Years before federal authorities took Bridgeport police Chief Armando Perez into custody Thursday and alleged he fixed the process that led to his hiring, residents and civic groups had decried a nationwide search for a new police chief they feared would point to the longtime friend of Mayor Joe Ganim.
So when Perez was cast in front of a federal magistrate judge on charges that he and the city’s acting personnel director set out to rig a charter-mandated police chief examination in Perez’s favor, few were met with surprise.
The civic group Bridgeport Generation Now, which led a charge in 2018 to open up the search process to public scrutiny, issued a statement that their suspicions were confirmed by Thursday’s arrest.