Hartford Police sources are confirming for me that one of their own officers was involved in an off duty domestic incident last night in Enfield. The incident involved Officer Chris White and apparently his ex-wife at their home in Enfield. Sources are telling me that White also brandished his HPD service weapon and assaulted another male individual in the home at the time, "pistol whipping" the male with the weapon.
Enfield Police have also confirmed White's arrest on numerous charges, including Possession of a firearm under the influence,2 counts of Reckless endangerment, 2 counts of breach of peace, 2 counts of Assault 3rd, and 2 counts of Threatening.
This is apparently not the first time Officer White has been arrested on anger related issues. In a press release issued in December 2004, it states that White was arrested by the Connecticut State Police after a road rage incident. Read the full press release by clicking here here
Police officers are human also, but this is not a proud moment for the good work the Hartford Police Department is doing.
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6 comments:
Why, why, why do these guys do this stuff? whether it is assaulting your ex-wife or padding your time cards and double dipping. Hartford officers have careers where even a basic police officer can take home over a $100,000 a year and they jeopardize that with stupid decisions.
White was divorced, he doesn't own her, turn around and walk out the door and take a deep breath. And still living with an ex-wife is a recipe for disaster, throw alcohol into the mix and it is a career ender.
The next one to go probably can't use alcohol as an excuse for padding his private duty job timecards though.
White will not lose his job. Assistant Chief McKoy and his lack of knowledge in Labor Law, ethics, code of conduct, c ontract ect.., will no doubt botch this one up too. There will be a law suit, and the city will pay out again. Inept IAD is on an all time losing streak. They dont just lose, they lose and get sued. For example:
Murtha
Secore
Foley
Thody
Campbell
To name a few...
These are all future arbitration awards, followed by the subsequent civil suit. McKoy costs the city hundreds of thousands of dollars just in his mistakes... Why do we continue to pay his salary???
Anonymous #2,
I have to disagree. The ineptness is not with IAD or Chief Roberts. I'm not an expert on the matter, but under Roberts the backlog of IAD cases and the length of time to investigate complaints has been drastically reduced to the point where I think the community actually has some confidence in the results now. If you look at White's last arrest for the road rage incident under Harnett and I believe Asst. Chief Dryfe was the Lieutenant in charge of IAD at the time, it was under the time when it was "clear the cop at all costs" time, and people knew that a complaint to IAD was an effort in futility, or at least that was the perception.
The cases you mention I don't think show a problem in IAD, they do show a problem higher up, and if that is Chief McCoy as you suggest, then it should be dealt with, and now that we have a competent City attorney, that should make a big difference with the way the cases are dealt with.
Foley is not an IAD case to the best of my knowledge and is more about two adults who can't get along and comments made by the Chief that sound as though they were inappropriate if the allegations are true. Something for the courts? No, but it is what it is. Someone needs to sit them down as adults and hammer a resolution out and keep this nonsense out of the courts and the media.
Secore was investigated properly and the conclusion was correct. Should it have resulted in termination? Anywhere else probably yes, but you have to look at past practice ,and termination was not inline with discipline for other officers previous incidents that were far worse and the Labor Board recognized that and ordered him reinstated less a 90 day suspension. It was our disaster of a Corporation Counsel who chose to defy the Labor Board and is appealing. Hopefully the new Corp. Counsel will review that decision and do the right thing and abide by the Arbitration Award.
Murtha was another Dryfe era investigation and not knowing to much about that case, it seemed severe in the termination and arrest. If I remember correctly, jury agreed and he was acquitted of the criminal charges. It all hinged on a split second decision with a car hurtling at him whether to shoot or not.
Thody is a case that was not only investigated properly from what I know, but the punishment was pretty light. A demotion, yet his position pretty much remains the same. This a clear cut case that should have resulted in an arrest the same night, an assault is an assault is an assault, end of story. If the two marines were arrested, they all should have been arrested.
And for Campbell, that is another case where someone should have identified a problem after the first few IAD complaints. Did they have to have a prisoner assaulted to realize there might be a problem there?
IAD might not be liked for what they do, but what I know of the operation as compared to 5 or 6 years ago and prior is a big change, and the community recognizes it.
In case you forget, our former commuter chief, Chief Patrick Harnett once defended 4 NYPD officers who shot an unarmed man, Amadou Diallo 41 times as he reached for his wallet to provide ID to the officers.
Chief Roberts deserves some credit for cleaning up and restoring confidence in IAD.
And as far as McCoy, I agree with you dissatisfaction with him and his performance. If we sent him back to Stamford, at the very least we could save quite a bit in gas as we pay for his daily commute in his city issued vehicle.
And if a few others in the Chief's complex could finally get jobs somewhere else (not that they aren't trying, but for some reason no one wants them,Farmington,Plainville, Canton, etc., etc.) it might open up a couple spots for people that would actually support the Chief and his goals.
just like there is terrible screening for political candidates and town committee types in Hartford...there is lousy screening for cop jobs...this White idiot should be fired and be arrested...and yes sued.
There is no hope..Hartford is a 3rd world country in which criminals.the corrupt,incompetant and the morally and ethically bankrupt are running the place...
Most police officers start their careers with all the right intentions. The hiring process is long and hard and does include psychological testing which helps weed out some of the problems. Yes some problem people do slip through the cracks but the majority of the issues that cause officers to "get into trouble" come from the job itself and not the selection process.
Cops spend 40+ hours a week dealing with the worst aspects of mankind and that takes it's toll on you. To add to this, there's a human psychological change that takes place between people in control over others. In 1971 Stamford University conducted an experiment known as "The Stanford Prison Experiment". I highly recommend you google it but the short version is a group of college students were randomly divided into two groups. One group were "guards" the others "inmates". In the course of days the guards hated the inmates and vice versa. The level of aggression between them got so out of hand the experiment had to be terminated early and as far as I know has not been duplicated since.
Another issue with police work is it causes control issues. All day long a cop is telling people what to do and by law they pretty much have to do it or face the consequences. Unfortunately a person can't just turn this control mentality off when they end their work day. This mayor aspect of police work bleeds into one's personal life and causes all sorts of havoc in personal relationships. It's a large contributor to domestic violence among police officers. Sadly when a cop is presented with something out of his control s/he generally has a hard time dealing with it because s/he not used to it. The response is very often one of violence due to the heightened aggressive levels discussed in the Standford Prison Experiment. Add on top of this many cops cope with the stress of their jobs by consuming alcohol. Police officers have one of the highest suicide, alcoholism and divorce rates of all professions.
Another thing people should consider is statistics. Hartford has over 400 cops. By math alone there are going to be more issues in a department that large.
One other thing I hear a lot is how cops who do get into trouble are given special treatment by the courts. What people sometimes forget is EVERY Connecticut resident who is arrested is entitled to use accelerated rehabilitation for their first arrest only (assuming it's not a felony). This program applies to police officers too and the fact cops go through a criminal background check to get hired means many cops have no record allowing a high percentage of them to use accelerated rehabilitation which erases their record.
I'm not sharing my thoughts to defend cops or criminal activity and every person who breaks the law should be dealt with appropriately, cop or not. I share this so maybe people will have a better understanding of police officers. Cops don't clip on their badge and magically lose their humanity. We are all human first and foremost.
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