Bridgeport police chief, personnel director arrested in exam scheme

The chief of police in Bridgeport, Connecticut, was arrested Thursday, along with the city’s personnel director, on charges they schemed to rig the 2018 police chief exam.

Bridgeport Chief Armando Perez and acting personnel director David Dunn were charged with fraud and making false statements to the FBI.

According to federal prosecutors in New York, where the charges originated, the goal of the 2018 scheme was to make sure Perez, then the acting chief, would be selected for the position on a permanent basis.

The pair tried to “deceive the city by secretly rigging the supposedly independent search process for a new Bridgeport Police Department chief to ensure that Perez was ranked as one of the top three candidates and could therefore be awarded a five-year contract to serve as the BPD chief,” the criminal complaint said.