Through Charter Process, Hamden Seeks Cop Accountability

Can changes to the town charter make cops more accountable?

This is one underlying goal of three new proposals put forward by representatives of Hamden’s Charter Revision Commission.

The Charter Revision Commission (CRC) is the group of town citizens involved in a once-in-a-decade revision of the town charter.

CRC chairs Frank Dixon and Jackie Downing met with the Legislative Council last week to discuss how changing the charter to add more members, term limits, and the possibility of subpoena power might improve transparency and equity within Hamden’s Police Commission.

The CRC has held 30-plus meetings over ten months to come up with proposed edits to the charter, of which the Police Commission ideas are only one set. Click here to read a previous story about some of the other suggested changes.

The CRC and Legislative Council members spent over four hours in last week’s online discussion about the package. Now the future of the charter is in the hands of the Legislative Council. The Legislative Council will hold a public hearing on June 23 before holding a final vote on the document in August. The public will then vote on the new charter in the general election in November.

Addressing Policing Concerns

The proposed changes come amid ongoing debates and demonstrations in Hamden over police accountability and police-community relations.

One major suggested charter edit includes a move to demand geographical representation within the Police Commission. This would mean growing the current commission from its current five members to nine such that each member would reside in and represent each one of Hamden’s nine Legislative Council districts.

In addition, the CRC proposed providing the Legislative Council with the power to create a Civilian Review Board (CRB) to monitor complaints of misconduct independently of the police department’s internal affairs division. Steve Mednick, the CRC’s attorney, explained that the town does not have the authority to create a CRB within the charter; such a board would have to be created through an ordinance by the Legislative Council.

One option would be to have the Legislative Council designate the Police Commission itself as the CRB, which would give it subpoena power.

Furthermore, the new charter would guarantee that the Police Commission receive a budget equal to four-tenths of one percent of Hamden PD’s, which would equal around $68,000 based on the department’s current $17 million budget. This would allow the commission funds to pay for third-party assistance and conduct independent investigations into police operations and potential misconduct.

A 12-year consecutive term limit on service across all boards and commissions could also impact who serves on the Police Commission. Hamden does not currently place any limits on volunteer service.

Lastly, additional language clarifying expected qualifications for potential appointees and the responsibilities of the Police Commission seek to ensure a more diverse and involved group of volunteers.

CRC Attorney Steve Mednick said that the CRC is not proposing actually providing the Police Commission with any new powers. Rather, the commission is suggesting that the new charter should clearly define what pre-existing language like ​“oversight” actually means.

For example, the proposed charter revisions emphasize that the commission should proactively work to discern how and whether public needs are being met through policing and to develop new policies that address public concern around the operations of the police department.

The CRC also suggested limiting the number of commission members with prior law enforcement experience to two. They added a proposed guideline encouraging the appointment of citizens with a wide range of professional experience, such as social workers, psychologists, and community organizers.

Term Limits?

These recommendations arrive after an especially tense year of national and local debate over the meaning of public safety and policing.

Greater equity for all town residents was one of four core concerns identified through exchange between the CRC and Hamden’s public. Fiscal stability and reduced budget volatility, professional town management and accountability, and ensured transparency in government are other focal points in the revision process.

While some major structural changes to the charter include increasing mayoral terms from two to four years and implementing a fiscal oversight board, the question of how to encourage greater representation and participation within the Police Commission as well as across all boards and committees sparked significant debate last week.

In 2019, the Legislative Council passed a resolution to demand that the new charter create a CRB and reform elements of the Police Commission after the shooting of Stephanie Washington by a Hamden police officer.

CRC Vice Chair Jackie Downing told the Independent that the proposed revisions are not in response to ​“any particular incident, person, group of people, or event,” but part of a series of broader proposed changes made across Hamden’s 20-plus commissions as part of a large-scale effort to make local government more inclusive and reflective of Hamden’s diverse public.

For instance, Downing, who works as the director of grantmaking and nonprofit effectiveness at The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, argued that a cap on consecutive terms is considered ​“best practice” across organizations and governments. New Haven limits voluntary service on commissions to nine years.

“Never get rid of old people,” she stated. ​“Make room for them in the organization, but always make room for new voices.”

Downing also emphasized that the cap is only on consecutive terms. ​“If someone is direly missed after 12 years, they could be reappointed,” she explained.

Multiple CRC and council members noted that the Police Commission is disproportionately composed of members nearing 12 years on the board, as compared to other commissions with a higher proportion of new volunteers.

Downing said that this realization did not inform the decision to propose consecutive term limits.

How Best To Reach Out?

Councilman Justin Farmer said that the Police Commission is currently ​“homogeneously white” and representative of northern parts of town where individuals tend to be more conservative.

He said that he was excited by many of the proposals put forth by the CRC that encourage greater participation from the public. ​“Other members of the Council say that the government has too much influence,” he said, ​“but I would argue that we do a poor job of inviting the public into the process.”

Moving forward in the charter revision process, Farmer said he would advocate for more regulations that would allow community members to draft ordinances or resolutions, hold public hearings, and have their ideas put into action.

Others disapproved of the suggested charter changes. Councilman Austin Cesare called the 12-year cap ​“punitive” and ​“a brain drain of talent.”

Councilwoman Marjorie Bonadies said that she does not want to see ​“a commission full of activists with an anti-police bias.” She suggested that all appointed members should have to take ​“police training” to get an idea of ​“what it’s like to walk in someone else’s shoes.”

The charter does require commission members to engage in training sessions offered by the Citizen’s Police Academy. Councilman Farmer added that, having recently received that training himself, ​“we should add the blue eyes/brown eyes experiment and stop and frisk so people can be familiar with other experiences as well.”

Many members of both the Council and CRC expressed concern that these efforts to bring in ​“new voices” would actually discourage civic participation, insisting that it’s hard enough already to find volunteers to fill commissions.

“Each district is more or less 6,000 people,” Farmer said to the Independent. ​“I think we can find more than one candidate in each district.”

Farmer asserted that there is not an ​“issue of talent,” but that commissions deserve more authority and ​“actual powers” which would inspire volunteers to give their time.

Downing argued that other proposed sections of the charter could ensure that boards remain full even as the town seeks to increase volunteer turnover.

In the case of the Police Commission, appointments could occur in a staggered fashion, such that representatives from different districts are not all chosen at the same point in time. That way, individuals would not potentially vacate their seats all at once.

Bonadies told the Independent she is concerned that the new charter ​“is all about increasing the cost, scope, and power of local government.”

“As a believer in smaller government, I find all these layers of redundancy cumbersome and onerous,” she said.

Bonadies also questioned the validity of district representation, asserting that ​“the district lines are political and randomly drawn and change as populations grow or contract.”

Attorney Mednick responded that while it is true that district divisions are imperfect, the idea is that such a rule would hold the mayor and Legislative Council accountable to the values of the charter when making appointment decisions.

For instance, while two potential commission members might live across the street from one another while technically living in different districts, Mednick said, it would be up to the mayor to make a judgement as to whether or not that was appropriate.

Downing concluded the four-hour discussion by asserting that the new proposed revisions are ​“not the best for anyone, but the best for everyone.” The edits that are currently on the table were voted upon by a CRC equally composed of representatives from the two major political parties.