New London police officer Anthony Nolan balances politics, policing
New London — Anthony Lee Nolan knew he wanted to be a different kind of policeman.
"When I was younger, I saw the relationship that police had with kids, and you know, I thought that I could be better," said Nolan, 49, who recently was elected president of the City Council and has been a police officer in the city since 2000.
"It was just a dream of mine to be a policeman, but I wanted to be a different kind of police officer who got involved with the kids and gave kids the understanding that police are here to protect us and able to interact. Because police didn't really interact back then," Nolan said.
A native of Pittsfield, Mass., he said he struggled in school and was hanging out with a rough crowd when he signed up for the Navy as a young adult without telling his family. Nolan assumed he'd be able to join the military police, but instead, the Navy trained him as a dental assistant.
The Navy sent Nolan to San Diego, then Pensacola, Fla., and eventually to Groton-New London, where he would settle. He spent almost 10 years with the service before leaving in the late 1990s so he would have more time to raise his son, Teaurean, as a single parent.
Out of the Navy, Nolan worked as a security officer at Connecticut College and part-time as a dental assistant in Groton. It would take him multiple tries to finally pass the exam that allowed the New London Police Department to hire Nolan and send him to the training academy, where he said he also struggled academically.
Today, Nolan is balancing his police work and council president duties — he is halfway through his third two-year term on the City Council — with his devotion to and programming for young people in the city.
Even before he was hired as a police officer 17 years ago, Nolan was running youth programs to educate and engage youngsters and to keep them busy and out of trouble. He feels empathy toward kids in the city, saying he had his own issues and problems growing up and realizes how important positive influences can be.
Looking back, he believes the academic challenges he has faced were likely the result of an undiagnosed disability.
"I was one of those too cool students to admit back in school but I may have had a reading disability that I had to overcome with constant reading and afterschool help," he said. "It was never diagnosed but, looking back, I'm sure that's what it was at the time."
He also was part of a group of young people who were attracting police attention, and he said that's why he ultimately decided to join the Navy.
"I needed to do it because a lot of my friends were having trouble, and there was a lot of incarceration and a lot of contact with police," he said. "There was a bad vibe with police so I really needed to get away from that. And I wanted out, I wanted to remove myself. It got kind of scary because there were a few things in the neighborhood that were life changers, like when you see your friends in jail."
"Drugs, gangs, criminal mischief — the same things you see our kids having problems with today," Nolan said, when asked what it was his friends were up to. And then he added, "It's nothing new, the problem is us keeping our kids occupied as parents."
Like his own mother and father, Nolan knows that parents today have to work, and he tries to fill some of the gap. Over the decades, he's run a series of programs, the latest of which is Impact Youth. If students attend enough of his lectures on topics including harassment, bullying, date rape, domestic violence and dozens more, they can participate in one of his field trips to places like Six Flags New England or the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York City, for free or reduced prices.
But Nolan is known for more than his lectures and field trips; both young and old people in the city know and respect him.
"Anthony Nolan gives his heart and soul for the children of New London," said Alison Burdick, principal of the Bennie Dover Jackson Middle School, where Nolan once served as a student resource officer and still visits to meet and talk with youngsters.
"He makes himself available to visit with students, sits beside parents in tough situations, and is embedded within the New London culture," Burdick said. "He has openly shared his experiences growing up with a learning disability and how he overcame being severely bullied. The students respect his honesty and look to him as a role model."
Attorney Susan Connolly, who works with Nolan and others to produce the annual New London Youth Talent Show, described Nolan as "the fabric" of New London.
"There is not a kid in New London that doesn't love or respect him," she said, and added, "Think about that: A cop. A city councilor. Both are kind of scary roles for kids. Yet neither role defines him in their eyes. To them, he proves who he is every single day by doing it: caring for them, setting limits, listening, being involved. ... They know that he sees them, really sees them. Which in New London is rare for our kids."
Nolan married his wife, Letitia, more than a decade ago, and the family lives on Blackhall Street in the city. He voluntarily works the midnight shift to keep his days open for council business and youth programming.
Asked about those who acknowledge that while it's legal, they still believe it's a conflict of interest for him to be both a municipal employee and a city councilor, Nolan shared a long series of email correspondences he has had with the Hatch Act Office of Special Counsel in Washington, D.C.
The bottom line, he said, is that there is no conflict, but whenever he has a doubt, he sends a detailed query and waits to get a response.
"The way I see it, I've been given the opportunity to be a city councilor by the people of New London for three straight terms. So I'm thinking the majority is OK with me being a police officer and a city councilor," he said.
And on his election by fellow councilors as the new council president last month, Nolan said, "Being the council president just makes you more visible. The decisions are the same. The only thing you do is run the meeting. You don't have control over the council, so the only thing I did was change my chair and now I run the meetings."
In the position, he said, he's looking for transparency and civil discourse.
"I think people who want answers have to respect the difference of opinions," he said. "Because that's all it is. It's seven people who either agree or disagree. And if there is someone who disagrees, ask them why, don't get mad."
As a police officer, he acknowledges that when given the option, he'd rather try to change someone's behavior by educating them than write them a ticket.
"Knowing how when I was growing up how much a ticket affected me, the hardship to pay it — it's not a reason not to give a ticket all the time, but sometimes you can alleviate someone paying a fine," he said.
Nolan believes he's made progress in being the kind of police officer that he always wanted to be.
"There were hurdles because kids didn't always see police officers as being friendly," he said. "And the big thing for me was to close the gap. ... I am the authority (when responding a call) but there is a difference between being the authority and showing the authority as a police officer.
"I think the relationship that I have built with a lot of youths in the city, what my initial start was, what I tried to do, I think I have accomplished that," he said. "I think I've closed the gap, but I still think there is a lot of work to be done with police."
That's why he carries a box of lollipops in his cruiser, or ice cream treats on a hot summer day, and takes young people by the busloads to concerts, basketball games and roller skating. When officers have a rapport with young people, Nolan said, the kids will open up and share and ask for advice.
"I look back, and if people say, 'I can't make something of myself,' I'm gonna tell them, 'Wear my shoes,'" he said. "I didn't have a terrible, terrible life, but I think I climbed some mountains, and even though there is still room to grow, I've gotten to a place where I'm going to be OK if tomorrow is my last day on Earth."
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