Connecticut is developing a new, community-driven curriculum for police officers who work in and around certain urban areas — a requirement of the state’s six-year-old Police Accountability Act of 2020 that could finally come to fruition later this year.Last September, the state contracted with Yale Law School’s Justice Collaboratory to create a Community Engagement Training Program, through which it will develop training for officers in Hartford, Bridgeport, New Haven and their surrounding communities — a total of about 34 municipalities.The curriculum, which is still in development, will focus on three core issues: implicit bias among officers, reconciliation for past harms to minority communities and “procedural justice” — the manner in which officers interact with people on a daily basis. Chris Collibee, spokesperson for Gov. Ned Lamont’s budget office, said the agency worked with the University of Connecticut’s Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy to “review national best practices and ensure Connecticut delivers high-quality training that supports both community and law enforcement safety.”
He said an initial request for proposals had yielded no results, and a second received only one submission that the agency determined to be unacceptable. “As a result, a decision was made to sole source the contract to Yale, based on their established work with the Department of Justice and recognized best practices,” Collibee said.
