THE NEW FACES PATROLLING THE STATE

by Jasmine Brianna Ellison

MIDDLETOWN, CONN. - In January of 2020, twenty-eight recruits graduated from the State Trooper Academy, in addition to the forty-two recruits graduated in May of 2019. The recent graduates expected to replenish the state agencies depleted numbers. The Connecticut State Trooper agency struggles to maintain its ranks and abide the staffing laws which states state police staff should be at minimum of 1,201.
State police budget is large factor in maintaining ranks. Additionally, understaffing has caused numerous back logs including, 18,000-gun sales that had not been entered into a registry to Freedom of Information requests and nearly a two-year delay for document requests from the public states James Rovella, who was appointed commissioner in December.

A source, previously employed by the state police stated, “They’re [refusing] to pull their weapons, […] they’re going to get killed.”
 

In the year of 2019, 61 troopers retired and, in 2020, the agency reports 88 troopers are eligible to retire as well. However, inside sources state funding and retirement are not the only issues. Records also indicate 18 troopers resigned from the agency in 2019.
 
Sources allege new officers are failing field training and superior officers have exhibited a low tolerance for failed field operations. However, these rookies are not without experience and have passed a knowledge test, physical fitness test, background check and polygraph examination. Specifically, among the forty-two graduates in the 127th Training Troop, nine had military experience, twelve had prior law enforcement experience, twenty had bachelor’s degrees and five had graduate degrees. However, there has been an obvious failure to employ the education and tactical experience applicants have reported on their resumes. A source, previously employed by the state police stated, “They’re [refusing] to pull their weapons, […] they’re going to get killed.”
 
Police officers risk their lives daily in order to apprehend heinous murderers and rapists. On average, from 2007 until 2018, fifty police officers were feloniously killed each year. Officers are in the eye of the storm and patrol streets in which most idealists have never stepped foot.
 
Policing is defined as the maintenance of law and order by a police force. Although the United States of America justice system has indisputable flaws, the policing of laws is a necessary function of modern society where murder and rape actively exists. The rookie Connecticut State Troopers failure to understand the violent realities of the job demonstrates the dangers of idealist policing. Finding the fine line between bureaucracy and idealism is the key to successful policing. Incorporating the two concepts is essential to begin making the changes we beg to see. 
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