Bloomfield ends police hiring freeze, considers reforms

BLOOMFIELD — After a monthlong hiring freeze, the Bloomfield Police Department is looking to fill five vacant positions. Amiscommunication between the department and the town held up the process, Mayor Suzette DeBeatham-Brown said, as the town council considered potential ways to implement the new state police accountability law.

The positions had been open since the prior budget year, with as many as half a dozen additional vacancies on the horizon in the department, according to Town Manager Robert Smith. The open positions had been “fully funded and anticipated to maintain as filled throughout the new year,” Smith said.

Officer Steve Graboski, president of the town’s police union, has criticized the mayor and the council for the delay in hiring. In addition, Graboski said, the town council is interested in creating a citizen review board that would have power in the department. He also said the town discussed replacing some officers with social workers, but that training — a focus of the recently passed police accountability legislation — has been canceled.

“They have expressed that officers need more training but yet won’t allow us to get that training,” Graboski said.

Cuts to the department’s budget for training occurred before the police accountability bill passed, DeBeatham-Brown said, as part of an effort to reduce the tax burden on residents amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“Our entire budget was cut, not in punishment to the department, but because we were thinking of our residents when, in the midst of COVID-19, people had gotten laid off and furloughed,” she said

Wednesday.

The council will reevaluate the budget midyear to see if additional funds can be allocated for training, DeBeatham-Brown said.

“We don’t want to take anything away from our employees that will help make them better, especially in this climate that we’re in,” she said, referencing the arrest in Hartford Sept. 21, in which police used force and tore the clothing of a Black woman who refused to cooperate as they alleged her car was stolen.

“We want to make sure our officers are trained in diversity and trained in de-escalation.”

DeBeat h a m- B r o wn said she would like to see Bloomfield, a Black-majority suburb, take the lead in working to improve policing.

“I do have faith in our Bloomfield police officers, but you can always improve,” she said. “When we talk about accountability, the misconception is we’re trying to punish officers, and I’d look at it differently: The only reason people would be offended is if they’re on the wrong side.”

Conversations about ways to improve policing and implement the state’s new accountability law in Bloomfield are still in preliminary stages. One idea on the table is to add a social worker to the department, something mentioned by reform advocates across the country under the mantra of defunding — or reallocating funds from — the police in favor of increasing funds to social services.

“Whether it’s to support officers’ mental health or helping with de-escalation techniques, it’s always with the thought in mind of improving us and making us better,” DeBeatham-Brown said of adding a social worker position. “It’s not a gotcha.”