By Layla Burke Hastings
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
SPRINGFIELD, Vt. — Springfield Detective Sergeant Gregory Molgano has seen a lot in his more than two decades of law enforcement service. But on Tuesday, he faced a completely new experience: retirement.
After 22 years of service in Windham and Windsor counties, the Springfield Police Department officially announced Molgano’s retirement in a Facebook post.
“His years of knowledge and attention to detail during his investigations will be a loss to the department,” the post reads. “All of us here at Springfield Police Department wish Sergeant Molgano all the very best in his future endeavors!”
Molgano began his career on May 3, 1999, as a deputy sheriff with the Windham County Sheriff’s Department. Then, in 2004, after five years in Windham County, he shifted to Windsor County and assumed the role of patrolman for the Springfield Police Department.
In an interview with the Eagle Times, the Dorset native shared why he chose law enforcement, his challenges, and most memorable moments.
“After graduating from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1998 with a B.A. in political science, I returned home to Vermont and started looking for a job that I thought would be a good fit for me,” Molgano said. “While I didn’t grow up wanting to be a police officer, I always had respect for the job that police officers do, as well as a casual interest in crime and criminality. So I decided to apply.”
Molgano remembers one of his main responsibilities as a police officer was keeping people on the road safe and sober.
“The most rewarding part of the job for me was DUI enforcement,” he said. “My grandmother was killed in an alcohol-related car accident when she was 33 years old. It was a story that was inculcated in my mind by my mother because being orphaned at the age of 10 had a profound impact on the course of her life. So, at a very early age, I developed a disdain for impaired driving and an obsession with wearing seat belts. It’s pretty frightening how intoxicated some people are when they get behind the wheel, and I’m pretty sure that my efforts helped prevent at least a few similar tragedies.”
Molgano spoke to one instance of impaired driving, now etched in his memory, that called upon some quick thinking to resolve the situation in a safe manner.
“I remember one particularly egregious drunk driver who was traveling southbound solidly within the northbound lane of Route 30 in Jamaica who refused to pullover for me. So I passed him, accelerated rapidly quite a distance beyond him, turned my car perpendicular to his to block the roadway, and got out with my gun drawn,” Molgano said. “He stopped. While my tactics may have been a little unconventional, I did what I had to do in the moment to make sure that he didn’t kill someone on my watch.”
Some of Molgano’s favorite departmental experiences occurred during his time working in fraud investigations.
“Aside from DUI enforcement, I also really enjoyed fraud investigations, strangely enough,” he said. “It probably sounds like it might be boring, but it’s actually pretty rewarding to hold people accountable for stealing from those who are especially vulnerable.”
Molgano said he remembered one particularly deviant fraud case that was satisfying to close.
“I remember one case where someone was draining a quadriplegic gentleman’s accounts and making purchases using his debit card information in order to feed his drug habit,” Molgano said, “It was really fun knocking on [the fraudster’s] door, serving him a search warrant, recovering the ill-begotten merchandise, and sending him off to court to answer for his actions.”
Molgano also spent 11 years as a death investigator, which he described as a constant internal tug of war.
“I actually had no interest in becoming a death investigator,” Molgano said. “I put in a request for about four different types of specialized training, and I was sent off to the death investigation course — which wasn’t even on my list.”
Death investigators, in accordance with state law, work collaboratively with assistant medical examiners to investigate all “unattended” deaths, which are generally deaths that occur outside of a hospital, according to Molgano.
The detective sergeant said he had a tough time beginning the initial training and working crime scenes that involved a fatality.
“To say that I went to the training kicking and screaming would be an understatement,” he said. “I will absolutely not miss getting called-in for dead bodies. I gladly passed that torch.”
Molgano said being on daily patrol was a constant challenge but it did present some great personal experiences.
“On a day-to-day level, the actual job of being a police officer is definitely challenging. But it can be rewarding. And the camaraderie is terrific,” Molgano said. “The job can be a lot of fun when you are able to focus and work on the type of things that really interest you, but, unfortunately, the reality of the job in a small agency is that you have to be a generalist and do everything.”
Over time, Molgano developed a philosophy that helped him stay on solid ground. But it took time to navigate some of the increasingly continuous person-to-person challenges. That philosophy: just press on.
“In order to do what you like to do, you also have to do a lot of stuff that you don’t like to do,” he said.
Responding to calls regarding mental health — which have become more frequent as his career progressed — were ones that Molgano felt that his experience and knowledge could be best used. Nowadays, with the increased recognition that mental health support is definitely a necessity and a rise in calls involving it, there simply isn’t enough personnel — both within and outside of law enforcement — to handle it all, something that Molgano would like to see changed.
“Unfortunately, the existing mental health treatment system doesn’t serve patients or the general public very well, as too many ill people are left out there on their own to struggle,” Molgano said. “Police response to these calls feels like putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound. It’s frustrating.”
Molgano’s press on philosophy and his mental ability to take on puzzles helped him execute his decisions.
“I am a person who is open to creative problem solving. When there’s an issue, I like to think of different ways to fix things. So, for me, it’s extremely challenging whenever I am not in a position to be able to fix things, especially when my input falls on deaf ears,”Molgano said. “Police departments can very much function like paramilitary organizations, and realistically, there is only so much you can do when you are low on the totem pole.”
As he enters retirement, Molgano also reflects on how quality of life outside of law enforcement plays an extremely important role in an officer’s effectiveness and methods of dealing with a multitude of situations.
“If departments want to keep their officers, they really need to focus on quality of life,” he said. “People need to be given time, aside from their few weeks of annual vacation, to be able to pursue their private interests and be with their families. No one should be on-call all of the time. The traditional “mission first” thinking that is prevalent in the field is going to continue to cause departments to hemorrhage staff. People need to be put first because without your people, you can’t complete your mission.”
Outside of his career in law enforcement, Molgano is an avid outdoorsman.
“The things in life that I am most proud of are the things that I have done outside of work,” Molgano said. “Hiking Vermont’s 271-mile Long Trail from end-to-end is something that I’m really proud of.”
Molgano is currently working on completing his seemingly ambitious goal of summiting all 48 of New Hampshire’s 4,000 footers.
“I only have one left to go.”
Molgano said he is extremely grateful for the camaraderie at the Springfield Police Department and support from other agencies.
“The dispatchers, patrol personnel, secretary, custodian, social worker, and parking enforcement officer at the Springfield Police Department are a terrific group of people to work with,” he said. “They are truly second to none.”
Molgano’s retirement leaves the Springfield Police Department without any detective.
“It’s tough leaving a great group of people,” he said. “But, it was time to go.”
Molgano also has high regard for the local residents and the benefits that taxpayers have provided.
“I would like to thank Springfield residents and taxpayers, past and present, for their support of the police department. I have always been paid well, given great benefits, and provided all of the tools necessary to do my job safely,” Molgano said. “While police have not been treated well, overall, on a national scale during the recent past, the people of Springfield, by and large, have been great to us.”
Molgano said citizen support is one the main foundations for an effective police force.
“In this day and age, citizen support is a pretty good selling point that the town could use to market the police department in an attempt to fill its numerous openings,” Molgano said.
Molgano is ready for his free time and excited for more outdoor adventures and a new family friend.
“I absolutely love downhill skiing, so I will be taking the winter off to do that full-time. I have 23 years worth of midweek skiing to catch-up on,” Molgano said. “I also have a new dog to train and some deferred home improvement projects to complete.”
The rest is an unwritten book.
“What comes next is anyone’s guess, though,” he said. “I would love to find a part-time gig or a full-time gig with a condensed schedule where I can use my investigative and/or administrative skills. I have a graduate certificate in public administration,” Molgano said. “Whatever job I choose, however, I will not be carrying a pager or working nights, weekends, or holidays anymore.”
vtreporter @eagletimes.com
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