The Associated Press
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- The Hartford Police Department has revised its policy on the use of force, requiring for the first time that officers report the use of excessive force by other members of the department.
The policy, adopted earlier this year, requires that officers “notify a supervisor when another officer is using force that appears, from a reasonable standard, to be unnecessary.”
The previous policy called on officers to intervene when they saw unnecessary force being used but included no requirement to notify a supervisor.
The Journal Inquirer reported Wednesday that the previous policy came to light in a brutality lawsuit filed by Mantoris C. Jones.
Jones’ lawsuit alleges that a Hartford police officer kicked him repeatedly in the head while he was handcuffed on the ground during a motor-vehicle stop.
In depositions in November and December 2002 in the lawsuit filed by Jones, seven Hartford police officers noted that they were not required to report to a supervisor another officer’s use of non-lethal force against a civilian.
Philip D. Tegeler, the legal director of the Connecticut Civil Liberties Union and one of Jones’ lawyers, said the change is police is “very positive.”
But he also suggested that the policy might be more effective if it required that supervisors be notified in writing.
The new policy has some limitations in that it requires officers to report only “unnecessary” uses of force. That requires an officer who witnesses the use of force to judge the propriety of a fellow officer’s actions.
“There should be reporting of certain kinds of use of force without the officer being put in the position of judging whether that use of force constitutes an unconstitutional action,” Tegeler said.