Lamont: Troopers sent to Hartford amid ‘sharp spike’ in shootings

HARTFORD — State troopers will be joining Hartford police to help fight what the city’s mayor referred to as a “sharp spike” in recent shootings.

Detectives with the State Police Major Crimes Squad will be embedded in the Violent Crimes Task Force, Gov. Ned Lamont’s office said in a news release Friday.

Their goal: Finding what the governor’s office referred to as “the small group of violent actors” involved in most of the deadly and non-fatal gun violence in the state’s capital.

“It’s important to be clear that this is not a broad deployment of state police to patrol Hartford, but a carefully targeted assignment of investigative and other specialized resources as part of a state, local, and federal partnership to directly address the drivers of this spike in gun violence,” Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin said in a prepared statement.

He said the state Department of Correction is also stepping up parole supervision measures.

The move comes after the city police union released a statement this week, claiming the rise in shootings was the result of police stepping back enforcement due to the state’s new police accountability law.

“Our elected officials can blame the health pandemic and related matters to this wave of violence,” Officer Anthony Rinaldi, president of the Hartford Police Union said. “Sadly, the truth is that police officers are taking a step back and not proactively patrolling their communities due to the uncertainty and vagueness of the Police Accountability Act.”

Following the governor’s announcement Friday, state Republicans called for Lamont to suspend the police accountability law in the wake of Hartford’s gun violence.

"After hearing from our local police officers, there is no question in my mind that the new police accountability bill is impacting the public safety of our residents," said state Rep. Vincent Candelora, the deputy house Republican leader.

He called the deployment of state police to Hartford “well-intentioned,” but said state police are also bound by the restrictions in the new law, passed in the wake of national protests over the death of George

Floyd.

“The new law ties the hands of officers, makes proactive policing more difficult, and has already begun to hurt recruitment and retention of good officers,” said Senate Republican Leader Len Fasano.

Both called for Lamont to suspend the law through an executive order under the COVID-19 emergency declartation, powers that are set to expire in February.

Max Reiss, a spokesman for Lamont, declined to comment Friday when asked about those remarks.

The move, less than three weeks before the presidential election, comes as police unions around the state have overwhelmingly endorsed Republican candidates this fall, raising concern among some experts.

The leading Republicans comments also drew skepticism from state Rep. Steve Stafstrom, a Bridgeport Democrat.

In a tweet, Stafstrom said if Connecticut Republicans were going to “politicize violence,” then the national party should stop “blocking even the most modest gun restrictions.”

Hartford police recorded three separate shootings last Friday with one fatality, four shots-fired calls Saturday and an additional shooting Sunday “that left one victim with a gunshot wound to the head,” said the statement, released on the union’s Twitter Tuesday.

The weekend shootings followed a week when city police responded to shootings daily, Rinaldi said.

The governor’s office said the statewide narcotics task force will focus on Hartford, particularly on seizing illegal and stolen guns involved in the drug trade.

The state police auto theft task force will also concentrate its efforts on Hartford.

“In many instances, these stolen vehicles have been linked to shootings, illegal firearms, and illegal narcotics,” the governor’s release said.

State police will also monitor highways, offramps and on-ramps, and the state forensics lab will use expedited services for ballistics, DNA and bullet casing tracing.

“The state is here to provide support where we can, especially when it comes to public safety,” Lamont said in a prepared statement. “The Connecticut State Police will work collaboratively with the City of Hartford and its police department.”