Proposal for police review board met with support, reluctance

— A task force recommendation to create a Civilian Police Review and Relations Board in Middletown has been met with both support and opposition, in many ways mirroring the nationwide debate over policing in the past several years.

Members of the Anti-Racism Task Force recently sent a draft proposal for an independent panel of citizens charged with reviewing complaints made against the department and its officers, among other duties.

Document recommendations include using the civilian review board to repair public confidence in the professionalism and accountability of the department through the unbiased review of complaints; provide a timely, fair and objective review; and accept complaints from residents regarding the conduct of officers.

Mayor Ben Florsheim began reviewing the recommendations last week. They will be examined, and changes may be made in the final version in conjunction with the task force, which, he said, has worked with the community and others around the state to draw up its advice.

The issue also was discussed during meetings of the Charter Revision Committee in 2021, but was not included in its final report.

Police reaction

The Middletown Police Union AFSCME Local 1361 Executive Board alleged in a May 15 letter that task force members called officers and their actions “racist, unlawful and targeting minorities” at one of the meetings.

President Lt. Nick Puorro said union members waited some time from the task force’s March meeting to allow the board and others to respond to comments.

“The delay in the letter was because we sat by for several months and waited to see what happened,” he said, speaking on behalf of the 115 officers on the force. “We were looking for someone to defend us.”

The correspondence, harshly worded in some points, said the agency is “one of the finest in the state.”

Police Chief Erik Costa agreed with at least one point in the union letter.

“I’m running a police department that I believe is not racist,” he said. “We always look to get better, and look to the Anti-Racism Task Force to make us better, but not in a way where we’re building mistrust. I don’t like that at all.”

Costa has his own opinion on Middletown establishing a civilian review board.

“Right now, I don’t even know if it’s right for us to even have a CRB,” he said. “Our officers have done above and beyond in the last two years, more than they’ve ever done, to build bridges in the community.”

“This is something the city is looking to do,” the mayor said. “If we haven’t lived up to this goal completely, it’s not because of any desire to exclude anybody. There was a notion from some that [drawing up the proposal] was done in secret. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

Puorro said he and other union members want a seat at the table.

Honoring ‘citizen voices’

Sasha Armstrong-Crockett, co-chairwoman of the Anti-Racism Task Force, said the subject has received a great deal of consideration: “It’s been on our agenda over 19 times since 2020.”

“We met with Chief Costa, we reviewed the significant disparities highlighted in the CT Racial Profiling Report, received guidance from Jorge X. Camacho (clinical lecturer in law and the policing, law, and policy director of the Justice Collaboratory at Yale Law School), and reviewed the dozen CRB models we already have in the state,” she said.

The co-chairwoman said she’s personally against the idea of a CRB, but “our responsibility was to honor the citizen voices documented in the NCCJ report,which was a 2017 city-funded project pushed by Councilman Gene Nocera to address racial inequity within the city.”

Civilian-led police oversight boards and commissions can look a few different ways, Armstrong-Crockett said. “They can have broad independent authority or be an extension of the current police structure, and it can be hybrid like Westport. I’m not sure how Middletown’s model will look because it’s still in process.”

The task force no longer is involved with the proposal, the co-chairwoman added.

“We are looking to make recommendations on labor equity and housing segregation in Middletown next. Any recommendations on the criminal justice theme moving forward may be around the city initiating some reconciliation work between MPD and the community,” Armstrong-Crockett said.

‘A touchy subject’

Councilman and 22-year Middletown police Sgt. Mike Marino said Puorro was “very concise and specific with the points he made” in the letter. “I, for one, didn’t think he was adversarial. It was more of a defensive posture.”

He is also against the idea of a CRB, and said he suspects not as many people support the idea as it may seem, adding that they may be hesitant to voice their opinions in the open.

“We live in a world where it’s a touchy subject that people are afraid to take a stand on,” Marino said.

He is convinced that such review boards lack a track record of success. “If they were, every police department would have them. Very, very few do.”

Costa would also like to see the creation of a review board working group before its establishment that would include city stakeholders and the public.

In the past, the chief said, he backed the idea of such a board tasked with supporting law enforcement if it were to establish programming and training, as well as foster a better connection with the community.

It could also provide “another conduit for people who feel not heard to file complaints when they felt they’ve been wronged, through a CRB; but to have oversight over discipline or investigative matters — absolutely not,” Costa said.