Sunday, February 20, 2011
By William Kaempffer
Register Staff
NEW HAVEN — The state’s attorney’s office is investigating whether laws were broken when police, some off duty and some on duty, marched on City Hall and closed down Church Street for several hours in protest of 16 layoffs at the department.
Police Chief Frank Limon, meanwhile, said the department is launching its own investigation into an alleged “blue flu” action the night of the protest –17 book-offs accounting for about 40 percent of the night shift – to see if there were “illegal reasons” behind any.
In a weekend interview, two days after sweeping layoffs citywide included the first layoffs at the police department in at least 40 years, Limon said he understood the strong reaction by the rank and file when 16 officers were informed they were losing their jobs. Limon said he didn’t have a problem with a loud, 200-officer protest on the steps of police headquarters Thursday or when the officers barged upstairs to air their frustration.
But he said they “crossed the line” when they took to the street, marched to City Hall and blocked off Church Street with police cars.
“I supported the 16 officers who got laid off, in trying to get them jobs, set them up with EPA (Employee Assistance Program), counseling,” said Limon. He said he also understood that rank-and-file deserved “space” to vent.
“I don’t support what they did after they left here and took over the street,” he said in an interview in his office. “ That’s not a good reflection on the police department.”
The New Haven State’s Attorney’s office also apparently took notice.
Limon said he was informed by letter Friday that “the state’s attorney has initiated a criminal investigation” into the actions of police. The office either has or plans to issue subpoenas for television footage from the march, sources said.
Messages left for New Haven State’s Attorney Michael Dearington were not immediately returned.
The department, however, has started its own investigation into what the city has called a “sick out” on Thursday night. Limon said he has requested a special meeting of the Board of Police Commissioners to examine the department’s sick time policy.
He said he’s already started an investigation into the circumstances of the night’s book offs and if illegal reasons are discovered officers will face discipline ranging from reprimands to termination.
“I don’t think they should ever resort to any kind of blue flu or blocking off streets to prove a point. That’s illegal,” Limon said.
He delivered a message to his officers: Come to work. They should consider, he said, their wives, husbands, children, mothers and fathers, who would suffer if they lost their jobs.
“It’s a warning that they have to understand. Before they make a bad decision, think of the consequences,” he said.
The layoffs, more than 80 people city-wide, aren’t the first budget driven cuts in the city, but it was the first time in at least 40 years and possibly ever to touch police officers. Mayor John DeStefano has said the grim financial realities facing cities across the country required decisive action and that the city can’t dig itself out of the hole until it could corral pensions and health care costs.
The police union has said the city rebuffed offers of department-wide furlough days, vacation-day give backs and other cost saving measures to save jobs.
The union predicted layoffs would dramatically affect both police officers and public safety, leading to longer response times that could leave citizens unprotected in an emergency.
Limon, however, said the department, even after the layoffs, is “adequately staffed.”
He said the department was looking at redeploying officers from inside jobs, including school resource officers and training staff among others, to offset at least some of the patrol losses.
The chief said he disagreed with how the city handled the jobs cuts - a “lesson on how not to lay off police officers.” A job loss in any profession is difficult, but he believed police officers were different. Officers sometimes spend years trying to secure a job, go through an extensive vetting process, six months at the academy and then field training before they become certified.
“I’m not putting them on a pedestal,” he said, but they deserved more than one day notice.
In hindsight, he said, the city should have taken a different approach and been more “respectful” in preparing not only the officers but their families.
He said he didn’t know if more layoffs were coming in the next fiscal year.
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