East Hartford celebrated a major milestone on Friday. The community came together at Rentschler Field to swear-in Mack S. Hawkins, the town's first Black police chief.
"I'm here to serve the community and help my agency in the best way that we know how," Hawkins said.
Hawkins started his career in Hartford in 1991. He began as a cadet and rose through ranks, becoming a detective, investigating crimes against children. Then a sergeant, lieutenant and executive commander to the police chief.
"Every single person in this room, in some way, has touched me. Has helped me along the way," Hawkins said.
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2012 was the year he joined East Hartford's police department. There, he became a deputy chief, an assistant chief and will now oversee the department's entire operation.
"I wasn't thinking about color. I thought about how my baby has worked to this point," Hawkins' mother Lois said. "When you want to get some place, you got to do the work."
Lois sat in the very front row next to the chief's wife and two kids. Also proud to be there was Connor Martin, East Hartford's youngest and first mayor of color.
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"The fact that now the leadership of this town, the true leadership of this town looks like the town that we serve, I think that's just something we've always been striving for," Martin said.
After the ceremony, Hawkins was quite the celebrity. Friends, family, community members and police chiefs from other departments waited in line to take pictures and congratulate him.
"I feel like I accomplished a lot in life and will continue to accomplish a lot for the town of East Hartford and for the residents of East Hartford," he said.
