Police panel sets public listening sessions

Hartford — A task force looking to improve policing in Connecticut in response to law enforcement shootings of Black and Hispanic people is turning its attention to what the public thinks should be done, scheduling eight video conference listening sessions in September.

The state Police Transparency and Accountability Task Force will be holding the twice-a-day, two-hour sessions every Thursday next month, on Sept. 3, 10, 17 and 24, from 10 a.m. to noon and 6 to 8 p.m.

The panel discussed the dates during an online meeting Tuesday.

“We know that ultimately and fundamentally, this is about the people of the state of Connecticut,” said state Rep. Joshua Hall, a Hartford Democrat and task force member. “So we want to hear from them whether or not we’re on the right track and looking at the right things.”

The task force planned to launch a new website Tuesday, ctpolicetransparency.com, which will allow the public to sign up to speak at the listening sessions and submit written testimony.

The panel was created last year as part of a police reform bill approved in response to police shootings of unarmed Black and Hispanic people in the state and across the country.

In June, the panel voted to further study proposals in its preliminary report to state lawmakers, including creating an independent authority to investigate police useof-force incidents, banning chokeholds and other neck restraints and examining labor contract sections that make it hard to fire unfit officers.

Many of those proposals, however, were included in a new police reform bill signed into law by Gov. Ned Lamont last month, including creating a new inspector general to investigate police use-of-force cases, limiting circumstances in which deadly use of force, including chokeholds, can be justified, allowing more civilian oversight of police departments and allowing civil lawsuits against officers for violating people’s civil rights, in certain situations.

The new law expanded the scope of the task force’s work to include examining how police execute “no-knock” arrest warrants without identifying themselves before entering people’s homes, how to increase the hiring and promotion of minority and female police officers, whether to limit when police can stop motorists for traffic violations and whether to mandate the revocations of officers’ state certifications that are required for them to hold their jobs, under certain circumstances.

The panel also will review the section of the new law that changes government immunity protections for police officers. Its final report to legislators is due at the end of next year.

“We know that ultimately and fundamentally, this is about the people of the state of Connecticut. So we want to hear from them whether or not we’re on the right track and looking at the right things.”

STATE REP. JOSHUA HALL

A HARTFORD DEMOCRAT AND TASK FORCE MEMBER