Connecticut General Statutes/Title 51/Chapter 886/Section 51-277a

CGS § 51-277a. Investigation and prosecution of the use of physical force by a peace officer, the death of a person in custody, failure of a peace officer to notify next of kin of a death or failure of a peace officer to intervene in or report an incident. Reporting upon conclusion of investigation.

(a)(1) Whenever a peace officer, in the performance of such officer's duties, uses physical force upon another person and such person dies as a result thereof or uses deadly force, as defined in section 53a-3, upon another person, the Division of Criminal Justice shall cause an investigation to be made and the Inspector General shall have the responsibility of determining whether the use of physical force by the peace officer was justifiable under section 53a-22.

(2) (A) Except as provided under subdivision (1) of this subsection, whenever a person dies in the custody of a peace officer or law enforcement agency, the Inspector General shall investigate and determine whether physical force was used by a peace officer upon the deceased person, and if so, whether the use of physical force by the peace officer was justifiable under section 53a-22. If the Inspector General determines the deceased person may have died as a result of criminal action not involving the use of force by a peace officer, the Inspector General shall refer such case to the Chief State's Attorney or a state's attorney for potential prosecution.

(B) Except as provided under subdivision (1) of this subsection or subparagraph (A) of subdivision (2) of this subsection, whenever a person dies in the custody of the Commissioner of Correction, the Inspector General shall investigate and determine whether the deceased person may have died as a result of criminal action, and, if so, refer such case to the Chief State's Attorney or a state's attorney for potential prosecution.

(3) Whenever a person who (A) is a next of kin of a deceased person, (B) is not notified of such deceased person's death as required pursuant to section 7-294mm and no other person who is a next of kin of the deceased person was so notified, and (C) requests of the Office of the Inspector General an investigation of the lack of notification or timely notification of such death, the Inspector General shall investigate and determine whether there was any malfeasance on the part of a peace officer or a supervisor of the peace officer in the failure to provide such notification or timely notification, and if so, may make recommendations to the Police Officer Standards and Training Council established under section 7-294b concerning censure, suspension, renewal, cancelation or revocation of the peace officer's or supervisor's certification, provided any such recommendation may be made to said council only in a case where such failure is found to be intentional or made with reckless indifference. If there is no finding that such failure was intentional or made with reckless indifference, a recommendation may be made to the officer's or supervisor's employing agency for any further disciplinary action as so determined by such employing agency.

(4) The Inspector General shall request the appropriate law enforcement agency to provide such assistance as is necessary to investigate and make a determination under subdivision (1), (2) or (3) of this subsection.

(5) Whenever a peace officer, in the performance of such officer's duties, uses physical force or deadly force upon another person and such person dies as a result thereof, the Inspector General shall complete a preliminary status report that shall include, but need not be limited to, (A) the name of the deceased person, (B) the gender, race, ethnicity and age of the deceased person, (C) the date, time and location of the injury causing such death, (D) the law enforcement agency involved, (E) the status on the toxicology report, if available, and (F) the death certificate, if available. The Inspector General shall complete the report and submit a copy of such report not later than five business days after the cause of the death is available to the Chief State's Attorney and, in accordance with the provisions of section 11-4a, to the joint standing committees of the General Assembly having cognizance of matters relating to the judiciary and public safety.

(b) Upon the conclusion of the investigation of an incident described in subdivision (1) or (2) of subsection (a) of this section, the Inspector General shall file a report with the Chief State's Attorney which shall contain the following: (1) The circumstances of the incident, (2) a determination of whether the use of physical force by the peace officer was justifiable under section 53a-22, and (3) any recommended future action to be taken by the Office of the Inspector General as a result of the incident. The Chief State's Attorney shall provide a copy of the report to the chief executive officer of the municipality in which the incident occurred and to the Commissioner of Emergency Services and Public Protection or the chief of police of such municipality, as the case may be, and shall make such report available to the public on the Division of Criminal Justice's Internet web site not later than forty-eight hours after the copies are provided to the chief executive officer and the commissioner or chief of police.

(c) The Office of the Inspector General shall prosecute any case in which the Inspector General determines that (1) the use of force by a peace officer was not justifiable under section 53a-22, or (2) there was a failure to intervene in such incident or to report any such incident, as required under subsection (a) of section 7-282e or section 18-81nn.

Short History

(P.A. 88-199; P.A. 90-230, S. 66, 101; P.A. 98-48, S. 1; P.A. 11-51, S. 134; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 15-4, S. 4; P.A. 19-90, S. 3; July Sp. Sess. P.A. 20-1, S. 34; P.A. 21-8, S. 7; P.A 22-37, S. 31; 22-61, S. 2.)

Long History

History: P.A. 90-230 corrected the reference to “deadly physical force” in Subsec. (a); P.A. 98-48 added Subsec. (b) authorizing the designation of a prosecutorial official from another judicial district or the appointment of a special prosecutor to conduct the investigation, requiring the appointment of special inspectors when requested and authorizing any person to make a written request for the designation of a prosecutorial official from another judicial district or the appointment of a special prosecutor to conduct the investigation and relettered former Subsec. (b) as Subsec. (c); pursuant to P.A. 11-51, “Commissioner of Public Safety” was changed editorially by the Revisors to “Commissioner of Emergency Services and Public Protection” in Subsec. (c), effective July 1, 2011; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 15-4 amended Subsecs. (a) and (c)(2) to replace “deadly physical force” with “physical force”, amended Subsec. (b) to designate existing provision re designation of prosecutorial official from judicial district other than one in which incident occurred as Subdiv. (1), designate existing provision re appointment of special assistant state's attorney or special deputy assistant state's attorney as Subdiv. (2) and replace “may” with “shall”, and made technical and conforming changes; P.A. 19-90 amended Subsec. (a) by designating existing provisions re investigation of peace officer's use of physical force resulting in death as Subdiv. (1) and amending same by adding provision re use of deadly force upon another person, adding Subdiv. (2) re peace officer's use of physical force resulting in death and preliminary status report, amended Subsec. (b) by adding reference to Subsec. (a)(1), amended Subsec. (c) by adding provision re availability of report on division's Internet web site, and made technical changes; July Sp. Sess. P.A. 20-1 transferred duty of investigation and determination from Division of Criminal Justice to the Inspector General, replaced “appropriate” with “justifiable” re use of physical force and made technical and conforming changes throughout, redesignated Subsec. (a)(1) as Subsecs. (a)(1) and (a)(3), added new Subsec. (a)(2) re death while in custody, redesignated existing Subsec. (a)(2) as Subsec. (a)(4), deleted former Subsec. (b) re designation or appointment of prosecutorial officials, special prosecutors or special inspectors by the Chief State's Attorney, redesignated existing Subsec. (c) as Subsec. (b) and added new Subsec. (c) re prosecution of cases by the Office of the Inspector General (Revisor's note: In codifying this section, an incorrect reference to “section 42 of this act” was deemed by the Revisors to be a reference to “section 43” and codified as section 18-81nn); P.A. 21-8 amended Subsec. (a) by replacing provision requiring Inspector General to investigate and make determination with division causing an investigation and Inspector General being responsible for determination in Subdiv. (1), adding “may have” and deleting “a possible” and replacing references to division with Chief State's Attorney or state's attorney in Subdiv. (2), replacing provision re determining circumstances of incident investigated with “investigate and make a determination” in Subdiv. (3) and adding reference to deadly force and Chief State's Attorney and making technical changes in Subdiv. (4), amended Subsec. (b)(3) by adding “recommended” and amended Subsec. (c) by designating use of force provision as Subdiv. (1) and failure to intervene language as Subdiv. (2) and making technical changes, effective May 6, 2021; P.A. 22-37 made technical changes in Subsec. (a)(2); P.A. 22-61 amended Subsec. (a) by adding new Subdiv. (3) re notification of next of kin of a person's death, referencing new Subdiv. (3) in former Subdiv. (3), and redesignating existing Subdivs. (3) and (4) as Subdivs. (4) and (5) and amended Subsec. (b) by referencing Subsecs. (a)(1) and (a)(2).

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