New London residents have successfully petitioned to reverse the City Council’s repeal of a police staffing ordinance that mandates the city should have 80 police officers.
The council repealed the 2014 ordinance for the 80-officer limit saying it would be both difficult to hit that number and that the NLPD has never reached the 80 officers in the seven years since the ordinance was passed.
Efrain Dominguez is the president of the City Council.
“People think that New London is an unsafe place, but I tell you it’s not. I’ve been living here 40 years. Yeah, do we have crime, yeah do killings happen, yes, but it’s not these big, huge metropolitan cities. You’re always going to get a group that are not for something that you vote in council and again because of democracy you have the opportunity to petition,” Dominguez said.
The petition could now force a public referendum if the council refuses to reverse their decision at their next meeting on May 3.
