This past week on the blog and on Facebook has been very active and a lot has been said about HPD and claims made against specific officers, some good and some bad.
Specifically, people have made comments regarding on retired officer in particular, Sergeant Sean Spell.
One comment said that Spell had 15 citizen complaints made against him. The local media has also made the same claims, but apparently no one went any further to actually look at the complaints or God forbid, actually explain them. I guess explanations don't make headlines and sell papers.
You never hear anyone saying that if a Police Officer doesn't have citizen complaints, they probably aren't doing their job very well. Well, let me say it. Any Police Officer that doesn't occasionally have a complaint filed against them isn't doing their job.
Let's put this into perspective. Typically most contact we have with a police officer doesn't usually evolve into a warm and fuzzy encounter. It may be after an accident, and I don't know anyone that is in a great mood after an accident (especially if you had to wait a couple hours for an Officer to be dispatched. Not their fault, but they get the blame) Or maybe you got a traffic ticket or a parking ticket. Now we all know how we drive, and of course we could never be wrong, the Cop must be overreaching or trying to fill some nonexistent quota.
You hardly ever get pulled over by a cop wanting to give you a coupon to Starbucks for exceptional driving. I think you get my point, it does happen, but most people don't have raving reviews of their Police interaction, so citizen complaints are part of the job. Every complaint is entertained and investigated, no matter how serious or ridiculous, they get the same response.
So I decided to ask the questions and see how serious those 15 complaints were. So here you go; I am not putting the complainants names though
#1- HPD IAD #200-44 Profane language used by Officer Spell on Barbour Street
COMPLAINT WITHDRAWN BY COMPLAINANT
#2- HPD IAD #2006-101- alleged excessive force used at Substation
NOT SUSTAINED AFTER INVESTIGATION
#3- HPD IAD #2007-050 Bondsman loitering at HPD, verbal for procedure, no Field Interview Card submitted
COMPLAINT NOT SUSTAINED AFTER INVESTIGATION
#4- HPD IAD #2007-050 Wrecker driver claimed discourteous attitude
WITNESSES PRESENT DID NOT CORROBORATE WRECKER DRIVERS VERSION
COMPLAINT NOT SUSTAINED AFTER INVESTIGATION
#5-HPD IAD #2007-118 Off Duty Altercation
Complaint Sustained-
30 Day Suspension for Conduct Unbecoming an Officer
#6- HPD IAD #2007-139- Harassment complaint
EXONERATED AFTER INVESTIGATION
#7-HPD IAD #2008-026 Complaint made by Wethersfield resident who saw Spell leave his personal car idleing in a parking lot while off duty
NO ACTION TAKEN BY HPD
#8-HPD IAD# 2008-048 Complaint against Spell and another Officer after a prisoner attempted to escape from a substation after a firearms arrest.
COMPLAINT NOT SUSTAINED- EXONERATED
#9- HPD IAD #2008-069- Complaint made against numerous officers at 23 Martin Street after incident.
NO SPECIFIC COMPLAINT IMPLICATING SPELL, BUT STILL PLACED IN HIS FILE
#10- HPD IAD 2008-103 Spell was the supervisor, complaint made against an officer he was supervising
#11 HPD IAD# 2008-161- Citizen approached Spell to report her purse lost, while Spell and other officers were breaking up a melee at Club 960 on Main Street on Christmas then a vehicle being pursued crashed in the same are and complainant felt she wasn't getting proper service during the chaos
EXONERATED AFTER INVESTIGATION
#12- HPD IAD# 2012-073- Stolen car recovered, complainant apparently claimed money was missing from the center console when the vehicle was recovered. Since she knew the thief that took the car, she complained that it had to be Spell and the Chief Inspector from the States Attorney's Office who were responsible.
COMPLAINT WITHDRAWN AFTER COMPLAINANT "FOUND " THE MISSING MONEY
#13- HPD IAD#2012-083- Complaint made against 2 Officer's Spell was supervising
#14- HPD IAD #2014-006- Force complaint made after arrest of subject high on PCP
NOT SUSTAINED
#15- HPD IAD #2014-100- Complaint made claiming Spell interfered with a civilian photographer at a Homicide scene on Park Street
#16- HPD IAD #2015-074 Complaint made against Spell and CSP Trooper after arrest of individual who kicked an HPD vehicle during West Indian event
EXONERATED BY HPD IAD CIVILIAN INVESTIGATOR
So there is the list, and it is actually 16, not 15. Only one incident concerns me, and Sgt. Spell paid for that error with a 30 day suspension.
Sean Spell is one of many officers that earned every penny they made keeping our City safe and our officers are human beings, and yes occasionally human beings make mistakes. But not everything is as it appears to be made out to be.
The research might take a while to complete, but it is part of being fair.
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