Time To Scrap The Sheriffs’ System

The folksy refrain from people defending the status quo is “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” The office of high sheriff in Connecticut, first established in the 1600s, broke so long ago that no one can remember when there weren’t problems with it. Yet a political action committee supporting the sheriffs’ cause in Connecticut has raised over $55,000 for a campaign in these final weeks before the election to preserve the status quo. They are urging Connecticut voters not to approve a constitutional amendment to abolish the office of county high sheriff, the last corrupted vestige of Connecticut’s long-extinct system of county government.

The sheriffs’ PAC, known as the Citizens Opposed To Constitutional Change, will argue that the measure will deprive voters of a choice by replacing the elective high sheriff’s position with appointed state marshals. The fact is that the sheriffs’ system, with its more than 1,200 deputies and special deputies, is so riddled with the mutual back-scratching of patronage and cronyism, that challengers rarely stand a chance of unseating incumbents, and when they do, the patronage and cronyism just starts all over again. There never was much of a choice in the elections for high sheriff.

Numerous scandals have percolated out of the sheriffs’ system over the years. Two county high sheriffs have been arrested as have several lower level employees in the system, a female prisoner was raped in a New Haven County sheriff van, and convicted felons have been hired. Just last week, state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said that his eight-month investigation into the sheriffs’ system uncovered more misconduct including the violation of gun and tax laws and the improper distribution of badges.

The proposed constitutional amendment on this year’s ballot enjoys wide bipartisan support. Almost everyone, including some of those working in the current sheriffs’ system, agrees that things have gotten out of hand. Only the complete elimination of the current corrupt system will restore ethics and professionalism to the work of the deputies who provide courtroom security, transport prisoners to and from the courts, deliver legal papers, serve evictions notices, and perform other key functions of our state’s judicial system. The General Assembly’s Program Review and Investigations Committee, co-chaired by Newtown’s State Representative Julia Wasserman, conducted a thorough study of the sheriffs’ system and concluded that the work of the sheriffs could be more efficiently and more competently handled by the state’s Judicial Department.

There is no longer any question that the high sheriffs’ system is broken beyond repair. The time to scrap it and start anew is Election Day, November 7. We urge everyone to vote in favor of the state constitutional amendment abolishing the office of high sheriff.