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COMMUNITY<br />
ican mothers have expressed concerns about racial profiling<br />
to Gove. Concurrently, an uptick in attacks on police—such<br />
as the July sniper attack in Dallas that left five officers dead—<br />
have led to a surge in the number of area residents and businesses<br />
commending cops.<br />
The following exchange among the chiefs has been edited<br />
for clarity, cohesion, and space.<br />
: What are you doing to hire, train, and supervise<br />
officers to prevent the types of incidents that have<br />
happened elsewhere, such as traffic stops that<br />
ended with motorists fatally shot by police?<br />
SWEENEY: The hiring decision is the most important<br />
decision we make. When we’re satisfied that [someone looks]<br />
like a good candidate, we do a polygraph and psychological<br />
exam. We routinely check social media. If you have certain<br />
comments in your background that indicate prejudice against<br />
minorities or reckless or dangerous behavior, it’s an issue. I<br />
have seen a lot of people who go number one, number two<br />
on the list [based on test scores], and they’re the worst police<br />
officers. And then I’ve got others that I picked 50 on the list,<br />
and they’re fantastic police officers. Just because they didn’t<br />
take a written test very well that doesn’t necessarily translate<br />
into whether or not you can be a good police officer —help<br />
people, use your head, have good common sense, and be able<br />
to give people good direction.<br />
GOVE: They have to go through the [Connecticut Police]<br />
Academy and show they have a thick skin and they’re<br />
emotionally mature. From the day we hire you, there’s an<br />
18-month probationary period that we have an opportunity<br />
to say, ‘It’s just not working out.’<br />
RINALDO: Training is the key, especially with lethal force.<br />
We have our officers qualify four times a year, so they’re at<br />
the [firing] range, and they have to meet standards. If they<br />
don’t meet the qualifications, we pull their guns and we put<br />
them back into training. And it’s not only in weapons use.<br />
You have to send them to diversity training.<br />
GOVE: When I started, it was more about hitting the<br />
bull’s-eye. Now it’s about critical decision-making, about<br />
transitioning from your Taser to your firearm, making sure<br />
you have the muscle memory, putting officers through<br />
scenarios, using simulation [officers practice with real-looking<br />
guns that contain paint pellets], which gives you a more reallife<br />
feel. [Training is] so much more expansive, in-depth, and<br />
stressful, and it’s been really good for us as a region.<br />
: How has your department responded to<br />
the increased suspicion and fear some people<br />
have of police?<br />
GOVE: There was a concern after some of the national<br />
incidents from a group of African-American moms who were<br />
concerned about their sons [being racially profiled]. So I<br />
met with them and then penned a letter to the public about<br />
what we do in West Hartford. [Editor’s note: Gove’s letter<br />
outlines the department’s initiatives in hiring, training, useof-force<br />
policies, and addressing citizen complaints. “We will<br />
treat every individual with respect,” Gove writes. The letter<br />
notes that the department added a line item in its 2016-17<br />
budget for hiring, retaining, and promoting a more diverse<br />
workforce.]<br />
SWEENEY: We review the statistics continuously. If there<br />
were those kinds of complaints [of racial profiling] raised,<br />
we would look at what the history has been. On every traffic<br />
stop, it is indicated what the race was of the party. If you’re<br />
only stopping people who are minorities, [your supervisor<br />
would] examine it.<br />
: Suburban officers’ jobs used to be fairly<br />
predictable, with motor vehicle enforcement,<br />
domestic conflicts, and accidents. Since some<br />
horrific incidents in Connecticut’s small towns,<br />
such as the Sandy Hook school shooting and the<br />
Cheshire home invasion, and with the prevalence of<br />
opioid use, how has suburban cops’ job changed?<br />
RINALDO: I think there’s a level of anxiety that’s being felt<br />
out there because of the incidents that are taking place and<br />
not knowing where it’ll happen next. I think the anxiety level<br />
is growing.<br />
GOVE: My officers, their big concern isn’t usually for their<br />
safety; it’s for the safety of the community. Their worries<br />
are about the active shooter, the mass incident. That’s what<br />
I hear more of: ‘Let’s have training on that. We have to be<br />
prepared for that.’<br />
MANIAGO: If you have proper policies in place, good<br />
training, good peer support, and good EAP [Employee<br />
Assistance Programs] that helps out a whole lot.<br />
HAMMICK: When there’s something that they’re exposed<br />
to with a high level of danger, there are adequate resources<br />
there. Afterwards, the supervisors are very good in debriefing<br />
the incident and then training everyone else in the<br />
department, so everybody keeps very sharp.<br />
SWEENEY: That’s always a concern in a suburban<br />
environment: Officers have to maintain a vigilant posture.<br />
It’s an issue of ensuring that they’re up to date on their<br />
training.<br />
: In the two weeks after President Donald<br />
Trump’s election, the Southern Poverty Law Center<br />
collected more than 400 reports of hate-based<br />
8<br />
Seasons of West Hartford • SPRING 2017
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