Policing The Police—

State Police Internal Affairs Unit Reforms Urged

Following an investigation into serious deficiencies in the Connecticut State Police’s (CSP) internal affairs unit, the state attorney general is recommending a series of reforms intended to rectify the problems.

On December 4, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, New York State Police (NYSP) Superintendent Wayne Bennett, and Connecticut Department of Public Safety Commissioner Leonard Boyle disclosed the contents of a 207-page investigatory report that documented the shortcomings of the CSP internal affairs system and made various recommendations for reform. The 13-month investigation included 262 interviews and focused on 19 internal affairs cases.

The investigation had been requested by Connecticut state troopers who had filed “whistleblower” complaints with the attorney general’s office about the state police’s internal affairs process. The CSP internal affairs unit investigates allegations of misconduct by state police.

Mr Boyle asked the NYSP to investigate the complaints.

“The report concludes that many investigations of complaints against state troopers were incomplete and inadequate,” according to a statement from Mr Blumenthal.

The investigation focuses on “allegations accusing state police personnel of bribery, drug use, association with drug dealers and prostitutes, sexual assault, falsified overtime, assault of a motorist, and improper DWI arrests,” it adds.

The attorney general’s office has referred the investigatory report to the chief state’s attorney’s office for possible criminal investigation of some cases. Also, some of the cases will be reinvestigated by the CSP.

Among the more than 60 recommendations for internal affairs reform listed in the report: all complaints against state troopers should be documented and investigated; the internal affairs unit should be revamped and adequately staffed; the internal affairs unit’s commanding officer should have the sole authority to start internal investigations, and the unit’s commanding officer should report directly to the commissioner of public safety.

On December 1, Colonel Edward Lynch, the deputy commissioner of public safety, who heads the state police, announced that he would retire from the state police on January 1. Mr Lynch, who joined the state police in 1982, has headed the organization since April 2004. Mr Lynch will become an executive security specialist in private industry.

Mr Blumenthal said, “Our investigation resulted from state troopers themselves having the courage and conviction to come forward with complaints about an internal affairs system in disarray and dysfunctional, and ultimately discredited. Aggressive reform will correct those problems in both personnel and system.”

The report concludes that the internal affairs unit did not intentionally issue false reports or corrupt the investigative process, but sometimes, as a result of orders from superiors, the internal affairs unit failed to document relevant information and to exhaust all leads in its investigations into complaints against state police. Also, at times, the internal affairs investigators ignored physical and circumstantial evidence and focused on less serious allegations.

“The result of these flawed investigations was that when an employee may have been deserving of discipline or even arrest, no action, or inappropriate action, was taken,” according to the report.

The CSP internal affairs process was repeatedly undermined by those outside the internal affairs unit, according to the report.

The report notes that the number of CSP internal affairs investigations declined steadily from 288 investigations in 1991 to 46 investigations in 2005.

The report attributes “an increasing disinclination to formally investigate the complaints received” as the reason for the decrease in such investigations.

Among the recommendations made in the report:

*Expand the CSP internal affairs unit. Its investigators should be lieutenants, and its commander should be a lieutenant colonel, so that its staff can deal with trooper supervisors and command officers as equals or superiors.

*Expand the internal affairs unit’s administrative staff and improve the unit’s computers and equipment.

*Create a centralized system to log and track every complaint from the public.

*Establish a complaint classification system based on the seriousness of complaints.

*Accept all complaints against state police, including those made orally, in writing, by email, in person, in anonymity, and by third parties.

*Develop a program to inform the public about how to file a complaint against state police.

*Train state police about the function of the internal affairs unit and the role that it plays to assure the organization’s integrity and to maintain public confidence in the state police.