Public Employees Gone Wild

 July 10, 2008

If you’re looking for the latest news about Connecticut’s government workers, check the police blotter.

That’s where you’re likely to find one item after another detailing illegal activities by Nutmeg State “public servants.”

The most disturbing pattern of wrongdoing involves the employees who are supposed to protect citizens from criminals. In May, a Naugatuck police officer -- on paid leave for 27 months due to “medical issues” -- was arrested for hitting his wife. In June, a Bridgeport cop was charged with kidnapping and pistol-whipping a female officer, and a former Hamden policeman accepted a plea deal that will send him to jail for two years on weapons and forgery charges. Also in June, a reporter revealed that the feds are investigating whether counts should be filed against a former Norwalk lieutenant busted for having sex with two teen boys he met online. A Waterbury cop was arrested for telling his drug-dealing buddy about the state police’s investigation of his business. And an ex-cop from East Windsor went to prison for four years, after admitting to sexually explicit Internet chats with an 11-year-old girl.

Earlier this month, a Waterbury captain was arraigned for charges related to two separate domestic-violence incidents in one night. (The married officer assaulted his on-again, off-again girlfriend.)

In addition to individual officers, entire departments are behaving badly. The federal investigation of law enforcement in New Haven saw the FBI raid police HQ in 2007. Several officers have been sent to the slammer, including the head of the narcotics unit, who in April received a prison sentence of 38 months. The (Manchester) Journal Inquirer recently learned that the Enfield police department has launched two internal investigations that “involve allegations of sexual misconduct.” And it’s getting difficult to keep track of the number of cops fired from Madison’s department. Their offenses included stalking, theft, fraud, and consorting with hookers.

Connecticut firefighters are following cops’ lead. In April, the former treasurer of Westport’s fire-department union was arrested after a probe found $7,200 worth of unauthorized purchases of food, drinks, electronics, and online porn. In June, a Norwalk firefighter who earned $92,332 in salary, benefits, and overtime last year had charges reinstated against him for failing to pay restitution for bouncing six checks.

School-district employees are another group with frequent legal woes. In April, a Goshen principal resigned after being nabbed for drunk driving. (Her intoxication level was almost twice the legal limit.) In May, an Andover principal was apprehended for DUI, as was a Stamford custodian. And a Bridgeport third-grade teacher resigned amid charges of possession of cocaine, marijuana and drug paraphernalia. (He was later charged with repeatedly raping a teen girl.)

The problem doesn’t exist at just the municipal level. A few weeks ago, an inspector with the state’s Department of Transportation was sent to the hoosegow for a year, after setting up a sexual tryst with a 14-year-old boy who turned out to be an undercover cop. Within the last two months, a judicial marshal was arrested for groping a female inmate, a Department of Children and Families teacher aide was arrested for possessing cocaine and marijuana, a corrections officer was arrested for agreeing to smuggle heroin into a state prison, and a former employee of Southern Connecticut State University was arrested for embezzling more than $10,000.

None of these perps’ misdeeds comes as a shock to close observers of public employment in Connecticut. The “grievance” procedures of union contracts often protect troublemakers. Many managers are willing to feign ignorance of employee malfeasance, rather than expose it and risk bad press as well as their own job security. Elected officials at both the state and local levels seldom devote attention to creating and enforcing tough comportment standards -- after all, public-employee campaign donations put so many of them in office. The outrageously one-sided State Board of Mediation and Arbitration regularly reinstates corrupt and convicted government workers. And the judiciary is often willing to cover for its colleagues on the public payroll. (Earlier this month a Superior Court judge refused prosecutors’ request that a former Bridgeport cop, terminated last year after choking and kicking his girlfriend, be disqualified from possessing a gun. As a result, the officer could rejoin the department.)

The recent decision by Governor Rell and legislators to enact a pension-revocation procedure for on-the-job illegalities received predicable praise from Connecticut’s left-leaning “good government” crowd. But if the crime logs are indicative of the kind of people employed by cities, towns, and the state, many more reforms of the statutes and regulations that govern personnel are needed.

D. Dowd Muska is a writer, commentator and public-policy researcher. His website is www.dowdmuska.com.

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