TRANSPARENCY AND THE COMMUNITY TRUST

Officer involved shootings are never going to go away. Quite honestly, with the number of illegal guns on our streets in the possession of criminals, I am surprised the don't happen more often. Authorities need to learn to handle these shootings much better than they do now though. The investigations are thorough, but the efforts to maintain the public trust are abysmal. These efforts are now managed by the States Attorney's Office.

 Under Connecticut law, the agency involved in the shooting is removed from any conflict of interest and the actual investigation is turned over to the Connecticut State Police and supervised by a States Attorney outside of the Judicial District the town or agency is in. Currently, after Friday's Police shooting the trust in Hartford's Police Department is being questioned.

The ACLU today released a statement raising questions, almost starting like the beginning of a conspiracy theory by Police.  From the ACLU statement "There are still more questions than answers about why Zack Sherry shot and killed Alphonso Zaporta. This entire case, from anonymous sources sharing information about Mr. Zaporta’s past while not specifying why police tried to stop him in the first place, to the lack of audio in the first minute of video, to the consistent unwillingness from local government officials to take responsibility for transparency, has shown that police can not police themselves. The Public deserves better." 

I couldn't agree more, the public deserves better.

 Statements like the ACLU's only fosters mistrust in the Police and is avoidable, First off, the "anonymous sources" are necessary to get information, and that shouldn't be the case. Transparency is not just a word to throw around to make people think you are being honest. You actually have to  be transparent.

That includes releasing pertinent information and facts on a timely basis , and we shouldn't have to be using back door means  to get information to maintain calm in the community. That should be the responsibility of Tolland County States Attorney Matthew Gedansky.

The ACLU's statement is reckless and irresponsible. A Town Hall style meeting held by Mr . Gedansky could and should  answer many of the ACLU's reckless statements in a public and open forum before festering into community unrest. The lack of audio was explained to anyone that took the time to listen or attended meetings on the use of bodycams.

It is not any conspiracy or secretive editing by the Police, it is a safeguard built into the Axon bodycams. Once an officer hits the button on the body cam, there is a one minute recall that goes back to the previous minute even before the recorded incident began so there is at least video. Anyone that requests video of any incident would see that is the case. Go to youtube and do a search for police body cams and all raw video will have that one minute of video without audio. It is nothing HPD or anyone else edited out

A simple explanation, but someone has to take the lead and explain that,  if they really want to be transparent.

The videos themselves are an issue with the ongoing turf wars between the States Attorney, the Connecticut State Police and the agencies involved. But I have to ask why? What will change if the video is released immediately or a year later when the States Attorney finally finishes their review. The video will be the same today as it is a year from now and a year later only raises the suspicions of a coverup instead of releasing it immediately.

Commissioner Rovella is a huge proponent of transparency, and I am pretty confident that he was the driving force behind video being released so quickly in Hamden, Wethersfield and unfortunately now Hartford

I was involved in meetings with, at the time, Chief Rovella after the Flatbush Avenue incident where police abuse was alleged. There was plenty of video, but the Litchfield County States Attorney was overseeing that investigation and refused to release any of the video. So in the meantime the community mistrust grew. Chief Rovella was adamant about the video being released immediately but was stonewalled by the Litchfield States Attorney We called for a public meeting, and that never happened.

Litchfield and Tolland are a world away from the streets of Hartford, and they may not understand community policing and the community trust  that Chief Rovella , Chief Thody and others have worked very hard to build and maintain.

To maintain that trust and confidence Mr. Gedansky should be holding an open forum with the stakeholders and community members in Hartford to answer questions, put fears to rest and offer some reassurance to people in Hartford that this process is legitimate. Mr Gedansky is a public servant and there is no better service he could perform at this time than maintaining the public's trust with actual transparency.

Commissioner Rovella, Chief Thody and Mr Gedansky, I urge you to exhibit the transparency you talk about and put it into action. Hartford residents and the Hartford Police deserve nothing less