Announcement Detail
Is there really confusion over what we should expect from anyone whose job description is “law enforcement?”
No one questions that the primary duties of police and others in law enforcement are to uphold the law, protect people and property and answer calls for help in event of emergencies.
There should be equal clarity that they can never violate laws themselves. And yet we suspect that the very people who make the laws will spend considerable time in the weeks ahead debating how certain ones apply to the people who devote their careers to protecting and serving.
Lawmakers, in fact, are already squabbling over proposed legislation to clarify which positions in the field of law enforcement could face criminal charges in the event they intentionally report false data.
It’s hard to believe there is any indecision over this.
Yet to many politicians, police stand for something even more foreboding that the threat of arrest: the possibility that they will risk endorsements from police unions. So Democrats and Republicans are posturing over the consequences of the Connecticut State Police ticketing scandal.
A legislative committee wants to expand a proposal by Gov. Ned Lamont that would treat the intentional report of faux police data as a crime. A legislative committee wants to expand it beyond troopers and police to also include positions such as dispatchers and office clerks.
In response, Republican leaders in the House and Senate say the state’s 2020 police accountability law has crippled morale among police and led to a spike in crime in Connecticut.
“Both House and Senate Republicans stand with our law enforcement,” Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding of Brookfield said during a news conference. “There have been continuous efforts on the part of the majority to limit their abilities to protect themselves and individuals in their communities. Our majority here in Hartford continues to put in measures and is doubling down on these measures to prevent police officers from doing their job to protect every single one of us.”
Recent data suggests such outcries about rampant crime in Connecticut are nonsense. The Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection (DESPP) reported a 4% drop in overall crime in the state in 2022, which includes an 18% decrease in robberies and 3% drop in violent crime.
DESPP Commissioner Ronnell Higgins said, “police officers are held to a higher standard,” and could already be dismissed over false reports.
In any field, intentionally faking data would likely lead to dismissal, and possible criminal charges. Lawmakers can tweak existing policies, but the public expects anyone who works in law enforcement to follow the rules. Most of the time, they do. Though various probes into the scandal are not complete, many Connecticut troopers have been cleared. That’s good news.
But these should not be considered higher standards. They are simply standards. It’s the least we can demand from the people who enforce our laws.
A legislative committee wants to expand a proposal by Gov. Ned Lamont that would treat the intentional report of faux police data would be treated as a crime. A legislative committee wants to expand it beyond troopers and police to also include positions such as dispatchers and office clerks.
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