Court dismisses lawsuit by state police

Union’s challenge of provision in accountability law fails on federal level

A federal court has dismissed the state police union’s challenge of a provision in a new police accountability law that would give the public access to information in trooper personnel files that had been sealed by the union’s contract.

The troopers argued the U.S. Constitution’s contract clause limits the ability of states to interfere with valid contracts. But U.S. District Judge Charles S. Haight Jr. ruled Wednesday that the national outrage over police tactics provoked by the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd gave the governor and legislature a “legitimate public purpose” in enacting the law that amends the three-year contract the union negotiated last year.

“The Connecticut Legislature passed the statute in question, captioned ‘an Act Concerning Police Accountability,’ in order to address what Governor Lamont in his Proclamation identified as ‘recent events and the justifiable anger over them’ which evoked Dr. King’s ‘fierce urgency of now.’,” Haight wrote. “In doing so, the Legislature exercised its power to govern in the public interest...”

Parts of the sweeping accountability legislation - in particular, a section that increases the exposure of officers to civil liability – are opposed by police unions. In its legal challenge, the state police union focused on the nullification by the reform law of contract language that exempted parts of personnel files from public disclosure laws.

The legislature ratified the state police union contract in the spring of 2019.

Specifically, the union challenged a contract change that gives the public access to complaints against troopers that were determined to have been unfounded. The union also opposed elimination of contract language that required troopers be given advance notice and the right to make privacy arguments against requests for disclosure of their personnel files.

The police union argued, among other things, that public access to unfounded complaints exposed them and their families to harassment, a concern Haight recognized.