Taser Reform, Police Complaint Standards Become Law

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has signed two important bills on police accountability that were at the forefront of the ACLU of Connecticut's legislative agenda.

Public Act 14-149, the first law of its kind in the nation, will require police departments to adopt a policy on Taser use at least as stringent as a model policy developed by the Police Officer Standards and Training Council. They will also have to report the details of each Taser deployment to the state Office of Policy and Management.

The bill passed the state legislature on May 7, less than a month after 22-year-old José Maldonado was stunned with a Taser at East Hartford police headquarters and died. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed the bill June 6.

Maldonado was at least the 14th person to die after being Tasered by police in Connecticut since 2005. Ten of those people, or 71 percent, were African American or Latino, an alarming racial disparity.

Public Act 14-166 requires police departments to meet new standards for accepting complaints of misconduct. It directs the Police Officer Standards and Training Council to develop a model policy that addresses many of the issues raised in the 2012 report from the ACLU of Connecticut Protect, Serve and Listen: Accepting Civilian Complaints at Connecticut Police Departments. Police departments will have to adopt that policy or a more stringent one and will have to make copies of the policy available at the police station, at another municipal building and on the Web.

The governor signed the bill June 11.

"These laws protecting the rights of people in Connecticut are the result of sustained efforts by our staff, interns, volunteers and lobbyists and our partners in the NAACP of Connecticut," Executive Director Andrew Schneider said. “They represent important advances in the transparency and accountability of law enforcement in Connecticut, and they serve the interests of both justice and public safety."