HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut released data Thursday for the first time showing the race of people subject to police use of force, a reporting practice that many states are beginning to adopt. in the wake of nationwide calls for greater police accountability.
Data from 2019 and 2020 appeared to show that Connecticut police used force against blacks at a disproportionate rate compared to whites, but analysts who released the data warned there were limitations to the reporting, saying it was “insufficient.” and could not be used for a full evaluation.
The state is only second in the country, after New Jersey, to publicly report statewide police use-of-force data, officials said. Several other states have passed similar requirements in recent years and will report their results soon. The changes came in response to fatal shootings and other uses of force by police officers against Black people that sparked outrage and protests across the country.
Several US cities, including New York, have been reporting use-of-force data for years. The FBI has been collecting data nationally, but has yet to release the raw data and analysis.
The Connecticut report said that of the more than 1,300 people reported to have been subjected to use of force by police in 2019 and 2020, 38% were black, 33% were white and 20% were Hispanic.
Connecticut’s population is 13% black, 65% non-Hispanic white, and 18% Hispanic, according to US Census data.
Analysts and police officials said comparing use-of-force data to Census data was neither valid nor fair for a number of reasons.
Most of the use-of-force reports came from police departments in the state’s largest cities, which have much higher minority populations, analysts said in the report from the University’s Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy. from Conn.
Ken Barone, associate director of the institute, said it would be better to compare use-of-force data with arrest data. In 2019 and 2020, about 34% of people arrested in Connecticut were black, 44% were white, and 21% were Hispanic. The number of use-of-force incidents was only 1% of the number of arrests.
“There still appears to be a disparity in reported forcing incidents involving Black people compared to available arrest data,” the report said.
Scot X. Esdaile, president of the state chapter of the NAACP, said the racial demographics were concerning.
“It’s not something that surprises me because we regularly see the heavy hand of law enforcement in black communities, and we’ve seen it for decades,” he said. “This validates that something serious needs to be done.”
David McGuire, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut, also said he found some of the data disturbing.
Of the more than 1,300 people subjected to police use of force over the two years, police reported that 31% were said to be emotionally disturbed, 9% were suicidal, and more than 40% were said to be emotionally disturbed. He was under the influence of drugs. or alcohol, the report says. And about a third of the people subjected to the police force were fleeing at that time.
“It’s another clear indication that there needs to be a very intentional move by the government … to move money away from surveillance and into services that people need,” McGuire said.
According to the report, 1,058 officers used force against 650 people in 2019 and 977 officers used force against 663 people in 2020. Some incidents involved multiple officers. There are about 7,250 police officers in Connecticut.
Bridgeport, the state’s largest city, led all departments reporting data with 264 use-of-force incidents over the two years. Waterbury reported 229 incidents, followed by state police with 181, New Haven with 161 and Hartford with 91.
Connecticut has more than 100 police agencies. The data included incidents reported by 60 departments. Other agencies reported that they had no use-of-force incidents or did not submit data.
The data included the use of guns, stun guns, pepper spray, fists, and physical restraint. The majority of uses of force were physical restraints (more than 800 incidents in the two years), while incidents involving deadly force and firearms totaled nearly 280. In most cases where police pulled weapons, the officers only displayed them and did not fire, according to the report. .
In 2019 and 2020, 11 people were killed by the lethal use of force by police officers. The majority of people subjected to the police force were not armed: 90% in 2019 and 85% in 2020, according to the report.
Officials believe that a standardized form for all departments that was implemented in July 2022 for the use of force will take care of some of the inconsistencies in the reports.
Cheshire Police Chief Neil Dryfe, president of the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association, said police leaders will closely watch future reports that include better data, including race and ethnic numbers, to see if it’s warranted. any change in surveillance.
“I think the big takeaway, for me and a lot of other bosses, is that force is used in only a tiny fraction of interactions with the law enforcement community,” he said.
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