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Malloy's Office: Despite Police Layoffs, Public Safety a Priority [Update]

A state police spokesman says initiatives like the Resident State Trooper program are safe.

Update 7:15 p.m.

Juliet Manalan, the governor's press secretary, clarified her statements below regarding the relationship between numbers of troopers and safety.

"There will have to be some shifting around of troopers in order to keep the public safe... there is clearly a relationship between what the troopers do to keep us safe and the number of troopers able to do it," Manalan told Patch. "So to clarify, the governor isn't willing to compromise public safety, so there will be a shifting of resources within the department to ensure that despite the layoffs, the public safety remains a priority."

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Original story:

The newly hired are the newly fired.

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The 57 state troopers who received pink slips yesterday all come from the 121st Training Troop, the state’s newest recruiting class. They graduated from the State Police Academy in Meriden last November. The troopers will be laid off on Aug. 24 if the unions can’t strike a new deal.

“We were taken aback,” said Andrew Matthews, president of the Connecticut State Police Union. “We’re already 121 troopers short. If they lay these people off we’ll be 213 troopers short.”

According to Connecticut General Statute 29-4 there should be 1248 sworn state police officers. This mandate hasn’t been met since February 2008.

However, when Gov. Dannel P. Malloy ran for office he said he wouldn’t put a price tag on safety, Matthews said. And so the state police union endorsed Malloy, partly on the promise of being able to induct a class of 80 recruits this fall.

The state was under the mandate even before Malloy was elected, said Juliet Manalan, press secretary for Malloy.

Still, Matthews said, the union has a great deal of respect for Malloy and recognizes the fiscal crisis at hand.

Malloy said 6,500 state employees would be laid off across the state since the unions nixed a deal in June that would have slashed $1.6 billion from the state budget.

“You don’t want to be a leader in government or in a union right now,” Matthews said. “I don’t think his intention is to compromise safety, but something will be compromised. You have less troopers doing less protection.”

Manalan said the governor is relying on the expertise of commissioners to move troopers around.

“There is no relationship between the number of troopers and safety,” she said. “The governor would never compromise the safety of the residents.”

Moreover, "this is not where the Governor wanted to be – he worked hard to negotiate an agreement with SEBAC leadership so he could avoid layoffs and cuts to state services," Manalan said.

There are 12 barracks in the state and the officers are the primary law enforcement provider in 82 of 169 Connecticut towns. 

State police supervisors will transfer personnel from other areas to ensure that programs are fully covered, including the resident state trooper program, said Lt. J. Paul Vance, spokesman for the state police. Small and large towns benefit from state police programs, including the Major Crime Squad, which assists local departments on serious crimes. State police troopers also patrol state highways in towns.

But now, with only 1070 officers to the job—down from 1283 in 2009—officers will be stretched thin, Matthews said.

“We will be stripped of specialized units as officers are put back on patrol. People will still see officers in uniform, but it’s the things the public doesn’t see everyday that will be diminished,” Matthews said.

Units such as sex offenders, forensics, organized crime, firearms, will all be pared down.

It’s an unsettling at best, said House Minority Leader Larry Cafero, a Republican representing Norwalk in the 142nd House District.

“I’m surprised,” Cafero said. “We depend on these men and these women for our safety.

Vance wouldn’t comment on whether the state police were surprised to be among the very first to be put on notice.

“We simply made arrangements to notify these people yesterday,” Vance said. “We will fill those voids and transfer people as needed to continue to deliver policing to the people of Connecticut.”

Cafero also said he is dismayed the General Assembly voted to allow Malloy to decide where the cuts will be made.

“What really saddened me is that the legislature turned over all these [layoff] decisions to the governor,” Cafero said. “When it’s done by commissioners it’s different. They are nameless and faceless. Not everyone knows who their state representative is, but at least they are accountable.”

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