State police deserve thanks, not derision
A consistent theme in Hearst media reports appear, at least in my view, to be anti-police. I point to the most recent article titled “CT Troopers Accused of wrongdoing — including crimes — almost 900 times in six years, records show.” This article is apparently one of a three-part series. The title of the article is an attention grabber. I wholeheartedly agree with the writer that some of the cases are disturbing and the punishments in some cases appear to be light for the violation. However, we do not have all the facts, so it is difficult to sit in judgment.
There are however, numerous facts purposely avoided or not mentioned. Let’s start with the fact that in the time period of six years which the article covered, the Hartford Courant reported the Connecticut state police conducted 800,000 motor vehicle stops. During these stops motorist were not given awards for safe driving, but tickets which are costly as determined by our elected representatives. So slightly over 1 percent of them complained? Wait a minute, let’s add criminal arrests, nonenforcement police civilian contacts, contacts at state police barracks and, oh yes, some of the incidents reported off-duty conduct. The 900 number does not look that large at this point, does it?
If you put all of the numbers of these policecitizen contacts together, the acts of alleged wrongdoing are incredibly low. We should be celebrating our troopers, not tearing them down. In a perfect world there would be no complaints against our police, but then again if our world was perfect there would be no need for law enforcement.
Also not included is any discipline that was challenged by the officer or the police union. I do not know of the process for CSP but I know of several municipal police chiefs who fired or severely disciplined officers accused of wrongdoing to only have the penalty lowered or totally reversed by the state labor board.
Why is the media not reporting on people who fail to comply with our police? People who refuse to stop or at least pull over when those red and blue lights flash? I would be willing to bet that the common theme in most of the on-duty incidents involve a suspect’s lack of compliance. This does not excuse police brutality but perhaps it never would have come to that if the person just fought the case in a criminal or civil court and not in the street.
Let’s look at the recent arrest of trooper Brian North who shot Mubarak Soulemane after he allegedly tried to steal a cellphone and a vehicle prior to leading police on a high-speed pursuit of over 100 mph. Hearst Connecticut reported that “On the day of the shooting, Soulemane, whose mental health appeared to have deteriorated in the days before he was killed …”
If his mental health was in fact deteriorating, what help was offered to him? Would his family’s medical plan covered the treatment? Were there any inpatient beds available if he was deemed to be in need of one?
There is a nationwide mental health crisis in this country and when people with mental health issues get violent or allegedly commit a crime, the police are called into a very difficult situation. Most incidents are handled admirably, but they are not reported on, but if they go wrong and there is video we will see it played over and over. Also, the article mentions the alleged crimes of attempted larceny of a cellphone and a vehicle. The theft of the vehicle at one point was alleged to be a carjacking, which is a robbery and not just a larceny. This does not justify the trooper’s action — the court process will make that determination — but it does change the scenario from a property crime to one of violence.
Nobody dislikes a bad police officer more than a good police officer, other than perhaps the victim of the police misconduct. During my time as a police administrator, I was part of the decisionmaking process to suspend and even arrest police officers. It is an unfortunate part of the job but must be done in some circumstances. We need to recruit, train, promote and retain good police officers. The rhetoric in your media makes that very difficult. I have been an adjunct instructor for over 16 years at different institutions teaching the legal and best practices in the field. As a civilian I want to see our police be the best that they can be for my family and community. Police should not be defunded or derailed by a poorly thought-out police accountability bill — a topic for another day.
Police in Connecticut are not perfect as they are humans, but on the whole the state of Connecticut is way ahead of other states when it comes to training, professionalism and prohibitions of police conduct when compared to other parts of the country. Let’s celebrate the good and continue to remove officers who are not doing a good job by strengthening our labor laws and not by tying the hands of our police officers or demanding arrests for decisions made in a split-second. A small percentage of the citizen-police contacts are concerning and must be dealt with, but please do not overshadow the tremendous work of the men and women who choose to serve in law enforcement.
Let’s celebrate the good and continue to remove officers who are not doing a good job and not by tying the hands of our police officers.
Thomas Wuennemann has been an adjunct instructor at Sacred Heart University for 15 years and also teaches at Naugatuck Valley Community College in Waterbury. He retired last year at the rank of assistant chief after serving 37 years with the Stamford Police.