New state troopers contract raises FOI concerns

Advocates for transparency are concerned about passages in a new State Police contract that would limit information the agency releases.

The contract calls for a 6.5 percent pay increase for troopers over a three-year span starting in fiscal year

2020. The document also includes new language that requires a “court order” to obtain “personal data” about troopers and makes certain personnel files and internal affairs reports exempt from disclosure if the allegations against a trooper were determined to be “unfounded.”

Both additions would supersede the state’s Freedom of Information law, which allows the release of personnel files and investigations of public agency employees unless the information is deemed by the commission as an invasion of privacy, state FIO officials said.

“Even if an officer is exonerated, there’s still an interest in how it was investigated and how the investigating body came to that conclusion,” said Colleen Murphy, executive director of the state’s Freedom of Information Commission.

The commission was aware certain state employee contracts include provisions preventing the release of personal information, Murphy said. But the new language about investigations that are “unfounded” or “unsubstantiated” are “not subject to the Connecticut Freedom of Information Act” is particularly troubling, she said.

Denying the release of how an investigation was conducted undermines public confidence in police, she added.

“The conclusion of these types of investigations should either give the public confidence or pause,” Murphy said.

Attorneys for the agency are still examining the new language to determine what it would mean, said Brian Foley, executive aide to Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection Commissioner James Rovella, who oversees the state police.

“With the understanding of our goal to improve transparency and accountability, we are researching the language to get clarification,” Foley said.

The state police have been without a contract since July

2018. When negotiations between the union and state officials broke down, the contract went to arbitration.

An arbitrator, who heard testimony from both sides over three days earlier this year, agreed to several new provisions added by the state police union, including a paid 30-minute lunch period. Under the previous agreement, troopers were not paid for lunch and were required to remain ready to jump into duty if their help was needed.

The paid lunch period will cost the state $4 million a year, according to figures provided by the state Office of Fiscal Analysis. The arbitrator denied the union’s request for retroactive raises dating back to July 2018, but agreed to a 2 percent pay increase in fiscal year 2020, and a 2.25 percent pay increase for 2021 and 2022.

The cost of the contract over the span of three years will be about $48 million. The money will be initially taken out of the Reserve for Salary Adjustment fund account, which holds funding for collective bargaining costs associated with unsettled contracts, the OFA said.

The previous contract included a stipulation that “personal data” could not be released, Murphy said. The new language says the data can only be released “by court order,” Murphy said.

The previous contract also did not state investigations that led to “unfounded” allegations could not be released. It contradicts the state FOI law, which states internal affairs investigations are public information regardless of the outcome, Murphy said.

State employee bargaining units are allowed to include language that supersedes state law if the language and the law are included in an appendix of the contract, Murphy said.

The contract was approved by the Appropriations Committee Friday after an hour-long public hearing. Legislators credited state police union officials with coming to a fair agreement for both sides.

“No bargaining unit has come before us asking for a 2.5 percent raise and respect,” Rep. Mitch Bolinsky, R-Newtown, told union representatives during the hearing. “You guys put your lives on the line every single day. I represent a community that profoundly understands loss.”

But no legislators, including committee co-chairwoman Rep. Toni Walker, D-New Haven, asked union Executive Director Andrew Matthews about the new language in the contract limiting the release of information.

Walker’s district has been besieged with protests for more police transparency and accountability after a woman was shot last month in New Haven when Hamden and Yale University police officers opened fire on an unarmed man they believed attempted an armed robbery.