You want regionalism? When it comes to traffic enforcement, so do police chiefs from six area departments: Bridgeport, Stratford, Fairfield, Trumbull, Monroe and Easton. See video above courtesy of Doing It Local.
The new Fairfield County Traffic Unit was announced on Thursday in which the associated departments pledged a pact to pursue motor vehicle infractions across town lines.
Police chiefs cited the strength in law enforcement numbers to pursue drunk driving and distracted motor vehicles suspects, enhance safety, bolster tight budgets and also apply for state grants in the cause of training and regional communication.
The new traffic unit has raised some questions from Bridgeport City Councilor AmyMarie Vizzo-Paniccia in an email to city officials.
“This cannot be right and legal. How fast do you think those liability claims will be sent in to Bridgeport?
What are the state rules, union and contractual rules? Payments of overtime situations? Budgetary obligations? Separate budget book? Who is in charge of grant monies if any?
Regional collaboration?
The way BPD works is more of a risk in many ways than when BFD covers a surrounding town/city.”
Regionalism as suggested by some State legislators in recent years has not been attempted in major ways, nor has hard data been developed that would show the cost effectiveness of same.
It is interesting that this agreement or pact has been arranged among regional police chiefs and one must assume that to some extent there has been support from City Hall in each instance as well as City Attorney offices.
Whether this starts with pursuit of vehicles across City lines from one town to another or something else not mentioned above, it is well to know what is changing. For whatever reason, a Bridgeport City Council person is asking questions. I hope she gets good answers inasmuch as I ask questions frequently and often have to return two or more times for the issue initially pursued.
During the past year as a Board member of the Greater Bridgeport NAACP we have been meeting with several of the chiefs on the subject of “community policing.” Differences between Bridgeport and other communities has been a subject of discussion that is ongoing almost monthly. This regional cooperation initiative will likely test some of the resolve and policies that are in place in normal times. Will a copy of the agreement be made public soon? Is it an initiative that requires a review by each town’s legislative body? How will the liability issues be handled? Time will tell.
John, why hasn’t the NAACP expressed support for the use of body cameras for officers?
While it’s nice to ask questions, it seems all the questions revolved around money.
While body cameras are not a silver bullet in excessive force in making arrests, it is one of the most effective ways to stem unwanted and needless behavior by cops when they are making an arrests, because we all know people behave differently when they know they’re on camera.
How this is not on the top of the NAACP agenda, is very confusing to me.
Not wanting to take away from the task of keeping order the cops are entrusted to do or the difficulty of it, however isn’t there a post regarding a cop being arrested for beating up a person who hit his car? Did the guy not have insurance? If he was in the wrong why didn’t the cop call for an arrest? If the cop were white and not president of the Guardians, a black minority officer organization, would the NAACP make some noise? Does that blue line trump skin color? Yes, there are many questions to be answered.
Walk that line and play that game entrusted as the peacemakers or healers, of justice and injustice for Hell has no skin tone nor side. TWT, Good Luck, BAM I’M OUT.
More than 5,000 bystanders and passengers have been killed in police car chases since 1979, and tens of thousands more were injured as officers repeatedly pursued drivers at high speeds and in hazardous conditions, often for minor infractions, a USA TODAY analysis shows.
The bystanders and the passengers in chased cars account for nearly half of all people killed in police pursuits from 1979 through 2013, USA TODAY found. Most bystanders were killed in their own cars by a fleeing driver.
This is a good idea why?
I can’t wait to see what happens when one of these suburban cops get called a mother fuc#$% by one of our Bridgeport residents, black, white or Hispanic. This is going to be a cluster fuck.
I support the police in the difficult job they do but I will say this. I don’t like Stratford, Trumbull or Fairfield cops. They are a bunch of arrogant white pricks.