New Haven police have new rules to follow to ensure they don’t protect brothers and sisters in blue who are arrested for domestic violence — as well as a new tool for helping to locate people with conditions like Alzheimer’s who are prone to wandering away and getting lost.
Rank-and-file cops will begin training on those rules and others contained in a series of general orders approved last week by the Board of Police Commissioners. The orders also cover the handling of Tasers as well as missing-person reports.
The department is gradually rewriting 160 general orders, as part of a broad updating of department rules.
One newly approved general order, for the new Project Lifesaver Program, will govern how officers use a radio tracking system to help find a person who might have Alzheimer’s, dementia, autism, Down’s Syndrome, or any other cognitive condition that might make them prone to wander.
Lt. Racheal Cain said caregivers of people with such conditions will be able to apply for a tracking bracelet for their loved one to wear at no cost. Families, who apply and are approved for the device, will be trained on how the tracker works and the importance of calling the police immediately should their loved one go missing. (Watch the above video from Project Lifesaver International, at the top of this story, to see the system in action.)
Cain said once a person with a tracking device is reported missing, an officer trained to use the system, or a shift commander, will respond to the area where the call came from, and begin using the device to track the person. Any available Project Lifesaver trained officer also will respond to the scene.
According to the general order, the tracking equipment, which consists of a Project Lifesaver International handheld tracking receiver or similar model, and receiver headset, will be kept in the SWAT truck and in the shift commander’s office for easy deployment. Only trained personnel will be allowed to use the equipment. A list of trained personnel will be maintained by the shift commander and the officer-in-charge of the detective bureau.
Cain said she does not know how many officers would be trained in the deployment of the technology. The Project Lifesaver order does not replace the department’s general order on “missing persons,” which also had a few changes that were approved by the board, including clearing up the misconception that a person can be reported missing only after 72 hours.
The order now indicates that law enforcement agencies should respond immediately to someone making a missing person report whether or not the person lives in the agency’s jurisdiction. Cain said the New Haven Police Department will be the lead investigating agency on any missing person report that it takes, until another agency “actively takes the lead.”
New Domestic Violence Protocol
The department’s policy already required that domestic violence incidents involving its police officers be treated similarly to incidents involving civilians. The revised general order approved by the board last Tuesday night makes clear that officers from other law enforcement agencies will get the same treatment too. When an officer from another agency is arrested in a domestic violence incident, the shift commander will be responsible for notifying that officer’s employing agency “as soon as possible, but no later than by the end of the supervisor’s shift.”
The board also approved two new orders on domestic violence that are the result of directives from the state’s Police Officer Standards and Training Council. An entirely new order on domestic violence covers all applicable state and federal laws; another order addresses the treatment of domestic violence victims who have a questionable immigration status. In the case of victims with questionable immigration status, officers are to provide the same assistance that they would give to legal residents and citizens, but also provide information about the person’s rights to petition for certain visas.
Take-Home Taser
The Board of Police Commissioners also approved a change in policy that will allow officers to take home their conducted electrical weapons, commercially known as Tasers, instead of locking them up at 1 Union Ave.
The department revised its Taser policy to further tighten what had already been considered a strict policy. (Read more about that here.) Those revisions, which have required officers to lock the weapon in a special locker at the end of their shift, were approved about a month ago, Cain said. But the police union pointed out that rules requiring that officers bring the weapon back to headquarters conflicted with rules that require officers to carry their weapons anytime they’re on duty, including extra duty.
If the officers had to bring the weapon back to headquarters prior to reporting for an extra duty assignment, Cain said it also could create overtime for which the city would have to pay. The previous policy allowed the officers to take their Taser home, and the board Tuesday approved a return to that policy.