Chief Larrabee, left, and Mayor Joe "Taco" Maturo
For two men engulfed in a vicious police racial profiling scandal, East Haven Mayor Joseph “Taco” Maturo and his new police chief seem oddly ignorant about the need to reform Connecticut’s unworkable anti-racial profiling law.
“We’ll wait and see,” Maturo said Tuesday about whether he’s going to help push for reform of the 12-year-old statute. His newly sworn-in “interim” chief, Brent Larrabee, also declined to say whether he would support proposed changes aimed at giving the old law some teeth and a clear-cut method for keeping track of who cops are stopping on the street and why.
Gov. Dannel Malloy, the state Latino & Puerto Rican Affairs Commission and key minority lawmakers have all said they want to make reform of the anti-racial profiling law a top priority in the 2012 General Assembly session.
Larrabee’s claim that he needs to know more about the issue is particularly peculiar since he was the chief of police in Stamford from 2005-2010 while Malloy was mayor there.
He did say Tuesday that one reason for the failure of the law is that few police departments were providing the required statistics on traffic stops because there was no effective central collection agency.
In fact, police departments across the state complained from the time the law was passed that it was unnecessary and its requirements were too vague. State prosecutors who were supposed to collect and analyze the traffic stop data didn’t want the extra work and finally dodged their way out of involvement.
In the end, a tiny and understaffed state African American Affairs Commission found itself saddled with a job it couldn’t handle. State bureaucrats also found themselves unable to tap into $1.2 million in federal anti-racial profiling money for Connecticut, money that went unused for years.
Maturo swore in Larrabee in a private ceremony Tuesday morning, a move that drew new questions about just how “transparent” the whole chief selection process has been.
U.S. Justice Department officials have complained that they had “serious concerns” about the way Maturo went about choosing his new interim chief. In a letter to town officials, a federal civil rights division official said Maturo appeared to have chosen Larrabee without waiting to consult with Justice Department officials.
“The apparent lack of transparency and deliberation in selecting the interim chief is a serious concern and risks undermining the town’s efforts to rebuild the [East Haven Police Department} and restore the public’s confidence,” the letter said in part.
East Haven has for years been the target of federal civil and criminal investigations. Four officers have been indicted for racial profiling, harassment and brutal, unconstitutional actions against Latinos. They have pleaded not guilty.
The former chief of police, Len Gallo, was apparently cited in the indictments as “Co-Conspirator 1” and is widely expected to also be indicted. Gallo was allowed to retire last week by his old buddy Maturo.
“If the Department of Justice says we made a mistake, we’re sorry,” Larrabee said Tuesday, apparently offering an apology that Maturo didn’t bother with at the news conference. Larrabee also declined to comment on Gallo’s performance as chief of a department devastated by long-running race-related scandals.
Larrabee called his recruitment to head up the troubled East Haven cop house a “whirlwind romance.”
“I thought I might be the right person at the right time,” he said.
When asked how long his “interim” position in East Haven might last, Larrabee responded: “As long as the community and the mayor want me.”
East Haven and Maturo are facing both the prospect of a federal court mandate to reform the police department and a civil lawsuit brought by Latino citizens that could cost the town millions.
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