New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
Bob Stefanowski pitches plan to reduce crime
Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski’s plan to make Connecticut safer from crime turns on revising use-of-force standards and other elements of the police accountability law adopted in 2020 in response to outrage over the police killing of George Floyd.
Contradicting statistics and research, Stefanowski said Thursday crime was “out of control” and Connecticut’s two-year-old accountability law, which bans chokeholds and clarifies standards for fatal force, is the main cause of police recruiting difficulties that were documented prior to 2020.
At a news conference outside the state Capitol, Stefanowski and his running mate, Rep. Laura Devlin of Fairfield, outlined “S.A.F.E.,” a policy amounting to three bullet points on increasing immunity for police from liability in civil cases, and loosening standards for police use of force and searches conducted by consent.
“What I can tell you is the people in this state do not feel safer,” Devlin said. “Carjackings are becoming the norm. Your car stolen out of your driveway has become the norm. Shots fired in neighborhoods is starting to become the norm in suburbia.”
“I don’t think we’re stoking fear,” Stefanowski said. “And in fact, if we weren’t highlighting this, we wouldn’t be doing our job. I can tell you when we’re out there, people are afraid. I’m not trying to make them afraid. They’re coming to me afraid and saying, ‘What are you going to do about it?’”
Their news conference came three days after public safety officials, joined by Gov. Ned Lamont, reported that violent crime fell by 9% in Connecticut last year and as Republicans nationally have shifted from inflation to crime in campaign advertising in September.
“I thought it was a bit disingenuous for Gov. Lamont to take a victory lap the other day on how we’re doing fighting crime in Connecticut,” Stefanowski said. “I mean, the stats you hear about are all the ones that are down. The ones you don’t hear about are sexual assault being up 23%. You don’t hear about the fact that Hartford will probably have more homicides this year than they’ve had in 20 years.”
Stefanowski said the police accountability law has made police cautious, driving up crime, as has a “defund the police” slogan that came into vogue after Floyd’s death. It was quickly denounced by Lamont and President Joe Biden.
“What do you think’s going to happen if Democrats say we should defund police? Of course, less people are going to apply,” Stefanowski said. “Of course, more people are going to leave. Of course, crime is going to go up.”
The police accountability law created the office of an inspector general to investigate complaints of police misconduct, requires police and correctional officers to intervene when witnessing brutality, mandates body and dash cameras, limits warrantless searches, bans chokeholds in most circumstances and clarifies that deadly force can be used only when police exhaust all reasonable alternatives.
His S.A.F.E. plan promises to “revisit” use-of-force standards, and Stefanowski suggested no specific changes Thursday. It would repeal language that limited searches of cars stopped only for motor vehicle infractions and banned officers from seeking consent to search individuals.
On Thursday, Stefanowski focused almost exclusively on how the law limited qualified immunity, a common-law doctrine that lawyers say is often misunderstood. It never offered total immunity from civil liability for police officers, nor did the 2020 law strip them of the considerable protections they still enjoy.
Municipalities still indemnify police officers from damages in nearly all civil lawsuits, and police unions cannot point to any case in Connecticut before or since the police accountability law where an officer was made to pay damages.
Stefanowski’s view is the view of police unions but one at odds with the analysis of the legislature’s non-partisan Office of Legislative Research.
As the office noted, the law specifically mandates that municipalities indemnify officers from financial loss and expense unless the officer commits “a malicious, wanton, or willful act” — a standard that one of the law’s main authors says protects police from liability for everything but the most egregious acts.