Announcement Detail
HARTFORD, CT – An bipartisan pair of lawmakers offered their support Tuesday for a bill that would modernize training for new police officers and strengthen ties between social workers and law enforcement.
Rep. Greg Howard, R-Stonington, and Rep. Jillian Gilchrest, D-West Hartford, gathered with law enforcement and educators at the Legislative Office Building to express their support for House Bill 7202, which would improve training for law enforcement and strengthen ties between social workers and law enforcement.
The bill has two main sections. The first requires the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection (DESPP) to establish a social work and law enforcement project at Southern Connecticut State University to enhance collaboration between law enforcement and social workers in the state.
The second section requires DESPP to establish a police training center to train law enforcement in crime-scene processing, collection of forensic evidence, and criminal investigations in Connecticut. The bill also includes enhanced training for interactions between our law enforcement personnel and individuals on the autism disorder spectrum.
Howard, who is a police detective in Stonington, said it is important for Connecticut to provide these trainings. He said that when he became a detective in 2015, he attended training on crime-scene processing at the University of Rhode Island, which is not far from Stonington.
However, he said that receiving the training Rhode Island was problematic because it was specific to Rhode Island law. He said that when he learned about laws of evidence, search and seizure, and how to cooperate with the state Medical Examiner’s office, the training was focused on Rhode Island
“Obviously, I work in Connecticut, and no such class currently exists in the state of Connecticut put on by the state specifically for active duty law enforcement officers,” Howard said, adding that the bill would create a training center at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain.
Kim Kostelis, provost and vice president of academic affairs at CCSU, said the new training center would fit well with the college’s mission.
“It has been many years in the making that we have been discussing this need as the representative just shared with you as well,” she said. “This not only aligns with our mission as a state university, but [it] also aligns with our existing public safety pipeline programs that we have, degree programs, and also non-degree certificate programs for working adults. So we are here to just illustrate our continued commitment to this partnership, but also the continued expansion of the programming, the curriculum, as well as physical infrastructure, which we have already committed at Central to begin that process, with the hopes that we have the support from the bill and the funding to continue and be able to offer the police training here in the state at Central Connecticut State University.”
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