Three police officers were slapped with unpaid suspensions
for “being inattentive to their duty” while on the midnight shift, Chief Thomas
Wydra confirmed Thursday.
Wydra would not provide specifics except to say that the
behavior occurred this spring at a location he would not name and boils down to
an officer not patrolling an assigned sector, and not carrying out assignments
such as traffic enforcement and deterrent patrols.
“You’re in a fixed location, and therefore, if it’s for an
extended period of time, you’re being inattentive to your assignment,” Wydra
said.
The chief also would not name the officers involved, or the
length of their suspensions. The Register has requested the information under
the state Freedom of Information Act.
“One example of being inattentive to duty is if you are, for
example, parked in a place for an extended period of time without any
justification,” Wydra said. “In other words, you’re not writing reports, your
supervisor is not aware of you being in a location for an extended period of
time. You’re not on call at a particular location for an extended position of
time. You are actually not currently assigned to any service call, and you are
not conducting any other work, yet you are sitting in a marked police car for
an extended period of time.”
Wydra said he learned in the spring that an “unknown number
of officers” on the midnight shift were possibly acting inappropriately on
duty.
He said the allegations at first did not revolve around a
single officer, or even multiple named officers, but a specific location that
was being abused.
An internal investigation by the department’s Ethics and
Integrity Unit “produced verified allegations against three officers, that they
were in fact engaging inattentively to duty assignment conduct,” Wydra said.
The officers “all received unpaid suspensions of varying
degrees. I’m not going to reveal the numbers, but I think it’s important to
know that there is due process here.
“The collective bargaining agreement here and our rules and
regulations talk about progressive discipline, so each employee is entitled to
that progressive discipline matrix,” Wydra said. “So one employee may have had
more discipline than the other, and that’s where you might see a more severe
penalty with one officer over another.” Wydra declined to divulge the names of
the officers involved because of the “spirit” of the negotiations with union
representatives and the final settlements negotiated with the officers.
“I’m not saying that information won’t be available for
public consumption if it’s requested,” Wydra said, “But I am saying at this
point in time I’m going to respect the spirit of our dialogue and not reveal it
at this point in time.”
The Register filed a formal FOI request for the information
with the town late Thursday afternoon.
“Obviously this is a serious issue,” said Mayor Scott
Jackson. “I have every confidence in our chief, in our sworn officers and in
the union that represents those sworn officers to take appropriate action.”
Police Commission Chairman Michael Iezzi could not be
reached for comment.
Wydra said each of the three officers disciplined “took
total responsibility for their actions,” “held themselves accountable,” and
responded positively during both the investigation and when discipline was
handed down.
“Taxpayers have every right to place the highest
expectations on their police department, ” Wydra said, “whether that is in
Hamden, Connecticut, or some other jurisdiction in this country,” ” Wydra said.
“And we respect that. We understand that, and we agree with it. And so we do
our best to ensure that our personnel recognize those high expectations.”
But Wydra stressed he believes his department and the people
that work there, including the three disciplined officers, are “dedicated to
executing their duties efficiently, effectively and to the best of their
abilities.”
“We do recruit from the human race,” Wydra said. “Humans are
prone to mistakes and failings, and I think it’s important that when those happen,
when those mistakes happen, they’re acknowledged and accounted for, and then we
move on, and get better.”
