The following was part of the public comment section of Milford City Council on Monday, March 9. The views expressed here are that of the speaker and may not reflect the views of Milford Times, its editorial staff or its reporters.
I wanted to speak today because I have lived in Milford for over 10 years now, and this is the first time I got to speak to the Chief of Police. I was concerned because I had a situation that happened in Milford several months ago, but when I started trying to go up the chain of command, it had nothing to do with the chief, but there were people way down the totem pole who basically didn’t want to allow me to follow what I thought was the proper chain of command regarding my concern.
I just want to make sure I’m not violating any restraining orders. I called the non-emergency number trying to speak to the chief. But now, I have a restraining order against me from the whole police department. There’s a restraining order against my person. I’ve never committed any violent acts, never threatened anybody. But was simply just trying to go up the chain of command.
It seems that the powers that be decided that it was important enough for me to have a restraining order. Now I will admit I was very persistent in my phone calls and trying to get a hold of the chief, but unfortunately, that was blocked. So I wanted to come today to public comment about this. I’m realizing we have an opportunity here in the city of Milford to set the precedence for the rest of the country, because when it comes to the issue of chain of command, I don’t know if anybody’s gone to the grocery stores before you call a customer service number and you’re having a concern, you want to go up the chain of command to speak to the supervisor.
They may tell you, “Oh, the manager is going to tell you the same thing. The boss is going to tell you the same thing,” but there’s still a chain of command. I believe that the officer that wanted to prevent me from going up the chain of command, I don’t believe that he has that right. I do believe that, again, I want to keep this very positive. I do believe that is my right, or anybody who is concerned in the community that if they want to go up the chain of command, they should be able to do that in a respectful way, and shouldn’t be banned doing that by having a restraining order issued against them.
I’m hoping that any legislator, anybody who can help me figure this out, because I have called certain legislators to see if the chain of command is discretionary. So if I go up to an officer, and I explain the situation of why I want to go up the chain of command, he may have a difference of opinion, but I just want to know if I would still be able to go up the chain of command.
I would love to meet with the chief or anybody else to discuss this issue, but when I went and looked up the code about more information about what the chain of command entails, I could not find any information. I’m hoping to get more information about that.
Craig Gold
South Washington Street, Milford
