Bob Stefanowski seeking to overturn portions of police accountability law

Three days after a funeral for two Bristol police officers, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski called Monday for overturning key aspects of Connecticut’s police accountability law.

Standing with police officers behind him outside the state Capitol, Stefanowski and running mate Laura Devlin each signed a pledge to repeal a portion of the 71-page law that “puts Connecticut residents and police officers in harm’s way’' and “disrespects police officers and hinders them from properly doing their jobs.’'

Stefanowski is seeking to change provisions concerning the legal concept of “qualified immunity’' that allows police officers to be liable on a personal basis in civil lawsuits and has been interpreted in various ways by opponents and proponents. He said police have been handcuffed because they have been largely blocked from making “consent’' searches during motor vehicle stops.

State and local police have been backing off high-speed chases, Stefanowski said, because they are concerned about liability.

“If you had personal liability and you could lose your house or you could lose your kids’ college savings, do you think they would get involved in a high-speed chase? Of course not,’' Stefanowski said. “We all know that’s why some of these stats are down.’'

But Stefanowski said there are some good aspects of the law, including mandatory body cameras that capture the actions of officers and perpetrators.

Following the recent killings of two officers in Bristol, advocates noted that the law required that police body camera footage should be released within four days and a preliminary finding was made by the inspector general, whose office was created under the new law.

Some advocates say the “qualified immunity’' provisions have been misinterpreted, saying an officer would face problems only if involved in a “malicious, wanton or willful act” in order to lose a civil case with financial damages.

“Under the accountability bill, there has not been a single lawsuit against a Connecticut police officer,’' said Jake Lewis, Lamont’s campaign spokesman. “Beyond investments, Gov. Lamont has long championed strong gun control measures, which Bob Stefanowski’s extremist allies are suing to overturn while Bob remains silent. Connecticut residents know they can count on Gov. Lamont to keep fighting for their safety, and the strongest gun control laws to make sure illegal guns are off the streets.”

Stefanowski and Lamont, along with other Republicans and Democrats, have been arguing for months about crime. The latest statistics from state police showed ups and downs as some categories of crime are more problematic than others.

The statistics showed that overall crime declined by 2.82% last year, while rape was up by 23% and manslaughter up by 2%. Murders increased to 150 statewide in 2021 — the highest in 10 years and up sharply from the recent low of 80 statewide in 2016, according to the statistics from the state police. Murders increased slightly from 147 in 2020 as the numbers fluctuate each year.

Democrats say that concerns about crime have been overblown because crime has been trending downward statewide and Connecticut ranks among the safest states in the nation. They rejected a “get-tough-on-crime’' approach that they said did not work in the past as criminals need to be rehabilitated in order to continue living their lives.

But Republicans countered that car thefts and other crimes have been increasing in various spots around the state, charging that the problems have been exacerbated by the accountability law that was strongly opposed by chiefs and rank-and-file officers.

Concerning crime, Stefanowski turned to reporters outside the state Capitol and said, “We can try and pick and choose different statistics that crime is down. You guys all know it’s not.’'

Bristol shootings

While the press conference focused chiefly on the accountability law, Stefanowski briefly raised the issue of the shootings in Bristol.

“Out of respect to the families, I’m not going to mention, I’m not going to focus on it, but I’ll tell you, anybody sitting at that funeral for Officer DeMonte and Hamzy on Friday, and seeing them and their families walk in, if you tell me that keeping police officers safe is not your number one priority, you ought to move out of this country,’' Stefanowski said. “We need to make it safer for officers and their families, and we need to do it today.’'

Norwalk Mayor Harry W. Rilling, who served for 17 years as the city’s police chief, and two Democratic legislators said the issue was being politicized.

“I was disgusted to learn that Bob Stefanowski is attempting to politicize the horrendous murder of two heroic law enforcement officers just days after they were laid to rest,’' Rilling said in remarks released by the state Democratic Party. “These police officers are heroes and deserve more than being used as political pawns. The heinous crime committed in Bristol has nothing to do with the police accountability bill passed in 2020 and any attempt to draw a line between the two is disgraceful political pandering.’'

Rep. Geraldo Reyes, the chairman of the legislature’s Black and Puerto Rican Caucus and Rep. Bobby Gibson, the vice chairman, said in a joint statement that Stefanowski was “creating a false reality to scare and intimidate voters, when data from the state police shows crime is down 30% over 10 years, and overall crime is down 3% and violent crime is down 9% over the last two years. Stefanowski and the Republicans should learn to be honest with voters. It is clear they do not have anything else to campaign on but false narratives to satisfy their own extreme political agendas.”

Stefanowski was endorsed and supported at the press conference by Kristine O’Donnell, whose husband, James, was severely injured as a Farmington police officer when he was pinned against his police cruiser by a “man who nearly killed my husband over a catalytic converter.’' After surgeries, the officer recently returned to work after a year of recovering.

The driver, who had 24 arrests in 14 years, “drove away, leaving my husband on the ground,’' O’Donnell said.

When she attended the Bristol funeral on Friday, O’Connell said it was “difficult not to relive my nightmares from a year ago, when I, too, thought I might be planning a funeral for my young husband.”

She added, “I stand before you today, feeling like evil continues to have the upper hand in our state.’'

After extensive controversy following the death of George Floyd while handcuffed in police custody in Minneapolis, the bill was passed largely along party lines by both the state House of Representatives and Senate before being signed into law in July 2020 by Lamont.

Rep. Steve Stafstrom, a Bridgeport Democrat who helped write the law as co-chairman of the judiciary committee, says he understands the police concerns about “consent searches” but said that officers still have wide latitude in doing their jobs.

“If the officer walks up to the car and smells marijuana or sees the barrel of a gun sticking out from under the seat, that’s all probable cause to search the vehicle,” Stafstrom said after the law was passed. “All we’re talking about is those instances where someone is pulled over just for a purely motor vehicle violation. ... We know that minorities are much more likely to be subject to a consent search. In those instances where you don’t have probable cause that there is some other crime, you can’t ask to go on a fishing expedition through somebody’s car.”

Democrats say they favor making the two-year-old law clear, but do not want to relitigate issues that have already been decided.

Based on concerns raised by police and others, the section of the bill changing details on the use of deadly force by police was pushed back to April 1, 2021. The most controversial aspect of the bill, concerning whether police can suffer personal financial damages in civil lawsuits related to the legal concept of qualified immunity, became effective on July 1, 2021.

“Today is about protecting our men and women in law enforcement,’’ Stefanowski said Monday. “Today is about reducing crime, and today is about keeping the residents of Connecticut safe.’’

Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@courant.com