Connecticut
Connecticut to step up investigation of hate crime probes
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut officers hope well timed, stepped-up reporting of hate crime investigations by native police to a brand new State Police investigative unit will assist result in the prevention and detection of such crimes earlier than one thing violent occurs.
A brand new legislation requires all native and tribal police departments, resident state troopers, and constables with legislation enforcement duties to inform the brand new Hate Crimes Investigative Unit of a broader record of crimes involving bigotry and bias inside 14 days, utilizing a brand new standardized system, starting Jan. 1. They have to proceed to share details about their native investigations with the State Police unit.
“Just about each week, each month we get a brand new nationwide report concerning the extent of the rise in hate crimes,” mentioned Rep. Maria Horn, D-Salisbury, co-chair of the Normal Meeting’s Public Security Committee. “These crimes are among the many most corrosive ones we’ve as a result of they go after the bonds that ties collectively as communities and as a state. And so I believe the necessity is is apparent.”
The brand new legislation, which was signed on March 10 by Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont and highlighted throughout a ceremonial signing Tuesday, comes days earlier than the State Bond Fee is scheduled to launch a second $5 million allocation for safety grants for homes of worship and eligible nonprofit organizations prone to being the goal of a hate crime or violent act.
FBI statistics present there have been 101 hate crimes reported in 2020 in Connecticut, the newest 12 months for out there information. Sixty-one of these crimes focused a person’s race, ethnicity or ancestry; 17 concerned an individual’s faith; 15 concerned somebody’s sexual orientation; and eight concerned an individual’s incapacity for a number of biases, Lamont’s workplace mentioned in a press release.
Whereas the brand new legislation formally creates the Hate Crimes Investigative Unit throughout the Connecticut State Police, Division of Emergency Companies and Public Safety Commissioner James Rovella mentioned he already shaped the group in October.
The unit, which features a sergeant and a few detectives, has already been working with different State Police items, native police and the FBI, investigating numerous complaints, together with racist fliers just lately distributed on a number of West Hartford streets by a white supremacist group.