In a brief special meeting on June 15, the Newtown Police Commission unanimously approved adopting the police department’s updated Use of Force Policy, with several minor revisions to a draft previously submitted by Chief James Viadero.

Viadero explained he had been looking at the Newtown department’s policy, as well as similar policies at other departments, in recent weeks, since the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis, Minn., May 25.

Hear more from Chief Viadero and members of the Police Commission on this subject by viewing The Newtown Bee's "Diversity Discussions - Part 1" video below:

In his capacity as an appointed member of the Connecticut Police Officer Standards and Training Council, or POSTC, Viadero plans to be involved with the development of a statewide use of force policy.

“There are some minimum standards that should be included in police use of force policies or in their policy manuals,” Viadero said. “We took a look at our policy, and it was pretty consistent with these [standards] but felt that a few of these things needed to be emphatically stated.”

Viadero said he felt so strongly about those updates that he put them in place for the local department ahead of their approval by the commission, “because I felt it was something that had to get done.”

“Our training and our policy basically deals with a continuum,” he told the commission. “A reasonable amount of force should be used depending on the situation they are confronted with, and it can escalate either up or down depending on what the officer reasonably sees they are confronted with.”

Viadero said that officers are trained to utilize verbal warnings and de-escalation strategies before any other use of force is considered.

“This is something our policy included [already]. De-escalation is something our officers are trained [to employ],” he said. “I’m happy to say that our officers are all trained in crisis intervention.”

Education And Prohibitions

That lengthy class provides official certification that each officer is educated about various mental health issues and situations that they may face with individuals where related de-escalation intervention may be required, the chief said. Newtown police policies also prohibit the use of any type of choke hold or any tactic that can affect or compromise a person’s breathing or affect carotid blood flow, he added.

That includes any type of hold using the knee — which was the type of restraint that cost Floyd his life.

The use of any type of neck hold is only permissible in situations “where use of deadly force is authorized,” Viadero told the commission.

“In Newtown, we have never trained, and never authorized the use of strangle holds, and in this current policy we emphatically state it,” he said. The latest policy takes that point a bit further, stating that holds a reasonable person would believe could restrict breathing like chest compression by use of a knee are prohibited except in situations where deadly force is authorized.

“It has to be a deadly situation, a lethal force situation,” Viadero said.

He added that while Newtown officers had long since stopped being issued or trained in using a baton, about a year ago their use was removed from the Newtown policy because “we felt it was an instrument we did not need any longer.”

All Newtown’s officer training — like most municipal departments in Connecticut — is conducted at POSTC standards. And as a POSTC member, Viadero has already contributed to writing the latest adopted statewide police pursuit policies.

Given the work Viadero has already done in developing and improving the Newtown Use of Force Policy, he is planning to participate in the POSTC subcommittee writing a similar policy that will be mandated statewide in the near future, he told The Newtown Bee following the commission meeting.

The updated policy also emphatically reinforces each officer's mandated duty to intervene in cases where such use of force is being employed, to report such incidents, and codifies a prohibition on retribution against any officer making an intervention and subsequent report of prohibited use of force.

Pursuing Higher Accreditation

Currently, Viadero explained to the commission, Newtown police are operating under Tier 1 accreditation that incorporates 127 best practice standards and procedures, and that in the near future he will pursue upgrading to even higher Tier 2 and Tier 3 standards.

Commissioner Joan Plouffe mentioned an executive order that was issued hours before the commission meeting by Governor Ned Lamont that pertained to state police use of force standards. Viadero, who reviewed that order prior to the commission meeting, said Newtown already conformed to the points outlined in the governor’s mandate.

In regard to a question about any recent incidents where there was discharge of a Newtown department firearm, Chairman Joel Faxon stated that over the nine years he has served the commission, he cannot recall any incidents of a weapon being fired except in cases where an injured or sick animal had to be euthanized.

Vice Chair Scott Cicciari said in his review of five years of complaints to the department, there were none involving the use of force or racial profiling.

Commissioner Neil Chaudhary suggested some minor revisions around the subject of use of force against an individual using a vehicle as a weapon. Viadero said the language was drawn in part from the state pursuit policy, and that while it was prohibitive to shoot at a moving vehicle, in situations where a moving vehicle was being driven “down a sidewalk mowing people down,” that level of force might be permissible.

“There are times when a vehicle was being used against another person, at that point [the policy] would not preclude the officer from using deadly force,” Viadero said.

Prior to the vote to accept and adopt the latest revisions, accounting was made for the future inclusion of an appendix that could add resources and information from statewide reforms that could be mandated in the coming weeks and months, including from the POSTC policy that Newtown’s chief will be helping to develop.

Review the latest NPD Use of Force Policy by CLICKING HERE