Jeff Kreitz, Police Chief

As of October 2021, Jeffrey Kreitz will have been the Ridgefield Police Chief for three years. Kreitz realizes the great responsibility that he has to our town but feels confident in his leadership. This confidence comes from 42 dedicated and knowledgeable officers on his force as well as a community that is willing to work cooperatively to keep Ridgefield nationally ranked as one of the safest towns in the U.S.A.

A big priority now for the police department is working to bring the police and fire departments together as one unit on the Schlumberger Property. With all first responders in the same location with updated equipment and sharing of resources, our two key safety departments will become much more efficient in the future.

When it comes to updating equipment, Jeffrey Kreitz is now ahead of the deadline for having all police officials trained in the use of the new dash and body cams. There are all new lighting systems also being installed in the police cars, as well as less intrusive car cages. New body vests that can carry police accessories are in the works so that the police will not have 15 to 20 pounds of equipment around their waists. Narcan for overdoses will always be in these vests or belts.

Kreitz is also having studies completed regarding placement of new traffic lights and ways to deal with added congestion on our streets. With the new GPS systems in our cars, Ridgefield now has overcrowding on our secondary roads where we never had it before. Kreitz’s goal is to not only keep the town as safe as possible but his officers as well. 

Through education Kreitz continually tries to better deal with a limited number of drug abuses (especially now since the legalization of marijuana), cases of vandalism and theft, and hate crimes. No infraction of the law is overlooked in Ridgefield as this is what the residents have come to expect. 

“Our ears are always open to the community in regard to concerns, ideas, and reassessment,” say Chief Kreitz. “People move to this community based on our reputation and we want to keep it that way. That is why we now have programs at all the schools and for all the community organizations and clubs in town. We provide inspections for proper instillation of baby seats, easy disposal for medication, offer fund raising opportunities for groups with a prize of a ride in a police car or participation in a sporting competition against another group.

Prior to becoming police chief, Kreitz was Captain of the Division of Professional Standards. In this position Kreitz oversaw training, accreditation, school response, media relations, and community outreach.  Kreitz believes that community outreach is key to the success of any department.

One of Kreitz’s biggest accomplishments community wise, was his Police Academy for both youth and adults. This is an eight-week course each spring for individuals to better understand just what a police officer goes through and decisions that he/she must make daily. The program discusses homeland security, aerial and land rescue, use of police dogs, key police cases in history and changes in our society. This course is not to prepare residents to be police personnel but to better understand police work and be supportive.

As director of Professional Standards, Kreitz continued the DARE (Drug and Alcohol Prevention Program) and started Kids for Cops at the Boy’s and Girl’s Club of Ridgefield, the Bully Prevention Program, Ridgefield Public Day of Safety, work with Compassionate Ridgefield, and the simulated car crash at the high school. Kreitz loves working with the senior citizens, scouts, the town’s athletic teams, the families, the businesses, and other town-based organizations.   

Kreitz is a hometown boy of whom the town is most proud. He went to Farmingville Elementary School, East Ridge Middle School, Ridgefield High School and then graduated from the Criminal Justice and Law Department at Western Ct. State University. He also married a local girl, Molly, who is a dean and math teacher at Ridgefield High School. He met Molly while working on a case at Ridgefield High School.

While a student at WCSU, Kreitz worked for the Ridgefield Police Department monitoring traffic lights. In the summer he was a patrol officer at Lake Candlewood. Kreitz had no other goal than to be a police officer. He knew the job would be hard as he would be dealing with people in trauma in many cases, but he always felt he was up to the job and that was certainly true.