The Danbury, Connecticut City Council voted 18-2 on Tuesday to amend the city’s police hiring ordinance, opening applications to non-citizens, including permanent legal residents and DACA recipients.
The change removes a residency and citizenship requirement that previously barred anyone who is not a U.S. citizen from applying to become a Danbury police officer, regardless of their legal status in the country.
Danbury Mayor Roberto Alves defended the vote as an effort to widen the pool of eligible applicants already living in the city.
“[This] vote was about removing an unnecessary barrier for qualified people who already call Danbury home and want to serve their community,” Alves said. “These are people who can serve in the United States military, serve as firefighters and EMTs, become doctors, lawyers and other trusted professionals, yet under our old ordinance they could not even apply to become a Danbury police officer. That never made much sense to me.”
Alves said the change does not lower hiring standards for the department.
“The standards are not being lowered,” Alves said. “Every applicant still has to meet the same rigorous background, training, fitness and professional standards required of any Danbury police officer. What we are doing is giving qualified people an opportunity to compete for the job.”
Danbury Police Chief Patrick Ridenhour said the ordinance change does not alter the existing screening process for new hires, which includes background checks, psychological evaluations, training standards and civil service testing.
The vote in Danbury follows changes at the state level. Connecticut first expanded eligibility for state and municipal police hiring to include permanent legal residents and DACA recipients in 2020, with further changes to the law made in 2025.
Two council members voted against the amendment. The measure has drawn objections from Republicans, though the source material reviewed for this report did not identify the dissenting council members by name or detail the specific grounds for their opposition.
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