Police immunity from civil lawsuits under scrutiny
HARTFORD — If there’s one Black Lives Matterrelated proposal that is likely to get revised before the wide-ranging bill on police reform and accountability gets debated in the General Assembly next week, it’s a provision that would end the immunity that shields cops from civil lawsuits for improper actions on the job.
Negotiations on the full extent of the bill, one of four that the House and Senate will have before them during the upcoming special session, could result in the immunity proposal getting dropped entirely from the legislation. Or it could get revised to include only the most-egregious kinds of incident, such as the injury or death of those detained by police.
State Rep. Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, deputy House minority leader, said Wednesday that since people with complaints against police behavior can already sue the municipality or police department, the provision is less needed, particularly since there are other provisions in the bill to end the careers of rogue law enforcement figures by terminating their professional certifications.
“Eliminating qualified immunity doesn’t accomplish much,” Candelora said in a phone interview. “I don’t think that achieves the goal when you want to make sure that bad actors don’t remain on the force. I think our focus should be addressing the grievance process.”
Candelora said that he understands the national movement to end the immunity, along with a list of other items included in the pending bill, including local civilian review boards with subpoena power; outlawing choke holds; a new inspector general; and mandatory dashboard and body cameras for police.
But there is a growing sense in the legislature that if the process of negotiations is to widen support for the bill to include more Republicans, the immunity piece will be focused upon both during an upcoming public hearing on Friday, as well as further negotiations before the House of Representatives takes up the bill on July 23, with the Senate meeting in the following week.
“We put a lot of things on the table with this bill, so undoubtedly there will be some revisions,” said state Rep. Steve Stafstrom, DBridgeport, co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee, who along with state Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New
Haven, will lead a 12-hourlong, virtual public hearing on the bill Friday from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m.
Placed on the legislative calendar as a “listening” session, the committee is seeking public testimony for the Zoom meeting, in which participants will be given a place in the speaking order and will be informed of their approximate time for testifying for a three-minute limit.
The Rev. Stephen A. Cousin, Jr., pastor of the Bethel AME Church in New Haven, a member of the state Police Transparency and Accountability Task Force, said after a Wednesday news conference in favor of the overall reforms held by local leaders of African Methodist Episcopal Churches on the steps of the State Capitol, that he understands that there are many voices that will be heard and that the bill is likely to change.