New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Policy disappoints police accountability advocates
OLD SAYBROOK — The Board of Police Commissioners has finalized a correspondence policy that limits which members see civilian complaints addressed to the body, rejecting a version that would have caused all complaints against department personnel to be shared with the full board and placed on meeting agendas.
Opposed by the board’s two Democrats and favored by its five Republican members, the decision disappointed advocates who are seeking increased police accountability and accessibility to the board. Still, those for and against the policy said it marked an improvement.
The board previously did not have a correspondence policy written into its bylaws, leading to conflict earlier this fall after two members discovered that a letter complaining about an Old Saybrook Police Department employee’s alleged conduct was not delivered to them for months .
While the letter was addressed to individual police commissioners, it was reviewed only by
Chief of Police Michael Spera and current Chairman Frank Keeney, as well as commission member Carl von Dassell, who was chairman of the board when the correspondence was received.
Per United States Postal Service regulations, when mail is addressed to individuals at an organization’s address, the organization’s internal policies dictate how it is handled after delivery.
“My biggest concern was that a continuous pattern of complaints against an officer could, in theory, be hidden from the Commission as a whole.”
Carl Fortuna, Old Saybrook First Selectman
Because the new policy requires the commission clerk to notify board members of the receipt of letters individually addressed to them, Chairman Frank Keeney in an October meeting indicated it would alleviate board member Renee Shippee’s concerns about board members not receiving complaints and mail, some of which were shared by First Selectman Carl Fortuna.
“My biggest concern was that a continuous pattern of complaints against an officer could, in theory, be hidden from the Commission as a whole,” Fortuna said in an email to the Register Wednesday. “In such a case, the other six members of the Commission could be blindsided and criticized for not doing their job should those complaints come to light.”
In a separate email, which Fortuna had sent to Keeney and was read during Monday’s meeting, the first selectman emphasized that his concern that anything “could in theory be hidden from the PC over time” in the future was “not the case with Chief Spera or Chairman Keeney.”
In terms of the possibility of complaints not being shared with board members, Fortuna said he supported the new correspondence policy “if the [police commission] feels there are enough safeguards in the bylaws draft being proposed.”
Shippee voted against the policy, instead favoring an alternate version put forth by fellow Democrat Alfred “Chub” Wilcox that would have caused every complaint sent to the board or its members to be shared with the entire body, according to meeting footage.
The approved policy requires that all complaints are ultimately given to the chief for processing and does not guarantee that all board members would obtain copies of them.
Instead, correspondence that is addressed to the board as a whole and pertains to a personnel issue will only be shared with the chairperson, who forwards the complaint to the chief and notifies the remaining board members of the “general nature of the correspondence.”
Correspondence that is not personnel-related is to be shared in regular meetings, per the policy, which also bars commissioners from independently investigating personnel matters. If they learn of such concerns about personnel, they are to share them with the chief, the policy says
While Wilcox agreed the new rules around mail handling were an improvement, he contended the policy failed to provide a mechanism for citizens who wanted their complaints to be handled by the board rather than the chief, according to the meeting footage.
“When a citizen brings a complaint about the department we oversee, and he brings it to us, we have to make a considered decision [about] what to do with that complaint,” Wilcox said.
“We should not make a blanket judgment in advance that no matter what the complaint is about, we’re just going to kick it over to the chief for him to handle.”
But board member Joseph Maselli, who serves as secretary, argued the policy would ensure the board’s involvement when necessary.
“It actually insists that we are notified, that we’re all in the loop,” he said at the meeting. “Nothing can slip through the cracks if we’re told about a complaint, and then, you know, the chief has to get back to the chairman on it and so we know if we have to get involved.”
Fortuna said in the email sent to Keeney that was read at the meeting that he supports Spera’s authority over complaints.
“I understand civilian complaints and consequent discipline should be dealt with by the
Chief and I wholeheartedly agree with this,” he wrote. “Further, let me be clear: I support Chief Spera’s authority to discipline his officers and I believe Chief Spera justly and appropriately manages his force and disciplines officers when necessary.”
Board Vice Chairman Kenneth Reid, who also supported the correspondence policy, praised the department during the meeting.
“What are [the police] doing wrong? There’s a handful of people in town that aren’t happy. These men and women are out there risking their lives, staying away from their families, dealing with the COVID, and generally when they deal with some of the people in town that are breaking the law, those are the ones that seem to be reaching out to their friends to make complaints to the town hall or get a hold of the commissioners or talk about it at a cocktail party,” Reid said.
“These guys do a good job,” Reid said of the officers. “We
spend so much time in our meetings talking about disciplining and all this kind of stuff. I’m just getting tired of it.”
Reid clarified in a statement at the meeting’s end that the board intervenes if there are “hiccups.”
Mark Hand, a resident who regularly speaks at board meetings in favor of increased accountability, said his concerns about the department are not personal — they are “about the good of the community.”
He said he hadn’t had “any negative interactions with the
Old Saybrook Police Department personally” but wants a more accessible commission, noting the board does not have a publicly-listed email address.
“It is very hard for people to complain against the people that have the power to imprison and punish,” he said. “We should not be discouraging open access.”
A proposal earlier this year that would have changed the board’s online contact from the chief to two board members
failed 5-2, with the vote total falling along party lines.
Hand said he thinks the new correspondence policy was a slight improvement since it requires that letters addressed to individual commissioners are shared with them.
Spera did not return email requests for comment Wednesday. Messages were also left with Keeney and Reid.
Shippee, the board member who supported Wilcox’s proposal, was “disappointed” the original draft passed, according to remarks she made at the close of Monday’s meeting.
“When the townspeople come out and speak out and ask for things and we don’t follow any of that, that’s just not right,” she said.
Footage of the meeting, which was held over Zoom and included a reading of the policy, is available on YouTube.