want the city to succeed,” said Daniels. “A lot of it has to do with our children. They grow up and want to leave the city as soon as possible. I’d like to change that.”

A retired Lieutenant, Daniels spent most of his quarter of a century on the force as a community police officer. He said that experience encouraged him to want to continue helping Bridgeport residents after his retirement.

Not surprisingly, Daniels believes changes are necessary in the Bridgeport Police Department and they must be made immediately.

“First of all, the hiring process needs to be changed,” said the candidate. “They administer a test every two years and sometimes longer than that. A lot of young people don’t want to sit around and wait two years to be hired, so we lose them to other towns who hire more frequently. We were budget for 502 officers, but in all my years on the force that never happened.”

Daniels also said politics should be kept out of the police department. He believes that is a big reason that there has been a serious rift between the police union and the administration of Mayor Bill Finch, leading the union to endorse former mayor Joe Ganim in the Democratic primary. The retired officer believes that Police Chief Joseph Gaudett is accountable for this development.

“There is a leadership crisis in the department; the chief is nothing but a pawn for the mayor’s office,” Daniels said. “Politics is often conducted on a whim and police work is a logical procedure. Politics should never mix with policing. It was bad enough to make me want to leave.”

Another key issue for Daniels is education, which he believes is woefully in adequate in Bridgeport.

“Well as I said, too many of our children want to leave and I want to see them stay here and enrich the city,” he explained. “First off education has to be fully funded, no question. We need dedicated teachers so we have to fix their low pay. We lose too many good young teachers to the suburbs. I would also like to reach out to the colleges in the area and have them get involved with the Bridgeport school system.”

As for economic development, Daniels does not believe his administration should try and do “too much, too fast.”

“I’m a basketball guy so I know you have to learn how to shoot layups before try to start making three-pointers,” he said. “We have to get our house in order first, to make Bridgeport a place where it’s attractive to do business. Bridgeport has a lot of assets: a deep water harbor, parks, the coastline, transportation. But we need stabilization in all city entities. We have to root out graft, waste and inefficiency.”