Police officers across the region have been caught engaging in a variety of misdeeds in recent years — ranging from being late for duty to improper use of force to breaking into cars.
But superiors rarely handed down the most serious forms of punishment, a Hearst Connecticut Media Group investigation of hundreds of cases found.
Instead, through in-house proceedings shielded from public scrutiny, departments often resorted to discipline that experts say is more of a slap on the wrist and insufficient to halt or reduce future misconduct.
Hearst Connecticut Media over the past nine months compiled and examined more than 1,800 internal charges of alleged officer misconduct at 30 local police departments primarily in Fairfield and New Haven counties. The internal investigation cases covered the period from 2015 to 2020.
About
1%
of sustained misconduct charges resulted in the officer being fired.
Among internal charges that were sustained, meaning misconduct was found, about three-quarters resulted in a verbal warning, reprimand, counseling or order for more training.
About one quarter of sustained charges drew a suspension from duty, while about 1 percent resulted in the officer being fired.
Most officers put under the microscope faced no discipline at all because their colleagues handling the internal investigations found no wrongdoing.
About
60%
of internal charges of police misconduct were dismissed as unfounded, not sustained, exonerated, and in some cases, officers quit mid-probe.
Overall, about 40 percent of the charges against officers reviewed for this story were sustained by the department, while the rest were dismissed as unfounded, not sustained, exonerated, and in some cases, officers quit mid-probe.
The rate of sustained charges goes down to almost one-third if one department, which had an unusually high rate of sustaining charges, is excluded.
Police misconduct investigations
Within Connecticut police departments surveyed, the rate of sustained allegations ranges from 17% to 83%.
Sustained
Resigned/retired amid investigation
Not sustained
Percentage0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%100%NewtownNew CanaanNew HavenEast HamptonTrumbullBranfordStratfordMonroeStamfordDanburyWiltonAnsoniaCheshireNorth BranfordWinchesterRidgefieldWoodbridgeFairfieldHamdenGreenwichReddingTorrington
Source: the town police departments
Note: “Not sustained” category includes: not sustained, unfounded, exonerated, dismissed, withdrawn. Investigations from 2015 to 2020; some 2020 cases may still be pending or not accounted for.
In one case reviewed in-depth by Hearst Connecticut – a matter which has not been reported on publicly before – an officer, while saying “you gonna go to sleep,” used an improper chokehold on a man who cried out “I can’t breathe.” The officer, who had been disciplined at least twice before, served a brief suspension and went on, records show, to engage in misconduct at least two more times; though details on his other misconduct cases were limited.
Meanwhile, numerous departments have withheld records for months, flouting timelines under the state’s public records law and – despite a national push for greater transparency and accountability – keeping troves of data and documents about police misconduct effectively secret.
Other agencies provided only vague descriptions of officer misconduct. It’s unclear if the records provided accurately reflect the total number of claims of excessive force.
Only a small portion of charges Hearst Connecticut reviewed were clearly labeled as use of force investigations. Improper use of force allegations against 12 officers were sustained while 28 officers were cleared — more than twice as many.
Still, the documents that were provided outlined other grave offenses, such as lying, failing to make an arrest and violating conflict of interest standards, along with potentially criminal acts, such as faking timecards and larceny.
More minor offenses included inappropriate social media posts, violating paperwork requirements and administrative procedure infractions.
Mike Lawlor, a criminal law professor at the University of New Haven and a former chairman of the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, said the findings highlight how police discipline and accountability must be strengthened.
“The discipline handed out is not appropriate,” Lawlor said. “There is a lot of pressure to change the way they do this. A lot of this is governed by collective bargaining, which has to change.”
Milford Police Chief Keith Mello, a past president of the Connecticut Police Chief’s Association, said most departments try to issue fair discipline and use it to improve officer performance.
“What the public may not realize is we are holding people accountable,” Mello said.
“It’s not realistic to say every time a cop does something wrong, they should be fired,” the chief said. “That’s not supportable. We struggle with making sure we hold people accountable; that discipline is fair.”
The Hearst investigation comes amid national debate and protest over police conduct, sparked in part by the murder last year of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Officer Derek Chauvin was convicted this spring on criminal charges that he killed Floyd by pinning him to the ground for nearly 10 minutes. Chauvin is due to be sentenced Friday.