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3. Officer Kevin Wells, who handles K9 Jagger – $252,075.14, includes $79,288.38

4. Lt. Matthew Riendeau – $247,691.57, includes $43,329.52

5. Sgt. Donald Matejek – $244,660.88, includes $49,330.85

6. Officer Anthony Renaldi – $229,478.31, includes $48,814.14

7. Deputy Police Chief Keith Broderick – $225,079.89, includes $54,016.14

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8. Officer Keith Perham – $223,273.20, includes $84,078.65

9. Sgt. Christopher Ioli – $218,517.50, includes $43,238.48

10. Lt. Michael Paris – $212,661.25, includes $10,412.12

Fairfield’s educators are not included on the list, but none would have broached the top 10 in Fiscal Year 2022. Schools Superintendent Michael Testani, who started in November, reportedly has a base annual salary of $275,000.

By contrast, First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick, Fairfield’s highest ranking elected officials, has an annual salary of 145,071.94, with a stipend of $6,000.02.

In a statement to Patch, Fairfield Police Union President Ray Quiles said compensation for law enforcement officers is complex, and includes a lot of elements the public does not take into consideration.

“It is easy to assume that all there is to being a police officer is putting on a uniform and duty belt and going on patrol,” Quiles told Patch. “The education, training, and behind the scenes effort required to make serving the community possible is an enormous undertaking.”

The state mandated training that officers must undergo is extensive, he said, and there is “differential compensation for working the evening or midnight shift, and Holiday pay which compensates Officers for working on Holidays; they are away from their families, serving the town of Fairfield.”

Quiles added that extra duty pay does not entirely come from taxpayers; the entity hiring an officer for security, road flag work or other jobs pays much of the price.

“The entities requesting an officer for an ‘outside job’ are billed by the Town of Fairfield and then a portion of that is then paid to the officer for his or her services,” Quiles said. “Often times, the town is able to generate revenue via our officers working outside jobs which offsets other costs to the town. The Department recently moved to an app-based scheduling system for outside jobs which allows us to more efficiently schedule and fill these assignments. The utilization of this technology has increased our ability to provide services for those requesting an officer, allowing us to more effectively meet the needs of our community.”

Other notable town salaries include:

The full statement from Fairfield Police Union President Ray Quiles:

There are many factors that impact an officer’s compensation beyond their basic salary. Many of these factors are not commonly known to those without an intimate knowledge of how law enforcement agencies function. It is easy to assume that all there is to being a police officer is putting on a uniform and duty belt and going on patrol. The education, training, and behind the scenes effort required to make serving the community possible is an enormous undertaking. Continual training has always been a large aspect of being a police officer, with good reason, and often cannot be conducted during an officer’s normal working hours. Much of our training is mandated by the state. Due to recent changes in legislature, there are many additional training requirements that we have to meet as an organization. There are annual and tri-annual requirements for training on specific topics that each officer must meet. In order for an officer to be re-certified they must earn a minimum amount of training in areas such as use of force, legal updates, cultural awareness, procedural justice, rape crisis, domestic violence, bigotry/bias, implicit bias, citizens with special needs, human relations and many other areas.

There are also factors such as differential compensation for working the evening or midnight shift, and Holiday pay which compensates Officers for working on Holidays; they are away from their families, serving the town of Fairfield. Continual training has always been a large part of being a police officer, with good reason, and often cannot be conducted during an officer’s normal working hours. Special assignments, promotions, and years of service are all also factored into an officer’s compensation.

It is important to note that a significant portion of the compensation an officer may earn comes from ‘outside jobs’ and does not come at an expense to the taxpayers. An ‘outside job’ is an assignment where an Officer is requested by an entity other than the police department for purposes of security, safety, traffic control, crowd management, etc. All “outside jobs” are additional assignments these officers take on when they would normally be off-duty to spend time with their families. A vast amount of businesses, utility companies, churches and universities rely on our officers to provide a safe environment for them to operate within. Much of the infrastructure work, such as updating gas lines, fiber optic lines, and paving that we have seen over the last year would not have been possible without those officers working extra hours to provide traffic control so that the work could be conducted safely.

The entities requesting an officer for an “outside job” are billed by the Town of Fairfield and then a portion of that is then paid to the officer for his or her services. Often times, the town is able to generate revenue via our officers working outside jobs which offsets other costs to the town. The Department recently moved to an app-based scheduling system for outside jobs which allows us to more efficiently schedule and fill these assignments. The utilization of this technology has increased our ability to provide services for those requesting an officer, allowing us to more effectively meet the needs of our community.

One issue that is often overlooked is that our contractual salaries as an agency are actually lower than many of the comparable surrounding towns. Officers need to work many additional hours in order to keep up with rising costs of living in or around Fairfield County. Inflation is currently 6.4 percent, more than double of any contractual wage increase negotiated upon. Some of our officers are working the equivalent of two full time jobs in order to earn these salaries. One of our officers worked over 2,000 hours in addition to his regular assignment in 2022. While we have hour limits and protocols in place to ensure officers are not over-working themselves, their commitment to this profession is undoubtedly deserving of respect and gratitude.

Police Officers cannot work from home, and there are no bonuses or commission to be earned in our line of work. Our officers are trading in precious time, to earn income the only way that is available to them; essentially selling hours of their lives. In a time when many industries are converting to remote-work, allowing people more flexibility and freedom while also offering generous compensation, unfortunately law enforcement does not have that option. Our officers have to work nights, weekends, and holidays, often times missing important life events due to the nature of law enforcement as an industry. Their work-ethic and stamina should be commended and they deserve to be compensated accordingly. Law enforcement agencies nationwide are fighting a recruiting and retention crisis. Fairfield has had 27 officers retire in the last 3 years, which translates to one quarter of our personnel. Maintaining staffing levels during a personnel changeover of that size is a daunting task, but we were fortunate to have hard working officers committed to fulfilling their duty to the community during such a challenge.

– C.O.P.S. Local 550 President, Ray Quiles

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