Police detective disciplined over ‘dead pool’
Hartford chief says officer allegedly set up wagers on first murder of 2021
A Hartford police detective has been disciplined and reassigned after the chief discovered he tried to create a betting pool, called the “Major Crimes Dead Pool,” and invited officers and court officials to wager on the location of the first murder in the capital city in 2021.
The detective, whom officials would not name publicly, was immediately charged with violating the department’s code of conduct, reassigned and will be disciplined “in short order,” Police Chief Jason Thody wrote in a statement shared publicly on social media Friday evening.
“While no wager took place, this represents an appalling lack of judgment, an extreme insensitivity toward our community, and a clear violation of Department policy for which there will be serious disciplinary consequences,” Thody wrote. “In a year when we have solved more homicides than any year in memory, it also does a disservice to the incredibly hard work that so many of our officers are doing on a daily basis to prevent and solve serious crimes.”
Department officials learned about the would-be wager late Friday afternoon, hours after Hartford blogger Kevin Brookman revealed its existence on his website We The People Hartford, and Thody said he immediately punished the officer at the center of the pool and shared his statement just an hour later, around 6 p.m.
The swift discipline follows a tumultuous year for policing in Hartford and nationwide, as police departments around the country, including in Hartford, grappled with mass protests after the death of George Floyd in May and police in the capital faced a historic increase in gun violence at the end of the summer.
The simultaneous challenges have forced the entire department, from Thody down to rank-and-file officers, to confront the police force’s reputation in the city and attempt to restore trust across the community. But Thody and Mayor Luke Bronin both lamented that the “casualness, callousness and heartlessness” of the proposed wager will undoubtedly undermine months of those efforts.
“Once trust between our department and our community is diminished or lost, it is a very long road to rebuild it,” Thody wrote in an internal message to the department. “This kind of conduct can also have longterm implications on an officer’s career.”
The detective proposed the wager in a text message sent to colleagues this week and named it the Major Crimes Dead Pool.
Participants were asked to pay $20 for a “pin” to mark a location on a map of Hartford, either a street or intersection or even specific address, where they predict the first murder would occur after the New Year, according to the text. Whoever guessed closest to the actual eventual location of the first murder would win the pool of money.
Thody lambasted the detective in an internal message to the department Friday evening and preemptively shut down any retorts that the wager could be construed as harmless or funny.
“Some may feel that these and other comments are harmless jokes, or perhaps a way to blow off steam in a stressful profession. I am telling you that is not reality,” Thody wrote. “We all have good days and bad days; days when we are positive and days when we are cynical. As professional police officers, even on our worst day, we must remain impartial and understand that we are held to a higher standard. Our community rightfully expects more of us.”
This year has been particularly violent in Hartford. Although murders have not increased in 2020 — at 22 so far, compared 23 at this point last year — the number of shootings with injuries soared at the end of the summer and early fall.
Police have responded to more than 200 shootings with injuries so far this year and several especially violent weeks in October prompted Gov. Ned Lamont to approve the assignment of 15 state police detectives to help local detectives handle the glut of cases and crack down on stolen vehicles that are so often involved in the violence.
The move has since proved to be an inflection point and the number of shootings have dropped by nearly two thirds since then, police data show, though a large number of factors impact the rate of violence in urban communities.
But a new police scandal will erase any goodwill the department has earned by its response to the recent gun violence, Thoday warned, and it will impact every member of the department regardless of their individual efforts.
“First and foremost, I implore each of you to think about what this means for the next time you interact with a resident of the community that we serve,”
Thody wrote. “Whether you’re taking a complaint, talking to a victim, or asking a community member for help on a case, this incident may cause them to doubt the fact that you even care — and I know how much this Department cares for our community. What’s even worse is that we have seen similar conduct in the recent past.”
Thody did not specify what recent incidents he meant, but last year three officers were reprimanded for their inappropriate use of social media and Thody warned the department to be more thoughtful about their words and posts — a stern warning he reiterated Friday.
It was not immediately clear whether any other officer or court officials responded to the detective’s text message and Thody did not say whether any other member of the department would be investigated in connection with the betting pool.