Killian for Mayor 363 Main Street | Hartford, CT 06106 Office: (860) 560-1977 | Cell: (860) 798-2064 | www.killianformayor.com
 
The serious outbreak of violence in Hartford demands a serious response. While it is appropriate to criticize Mayor Segarra and City Council members for what we believe were poor past decisions concerning public safety issues, it is unfair to vilify them as heartless individuals who don’t care about our city or its residents. If we are to successfully address this crisis, we must rally a unified community response and not treat lawlessness as an issue for assessing blame, particularly in a political year. Churches, schools, community organizations, the state, social service organizations, mental health service providers, elected officials, probation officers, and our general population must all be stakeholders in this coalition. We must speak loudly and in public as we assess the problem and develop a solution. We must be prepared to commit ourselves and public resources to the long haul effort and not just a show until things, God willing, eventually quiet down. Here is the rub: when gunfire or violence of any kind erupts, our first call is not to a priest, social worker or elected official. Inevitably, it's to a cop. Our police are destined to be our first line of defense, our first responders to violence, and the pivotal institution in making things better. If there is a flaw in recent management of city affairs, it is the fact that we, as a city, ignored the experts who told us Hartford needs a full time police force of 470 sworn officers. We now have about 400. We have ignored the fact that we have almost 75 officers who will be eligible for retirement in the coming months and have neglected to start a new recruit class and have rejected 17 approved candidates for lateral hires from other police departments who could have received enhanced training and been on the job quicker than brand new recruits. We have eviscerated our community policing effort. Just weeks after Hartford was one of ten cities nationwide praised by the Obama administration for significant progress made on community policing, we transferred all walk beats (but City Hall) back to patrol duties. All these decisions were made for budgetary expedience. But budgets are about choices and most of these can be categorized as bad choices. Fortunately, we’ve taken baby steps to re-deploy our community service officers, a step I applaud, but one which also decreases the already dangerously low number of officers available for patrol duties. So here we are, June 6, 2015 with all too frequent outbursts of violence which all too frequently results in lethal consequence. Our efforts at developing a total community response was stymied by a misguided closed door effort, leaving most of our public shut out of the dialogue to seek resolution the violence, the self same public forced all too often bear witness to the violence that plagues our neighborhoods.
Paid for by Killian for Mayor. Frank Barrows, Treasurer. Approved by Robert Killian Jr.
 
 Killian for Mayor 363 Main Street | Hartford, CT 06106 Office: (860) 560-1977 | Cell: (860) 798-2064 | www.killianformayor.com
 
So how do we begin to develop a proper response?
1. We should attend Saturday’s Concerned
 
Pastors of Greater Hartford Stop the Violence and Cease the Killing March and Action Rally. After several false starts, this may be the rally that brings all of us together. God knows, we need a unified, non-political response to the horrors of recent weeks. This is an opportunity for all the stakeholders to put aside political differences, personalities, or past animus in order to fashion a joint, reasoned response to a challenge that has engulfed and enraged us all. May we all understand that finger pointing is inappropriate; criticism no matter how deserved is not an avenue to recovery; and that without unity there will be no effective response. Thank you Pastors for making it clear that all are invited; none are excluded. Don’t let the rally devolve into purposeless name calling. Stop any speakers who try to do so. Make this rally an instrument of the Almighty’s peace. I look forward to walk with my wife, Candace, other candidates, the Pastors, police officials, the Mayor & elected officials, and concerned residents as we start the healing. 2. Let’s make it clear that our community doesn’t fear appropriate levels of police protection, we welcome it. Let us do all we can to encourage our city’s leaders—the current ones—to reconsider recent decisions that will not increase our cops on the street for at best nine months to a year. Here are specifics:
Adjust the city budget from twenty new officers to make it a class of forty.
 
It takes several months for our internal resources to do background checks, so ask Governor Molloy to require the state police to assist in an expedited process to see if we can reduce the background check time so that at least twenty of the forty could start a class in three to four months. The balance would participate in a second class as soon as cleared and the training officials can recycle.
Free up 10 or more police officers from booking duty.
Direct the city’s human resources department to immediately begin the process of looking for civilians to man the booking operation, under the supervision of sworn officers. This is a needed change, wisely approved by the City Council, but administrative delays have prevented its implementation. Hartford officials, tell us why this couldn’t be done. This change could free up ten or more officers by shifting appropriate duties to civilians and could also produce cost savings. [Continues on next page]
Authorize continuous recruitment in anticipation of retirements.
 
Every year, officers
Paid for by Killian for Mayor. Frank Barrows, Treasurer. Approved by Robert Killian Jr.
 
 Killian for Mayor 363 Main Street | Hartford, CT 06106 Office: (860) 560-1977 | Cell: (860) 798-2064 | www.killianformayor.com
 
retire. Without a doubt police department leadership could estimate with remarkable accuracy, the number of police from among those who are eligible for retirement who will likely submit retirement papers. The Council and Mayor should authorize continuous recruitment in anticipation of a class of not less than twenty officers (and more if needed). This should allow us to prevent a situation where we would not find ourselves way below the hiring necessity. It should also allow us to recruit in a fashion that will enhance our ability to ensure classes that reflect our city’s diversity.
Revive the effort to secure lateral hires of sworn officers from other police departments to put more than a dozen new police officers on the ground immediately.
 Very few of our neighboring towns have been reluctant to hire senior officers from the staff of our force and our retirees. But many of these towns, noting the career success of our excellent officers, are desirous of joining our department’s ranks, aware, in the words of the famous song, “
if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere
!” I understand a recent group of over fifteen such officers were proposed for lateral hire by the department they would receive appropriate re- training and deployment here. City Hall rejected plan for a bona fide concern: the proposed lateral hires weren’t as reflective of the city’s diversity as we would like. But given our current crisis, I believe most city residents, while applauding the determination to improve the department’s diversity, are immediately concerned with seeing the color blue in their neighborhood.
Make better use of State Police resources
. While I appreciate past willingness of Governors to assign State Police to Hartford patrol duties, I think better use of these valued services could be made so that we put more of our cops, knowledgeable of the city, its problem areas and citizenry, on the streets patrolling by relieving them of duties that don’t require special city knowledge. Specifically, could they help in the booking process, prisoner transport to hospitals, lock-up responsibilities and the like? Could Correctional officers fill some of these duties for a four month period? These require trained officers, but not the same degree of local knowledge. [Continues on next page]
Ask Police Union to waive rules and allow State Police partnership for a period of four
Paid for by Killian for Mayor. Frank Barrows, Treasurer. Approved by Robert Killian Jr.
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