Connecticut lawmakers are considering a bill to establish two new law enforcement training programs and a Law Enforcement Training Advisory Board.
HB-7202 would also set required learning for officers interacting with people with mental or physical disabilities.
The bill, which the Public Safety Committee introduced, has bipartisan support.
Representative Greg Howard (R-Ledyard), a detective with the Stonington Police Department, said the state is sending officers to places like Indiana, Louisiana and Florida for advanced training because it isn't offered in Connecticut.
“Which is costly for travel expenses, lodging expenses, and of course, it's money going out of the state,” Howard said. “The fact of the matter is that we have highly trained professionals in this state now that can do in-state training at a much lower cost and a much more focused training on the work in the state of Connecticut.”
The bill would establish a police training center at Central Connecticut State University to offer in-state classes on crime scene processing, forensic evidence collection and criminal investigations.
It would also create and fund a training program at Southern Connecticut State University focused on enhancing working relationships between law enforcement and social workers.
“There are many times that the police are called, and what they're really dealing with is someone who is in some type of mental health crisis,” State Representative Jillian Gilchrest (D-West Hartford) said. “Someone who is struggling with substance abuse, someone who is struggling with homelessness. And so what really would be a better intervention is to have a social worker at the scene.”
New Haven has a successful unarmed crisis response team called COMPASS. This team deploys mental health experts to some emergency calls and recently started responding to calls without police escorts.
The training board would advise the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection (DESPP) on using money appropriated to the department for the social work project. It would be under DESPP and include:
- The DESPP commissioner or their designee,
- The Chief State's Attorney or their designee,
- The chairperson of the Police Officer Standards Training Council or their designee,
- A representative of the Division of State Police within the DESPP with experience in forensic evidence training,
- And a representative of an association of state police chiefs.
A public hearing on the bill was scheduled for March 11.
