SEN. WINFIELD TO SEEK LEGISLATION TO CLOSE LOOPHOLE IN BAD COP SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICER HIRINGS

HARTFORD – Prompted by a Hearst Connecticut news investigation which found that at least 10 school systems in Connecticut are employing school resource officers who are disgraced former police officers, state Senator Gary Winfield (D-New Haven), who is Senate Chair of the Judiciary Committee, said
today he will seek to raise a bill this session to close that loophole.

The news story can be found here: CT schools hired ex-officers with track records of misconduct

“This is a major issue. You can’t use a loophole to put dangerous people in front of our kids,” Sen. Winfield said. “This is something we should take seriously, and I will be looking to close this ‘loophole,’ although I actually believe that if you read the state statutes together about police accountability and hiring school resource officers, it’s pretty clear that you can’t do both. So we need to clarify that. I don’t see us waiting. Most people don’t want these individuals around our kids.”

The Hearst investigation found instances where a former Wolcott police officer who used a racial slur and put a 15-year-old girl in a headlock was hired as a school resource officer, as was a former Bridgeport police officer who failed to report a high-speed chase that left two people dead, and two former Connecticut State Troopers who created hundreds of falsified traffic tickets.

In Connecticut, school resource officers – also known by the acronym SROs – are sworn police officers who typically perform a number of community policing roles to make schools safer for students and staff, including acting as a community liaison, mentor, role model, law enforcement officer, developing school policies that concern criminal activity and school safety, and teaching classes about substance abuse awareness, gang resistance, and crime prevention. A 2022 survey of 87 school districts in Connecticut found that 68% of them employ SROs.

Connecticut law states that school boards may only enter into an agreement to hire a retired police officer to provide security in public schools if that officer “retired or separated in good standing from such department” or from the State Police.

In 2020, following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, Connecticut Democrats passed the Police Accountability law, which among other sections allows the state Police Officer Standards and Training Council (POST) to revoke an officer’s certification for conduct undermining public confidence in law enforcement, including discriminatory conduct, falsifying reports, and racial profiling. Prior to that 2020 law, police officers were only fired for felony convictions or making false statements to superiors.

From 1988 to 2021 – a third of a century – 79 police officers in Connecticut were decertified, nearly all for felony convictions. But from November 2021 to April 2025 – over just 41 months – 32 police officers in Connecticut have been decertified, nearly all for “misconduct” or “untruthfulness.”