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Westport Police Officers Climb Promotional Ladder

WESTPORT, Conn. – The sound of cameras flashing filled the Westport Police headquarters classroom as Sgt. David Farrell and Officer Ryan Paulsson raised their right hands and took new oaths Thursday morning.

Farrell, who’s been with the department since August 2001, was promoted to the rank of lieutenant as his wife Alison, accompanied by their two daughters, Olivia and Jocelyn, pinned his new lieutenant’s badge on his uniform.

Paulsson, a 12-year department veteran, was promoted to the rank of sergeant. He held his baby daughter Emmalyn as wife Jacqie fastened his new badge onto his uniform.

“This is really exciting,” Paulsson said after the ceremony, in between the numerous congratulations he received. “I’m looking forward to starting this new chapter. It will be a great learning experience.”

Farrell, who also was bombarded with congratulatory handshakes and requests for photos, shared Paulsson’s excitement. “This feels great,” he said with a smile, posing for a photo with his family.

Police Chief Dale Call said both men are more than deserving of their promotions. Farrell, a negotiator with the Southwest Regional Emergency Response Team, received a Chief’s Commendation and Lifesaving Award in June 2007 for his role in talking a distraught person down from the Franklin Street overpass of Interstate 95.

Paulsson, the department’s bloodhound handler since 2003, has received numerous department awards, including a Meritorious Police Duty Award for locating an endangered missing person in 2008.

“Both officers are here today because they've gone through what I think we can easily say was one of the hardest promotional exams we've done in many years,” Call said. “They both earned the right to be here.”

Read more about Lt. Farrell and Sgt. Paulsson's careers here.

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