Malloy To Fight Trooper Staffing Ruling

By Dave Collins

Associated Press

HARTFORD — Governor Dannel P. Malloy’s administration plans to go to the Connecticut Supreme Court to fight a judge’s ruling in favor of the state police union, which is trying to get officials to adhere to a minimum state trooper staffing level set in a 1998 state law, according to the governor’s general counsel.

The union is suing Malloy, the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection and the agency’s commissioner, saying the law requires a minimum of 1,248 troopers but the state currently only has 1,080. Union President Andrew Matthews says troopers are worried that inadequate staffing is causing long response times in some areas and putting the safety of the public and troopers at risk.

Hartford Superior Court Judge James T. Graham on January 13 rejected a motion by the state to dismiss the lawsuit. The attorney general’s office had argued that the minimum staffing number in the 1998 law was a goal, not a requirement, and that any mandatory staffing level would conflict with the governor’s budget powers.

Malloy’s general counsel, Andrew McDonald, said Tuesday that the attorney general’s office will appeal Graham’s ruling to the state Appellate Court by February 2 and ask that the appeal be transferred immediately to the Supreme Court.

“We believe the legislative history supports our position that this statute was an aspirational goal of the legislature, not a minimum threshold,” McDonald said.

McDonald added that the legislature has approved enough funding for state police to meet the minimum staffing level only three times since the law was passed in 1998, and that lawmakers’ failure to set aside enough money essentially confirms that they believe the minimum staffing figure is not a strict requirement.

“The legislature says it’s 1,248, but they don’t supply funding for that level of positions,” McDonald said. “How is the commissioner supposed to meet that requirement?”

The 1998 law approved by the legislature and then-governor John G. Rowland was spurred mostly by the killing of Heather Messenger in her Chaplin home earlier that year and how long it took state police to respond. The nearest trooper was 18 minutes away when she called 911 shortly before she was bludgeoned to death. Her husband, David Messenger, was found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to a state psychiatric hospital.

The wording of the law says the public safety commissioner “shall appoint and maintain” a minimum of 1,248 state troopers. Graham and the state police union say it’s clear that the law requires the state to have that many troopers.