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Union Contracts Shield Connecticut Police Misconduct, Study Finds

Courtesy of Igor Ovsyannykov from Pixabay

Clauses in police union contracts often protect officers from the consequences of their misconduct. That’s according to a new analysis from the ACLU of Connecticut.

The ACLU released copies of contracts from every police union in the state. They found dozens of provisions that weaken accountability and oversight.

Some limit police chiefs’ power to punish officers accused of wrongdoing. Others mandate the destruction of disciplinary records after a few months, or shut down misconduct investigations that aren’t completed in a specific timeframe.

One clause in a contract in Bridgeport, the state’s largest city, says police can’t be suspended without pay unless they’re charged with a felony. The ACLU says that allowed one Bridgeport officer to remain on the payroll after three misdemeanor domestic violence charges. 

Copyright 2020 WSHU

Davis Dunavin loves telling stories, whether on the radio or around the campfire. He fell in love with sound-rich radio storytelling while working as an assistant reporter at KBIA public radio in Columbia, Missouri. Before coming back to radio, he worked in digital journalism as the editor of Newtown Patch. As a freelance reporter, his work for WSHU aired nationally on NPR. Davis is a proud graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism; he started in Missouri and ended up in Connecticut, which, he'd like to point out, is the same geographic trajectory taken by Mark Twain.
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