Mashantucket ― Robert Catania, a sergeant when he left the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Police Department in 2021, has returned to lead the force.

Catania, 60, began his second stint with the department Oct. 9, and took an oath of office as police chief Tuesday.

Law enforcement is in his blood.

His father, John, and an uncle served with the Rocky Hill Police Department, and Catania and three of his brothers followed similar paths. Glenn is a retired Hartford police officer and Mark is a police captain in Glastonbury. Matthew was police chief in Plainville when he died in 2021.

Another brother, John, served with the state police auxiliary unit, and Ron, a Vietnam veteran, served in the Air Force.

The family’s link to law enforcement extends to a third generation: Catania has a niece and nephews working for police departments in Bloomfield and Canton and at UConn.

Catania is serving his last term on the school board of the private Corpus Christi School in Wethersfield, which his son, Luke, attended before enrolling at Xavier High School in Middletown.

Born and raised in Rocky Hill, where he still lives, Catania spent 28 years with the police department there before retiring as a lieutenant and joining the Mashantucket force in 2018. Amid the pandemic, with the police department’s staffing uncertain, he left to join Central Connecticut State University’s police department in 2021.

“I had a great experience here the first time,” he said in a phone interview Thursday. “The police department was full of experienced, professional people. I liked the dual certification (state and tribal), the mix of residential and commercial, the family environment. ... We really didn’t know how things would be staffed, what the operation would be like after COVID. I had just lost a brother and wanted to be closer to home, so I moved on.”

William Dittman, the former Mashantucket police chief who retired in 2020, recalled Catania in an exchange of text messages.

“We were lucky to get a man of that caliber and experience to come to Mashantucket,” he said. “He was a good fit for us. ... I am glad he applied (for the police chief’s job) and was chosen by the tribe. He will do well as he is highly qualified to mesh the State of Connecticut and tribal laws into an everyday working environment.”

Catania’s department is responsible for policing on the Mashantucket reservation, which includes Foxwoods Resort Casino, and on the tribe’s off-reservation property in Ledyard, North Stonington and Preston. Great Wolf Lodge at Mashantucket, a $300 million waterpark resort, is scheduled to open adjacent to Foxwoods in June.

At its peak, the Mashantucket force had close to 40 full-time officers and 10 part-timers, Catania said. It currently numbers 21 officers and is actively recruiting to fill “a lot of openings, like every department around the state,” he said.

Catania called his return to the department as chief “a great opportunity, the honor of a lifetime.”

“I understand the historical significance of the land and the people here,” he said. “When I retired in Rocky Hill, I came here and was able to immediately utilize the skills I developed over 28 years. My experience in a college setting, the diversity of a college campus is similar in some ways. But most importantly, I’m coming back at a time when the department is growing, the officers are looking for leadership.”

Catania said he hopes to modernize the department’s fleet and equipment, and turn it into a hub for training in the region.

Catania’s predecessor, Joseph Brooks III, left Mashantucket in September 2023. Deputy Chief Kristin DiMauro had been serving as interim police chief.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com