Police Commission Needs To Remember Checks And Balances

To the Editor:

The Police Commission and its five commissioners are elected by the residents of Newtown. The Police Commission is the civilian authority that oversees the police department and is also the legal traffic authority. As such the Chief of Police and any member of the police department are forbidden, by town ordinance, from being on the commission.

I am a candidate for the Police Commission. I am concerned over the lack of accountability, checks and balances and transparency demonstrated by the Police Commission.

Although the Police Commission’s lack of adherence to The Freedom of Information Act and Roberts Rules of Order is concerning, its failure to maintain adequate checks and balances between the Police Commission, the first selectman and the police chief is even more troublesome.

A few examples.

1. After taxpayers spent $50,000 on The Queen Street Traffic Study, the Police Commission (i.e., the legal traffic authority) published what was represented as the Police Commission’s response to the Vollmer study. As it turns out, the police chief wrote the response. The police chief is prohibited by ordinance from being on the Police Commission. The Police Commission allowed the first selectman to manage the Queen Street study rather than accepting its responsibility, as the elected legal traffic authority, to manage the traffic study.

2. Each month the Police Commission creates and post its agenda for their scheduled meeting. This is a Police Commission function, but the police chief has been controlling the agenda process, not the chairperson. Commissioners discuss agenda items they want on the agenda with the police chief, who can then act as a gatekeeper. The police chief is forbidden, by ordinance, from being on the Police Commission yet he manages the monthly meeting agenda, one of the most powerful functions of the Police Commission’s chairperson.

3. In December The Newtown Bee reported that the police department survey of residents resulted in a whopping 43 percent saying that traffic enforcement was inadequate. The Police Commission never asked the chief to develop a plan to solve this problem nor did the commission make any attempt to solve this townwide problem itself. No educational plan was presented despite a recommendation I made to create a “Slow Down in Newtown” campaign. The chief requested and got approved funds for a traffic unit but the commission never asked for a plan as to what results it would achieve and how its success would be measured. When the police department was asked for a copy of the traffic unit plan they replied that one was never developed.

As an elected commissioner I will insist that the Police Commission maintain proper checks and balances. The Police Commission, and no one else, should do the functions the commissioners were elected to do. The Police Commission needs to set the agenda for the police department, insist on a comprehensive plan with measurable results, and maintain appropriate checks and balances. That’s what they are elected to do!

Bruce W. Walczak

12 Glover Avenue, Newtown                              September 5, 2007