Sam Gurwitt Photo
(Opinion)Justin Farmer, who wrote the following article, is a Hamden City Council member and majority whip.
For the past few months, I’ve been working with one of my constituents, Kim Miller, to find a solution for her dogs, Kato and Kleo, which have been housed in North Haven’s pound (a facility Hamden frequently uses since we lack our own) for the past six years after her dogs were accused of attacking someone.
After months of discussions with various Hamden officials, including mayor’s office personnel, the police chief, and the town attorney, I arranged a meeting to visit North Haven to see Ms. Miller’s dogs and the facility.
Despite the extensive discussions on what a visit might look like and how it would work for everyone involved, my visit on Dec. 17, 2018, quickly spiraled into disaster.
In addition to the multiple conversations with our town’s former and acting police chiefs regarding any necessary waivers or releases, I also discussed the plans with colleagues at a leadership meeting, who included the mayor and the Council president. Ms. Miller informed North Haven that the visit would be taking place as well.
On the morning of the visit, around 9 a.m., Ms. Miller called Hamden Animal Control Officer Chris Smith and informed him that I would be joining her on her regular visit. Smith became very agitated with Ms. Miller and demanded that she make sure I “knew the rules.”
When I arrived at the pound with Ms. Miller and met Officer Smith, he began to tell me that I could not interact directly with the dogs, as it would be dangerous to approach them and could result in him losing his job. This was in spite of previous visits from other elected officials.
Although this is not what had been previously agreed upon, I respected his wishes and did not interact directly with the dogs. I did, however, say that we would be revisiting the issue and discussing it again with the mayor’s office and the town attorney.
The conversation lasted no more than four minutes into visiting the facility when a North Haven police officer approached us and asked us to have a quick conversation with him. The officer was friendly enough and explained that he would be there for the duration of the visit and that Officer Smith had a North Haven animal control officer called to prevent possible trespassing.
I was bewildered. Although this had not been part of the discussions that had taken place in preparation of the visit, the payor and police chief assured me that was proper procedure, even though it had not been the case for either elected official who had previously visited.
The North Haven officer left after half an hour of standing guard and watching us. Officer Smith was confused about why I wasn’t OK with this. I later found out that Officer Smith had called his captain after getting off the phone with Ms. Miller, and had specifically requested police presence for when Ms. Miller and I arrived.
I gave Hamden’s mayor and his administration three weeks to answers questions and provide documentation regarding the standard procedure for visits to the facility, to which I received no answers. No one took the issue seriously until I mentioned that the press might be interested in investigating.
Even in closed-door leadership meetings, little was said on the matter. After more than the three weeks provided, I have now enlisted the help of our town attorney to develop and formalize rules.
As a legislator of color, I understand that most issues around race and policing are often strained for my colleagues, but I would never have believed that the police would be called while doing my job of representing the town. As a leader, I try to do everything in a pro-social way. I tried to work with the mayor’s office and the police department and two months have passed with no procedures to prevent this from happening again.
The officers at the facility do, however, wear body cameras now because of the “incident of the 17th.” I was mortified that law enforcement was called on me to intimidate me from doing my job but was more concerned that if a constituent had informed me of such an incident, I would not have thought it possible.
I decided to write this article to inform the public on a community hearing we’ll be having in March and to make a commitment to go on ride-alongs with as many officers as my schedule permits to build community trust. It is more important now than ever for the community to be part of our policing efforts rather than accomplices in the current system.
Justin Farmer Majority Whip
203 – 200-0517
Fifthdistrict@hamden.com