New board takes up police complaints in New London
Mar. 14—NEW LONDON — Citizen complaints against police and the investigations they trigger are once again getting a second look from members of the public.
The newly formed Police Civilian Review Board, a group tasked with reviewing how a complaint against an officer was handled, met for the first time Tuesday at City Hall.
The new board replaces the longstanding Police Community Relations Committee, a group mired in controversy over accusations that some members carried an anti-police bias. Six members of that committee resigned in April of 2021, claiming they had been bullied by the local police union.
This new board was created at the recommendation of a Public Safety Review Committee formed by Mayor Michael Passero in 2020 in response to calls for more police accountability and community oversight. The impetus was the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers in 2020 that led to nationwide protests.
Just four of the seven board members were on hand Tuesday to review the first complaint of 2024. The complaint, withdrawn but still investigated internally, involved a an officer's interaction in January with a resident involved in a long-running property line dispute.
Capt. Matthew Galante, who performed the internal investigation and found the complaint to be unfounded, said he investigated allegations that an officer "was not objective" in his comments to a woman involved in the dispute with a neighbor.
The officer, whose name was not revealed at Tuesday's meeting, told the woman "I don't see why he'd want to look at all of these signs here. That is ridiculous," Galante reported. The officer was referencing "no trespassing" and "no dumping" signs along the property line.
Galante said contrary to the complaint, an investigation which included review of body camera footage, showed the officer had shown empathy and was attempting to explain the neighbors viewpoint. He said the situation was handled "professionally and appropriately."
The case was a good introduction, Police Chief Brian Wright said, for the new committee and offers a glimpse at how seriously complaints are taken. Galante said he estimates he spent 10 to 15 hours in interviews, reviewing camera footage and writing a report.
Council member Akil Peck, chairman of the Public Safety Committee and present at Tuesday's meeting, said the new group was two years in the making and thanked members for volunteering.
"It's not always easy to get people involved," Peck said.
Under terms of the ordinance that created the board, members signed a confidentiality agreement and agree to "adhere to a code of ethics, values, and conduct." Board members "found to be working against the improvement of police/community relations" could be subject to removal, the ordinance reads.
Kat Goulart, the former chairwoman of the Police Community Relations Committee, said even when the former group continued meeting, a lack of a quorum barred review of complaints. Goulart has rejoined the new group as the designee of the police union and said politics need to be set aside when reviewing the cases.
Another criticism of the PCRC was the lack of any real power to challenge the outcome of a police investigation into a complaint. While the new group maintains only an advisory role — they can vote to accept or object to the thoroughness of an internal investigation — the board does does have the ability to escalate unresolved concerns of the committee to the mayor's office for review or possible formal hearing. It would, however, take a supermajority vote by the board, or five members, to do that.
The board is not privy to any discipline that results from an internal investigation.
The seven-member board is composed of three members appointed by the mayor, three appointed by the council and one appointment by the police union. Present at Tuesday's meeting was Goulart, Donna Bailey, Tyrae Fletcher and Christopher Sandford. Xavier Day, Adacil Dominguez and Marie Gravell did not attend.
The complaint reviewed on Tuesday was the first complaint against a police officer this year. Wright said there were no plans to look retroactively at any complaints filed over the past year that had not been reviewed.
