Key Points
- Chief Thomas Conlan describes repeated concerns about early voting at Clune and limited involvement in planning.
- Additional police patrols and school personnel will monitor campus during the remaining voting period.
- Police and school officials are reviewing how the armed response affected students.
Why It Matters: The response to Monday’s false alarm is shaping immediate security measures and renewed discussion about where Wilton should hold early voting.
Wilton Police Chief Thomas Conlan said Tuesday that he would expect 2026 to be the last year early voting is held at the Clune Center, describing repeated objections about the location and limited involvement in the town’s plans to use it as a polling place while Wilton High School was in session.
“I would think this would be the last year,” Conlan told GOOD Morning Wilton, one day after a report of a possible armed person prompted a high school lockdown. Police have since confirmed that the individual reported was a voter carrying a walking cane who posed no threat.
Conlan said he was not involved in the initial site-selection process when early voting was first implemented in 2024 and was again not included in planning the following year. He said nevertheless, both he and Superintendent Kevin Smith voiced concerns each year after learning the plans.
“We both agreed that the Clune Center wasn’t optimal,” he said. “It’s always been our stance that that’s not a great location.”
Despite Conlan’s statement, town officials have not yet announced a decision to relocate early voting. First Selectman Toni Boucher said Monday that officials would revisit Comstock Community Center as an alternative and discuss options at the Board of Selectmen’s Nov. 2 meeting.
For the remaining voting period, Conlan said police will increase patrols and visibility on campus, while additional school personnel will monitor access between the voting location and student spaces.
Those measures emerged from a Tuesday morning, Oct. 27, review with Smith and the schools’ emergency operations group.
The review also addressed the effect of Monday’s response on students who saw officers approaching with rifles — a sight Conlan acknowledged could be frightening even as officers were responding as trained.
Chief Previously Favored Another Location
Conlan said when he initially raised concerns, the feedback he received was that the Clune Center met the registrars’ criteria for an early voting site. Alternatives discussed included Comstock and Trackside Teen Center, although neither was a perfect option, he said.
Conlan recalled that both he and Smith felt the Clune Center was not optimal, a position they reiterated before each subsequent voting cycle.
But Conlan emphasized that even though he objected to the current location for early voting, he wasn’t assessing the existing setup as unsafe.
“There’s a difference between saying it’s not the ideal location and saying it’s not a safe location,” he said.
Police were comfortable with the arrangement as long as personnel monitored the doors separating the voting area from the school and could call officers if a problem arose, he said.
That was how polling personnel had handled previous voting periods without significant issues, and the few problems reported by the registrars generally involved students or school staff attempting to pass through the voting area and being told to turn back.
Some members of the public have voiced concerns about holding early voting at the high school since it first became available. Comments on a 2024 GMW article included one person citing a multitude of complaints — from reports of adults able to enter the school through the auditorium and members of the public parking in spots students pay for, to time conflicts with evening musical events and “elderly community members running the gauntlet every afternoon at 3 p.m. with school buses and teenaged/inexperienced drivers.”
Conlan’s remarks follow concerns raised by Wilton Education Association President and WHS teacher Peggy Meurer at the Oct. 22 Board of Education meeting, when she requested that either voting be moved to another location or an officer be stationed at the polling location, for fear of what might happen.
After Monday’s lockdown, Smith told GMW he renewed the district’s request for early voting to take place somewhere not attached to a school.
Increased Security Measures Meant to Reassure Students, Staff and the Public
For the remainder of the early voting period, officials will implement additional security measures, including adding school personnel to monitor access points between the Clune Center and the school, making school resource officers more visible around the main entrance and parking lots, and increasing police patrols through campus.
However, police do not plan to station an officer directly at the polling entrance.
“There are individuals that might find that a little bit intimidating,” Conlan said. “It’s a fine line for us.”
He also clarified that recently passed state legislation restricting police presence near election sites does not prevent the approved patrols.
Section 57 of Public Act 26-42, effective July 1, generally prohibits law enforcement officers from knowingly being within 250 feet of an election site, subject to exceptions including emergency circumstances and permission from the secretary of the state or polling moderators.
Conlan said the registrars had communicated approval through the moderators for normal police patrols in the area. Officers can also respond to any calls for service.
Conlan said some students were understandably affected by Monday’s response and that a more visible police presence could help reassure them.
Surveillance Confirmed Voter Was Carrying a Cane
Conlan provided additional details about Monday’s incident, confirming that the report came from a voter leaving the polling area who saw another man approaching.
A 911 call at approximately 11:42 a.m. described a man who appeared to be carrying a rifle or a rifle barrel, Conlan said. Earlier police statements had referred to a “barrel” over the man’s shoulder.
A school resource officer who had recently left the area returned to the high school and was the first officer to arrive, within approximately one or two minutes of the call, according to Conlan. Other officers followed.
There was no initial information that the man had entered the school, Conlan said. Officers coordinated their response while dispatchers and personnel with access to school surveillance reviewed footage.
The video showed a man wearing a green jacket carrying a walking cane up along his back. He entered the polling location, voted and left before officers arrived.
While earlier police statements described him as the person most closely matching the report, Conlan said Tuesday that police had confirmed he was the person the caller had seen.
Officers checked the Clune Center, including its second floor and the access point to the school. Poll workers reported that nobody had entered the school from the voting area, and officers confirmed the connecting door was secure, Conlan said.
Reviewing the Effect on School Community
Conlan said the response also prompted discussion about when to move students into classrooms and away from views of officers conducting a search with rifles.
An initial anonymous tip to GMW from a student inside the high school reported at least five officers with long rifles drawn at various locations around the exterior of the school. A GMW reporter on campus during the incident confirmed the report and observed numerous officers, including several carrying long guns, on-site. Later, students told GMW that they were moved into classroom corners so they couldn’t be seen from the hallway during the lockdown.
Conlan said the swift response by multiple officers holding weapons and prepared for any scenario is appropriate for a call involving an individual who was possibly armed, but he acknowledged that seeing such an active response could be frightening for some students and teachers.
“For some people, it’s, ‘That’s great that they respond so quickly.’ But then there’s that flip side for some people… that it was a little bit too much or scary,” he said.
He added that police will continue working with school officials and incorporating those considerations into staff training. “We just have to be mindful of that as well when we’re responding to these type incidents.”
Tuesday’s review included whether an earlier hold or lockdown could have limited students’ exposure to that activity, he said.
“To respond to these active aggressor type incidents, we train with rifles, so officers adequately got their rifles out of their cars and accessed the school. And one of the things we learned from this in talking with the school … maybe it would have been better if we put put it a secure hold or lockdown to [keep] the students [from] visibly seeing officers outside with rifles,” Conlan said.
