COMMUNITY : How are officers dealing with the stress? Historically, the strain of the job has contributed to some struggling with substance abuse and marital problems. : Has the ubiquity of cameras changed the “brotherhood in blue” culture? Nationally, cops are losing their jobs when a video emerges that contradicts an officer’s written report. RINALDO: We are more aware of those problems now. It’s no longer a sign of weakness for one of our officers to have an issue. We have good EAP programs. We have good peer support programs. Mental health counseling is better today. Our officers are more readily talking with each other about it; each of them is trying to direct each other to get help. MANIAGO: I don’t know if there’s an uptick in it. The way it’s handled differently now is what’s causing maybe a greater conversation about it. : Does your department have body cameras, and if so, how have they been received by officers and the public? MANIAGO: We’re going through the pricing process right now to do body cameras. I do favor body cameras. I like the transparency. I like the ability to have an independent eye as to what’s going on at the scene, so we can get as much of the exact story as you can get from a camera, so we can make a well-grounded decision. If we’re wrong, we’re wrong, and we’ll handle that. I think the public likes the transparency, also. HAMMICK: In Bloomfield, we just instituted a departmentwide body camera policy at the beginning of 2017, so every officer in my department, including myself, has a body camera on them during their shift. They record every lawenforcement interaction between them and a citizen. GOVE: Obviously, this is an important issue to us, but the big concern I have is how the cameras would affect policecommunity relations. I know that people say they’ll always improve relations, but I’m not sure that necessarily is the case. I’m not sure if my officer’s in line at, let’s say, Dunkin’ Donuts, and somebody says, ‘Officer, I have a question for you,’ that we want the officer to go, ‘Hold on a second,’ turn on the camera, and start recording the interaction. My second concern would be dealing with the FOI [Freedom of Information] concerns. If somebody said to us, ‘We want every interaction you’ve had with an African-American or Hispanic person over the past year,’ we have to go through all that footage. I’m not saying that West Hartford has ruled it out; I’m just moving very cautiously. I think we’d have to hire more staff just for the FOI requests alone. After some of the tragic incidents, we started getting people coming in with gift baskets. When they brought in cookies, they weren’t just bringing them in for us; they were bringing them because it made them feel good about doing something for the police. MANIAGO: Lying is the cardinal sin today. That’ll be one of the quickest ways to lose your job is to be caught in a lie. Every police officer today is aware of that, and they know, ‘Listen, if you made a mistake, you made a mistake; we’ll work with you,’ and you take what comes from the mistake. You lie, there’s no helping you. You’re going to suffer the consequences. HAMMICK: I rolled [a body camera policy] out in Bloomfield last month, – Avon Police Chief Mark Rinaldo and I didn’t get one single person who protested or pushed back. Everybody understands and appreciates that they’re being videotaped in many of these incidents, and this is an opportunity for them to bring their own perspective to an interaction with a member of the public and have their own recording. To answer your question, 100 percent, yeah. Completely. If you find an officer who has embellished their report, lied on their report, they’re picked off very quickly by their supervisors, by their colleagues. If it’s an honest mistake, that can be corrected through discipline and training. If it’s a purposeful act, they’re terminated. : After the sniper killing of five Dallas officers and other attacks on cops, did your departments hear anything from the community? RINALDO: After some of the tragic incidents, we started getting people coming in with gift baskets. When they brought in cookies, they weren’t just bringing them in for us; they were bringing them because it made them feel good about doing something for the police. They wanted their pictures with the police officers. Granted, Avon doesn’t have [much] crime, but we still have issues. To see the way the citizens reacted really boosted the morale of the department. In times when people were killing police officers, [local residents] came in and said, ‘We care about you.’ Theresa Sullivan Barger is a frequent Seasons contributor who lives in Canton with her husband and two of their three children. Todd Fairchild of West Hartford is a longtime contributor to Seasons. For more about Todd, go to shutterbugct.com. 10 Seasons of West Hartford • SPRING 2017
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