CONNECTICUT, USA — No confidence. The vote was taken by more than 700 members the Connecticut State Police Union is an indictment of Gov. Lamont and the top brass at the state police. It’s also sending a message that is reverberating through the halls of the state capitol.
The Connecticut State Police Union is suggesting one of their leaders, Commissioner James Rovella, put politics over people when it came to the controversial police accountability bill voted on and signed into law in July.
Connecticut State Police Union Executive Director Andy Matthews said, "He failed to speak out publicly or in writing in defense of his troopers. He made no comments to defend the good names of his troopers."
Brian Foley, spokesperson for the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection quickly came to Rovella’s defense.
"The union has no idea what the commissioner did or didn’t do behind closed doors. In fact, he had a meeting set up with the union to discuss what they would like him to do. The union blew the meeting off," said Foley.
For only the 2nd time in their 39 year history, the Connecticut State Police Union tallied a resounding no-confidence vote in Commissioner Rovella, Col. John Eckersley, and Gov. Ned Lamont.
When asked about the vote the Governor said, "These are amazing folks who have been keeping us safe and doing it successfully for a long time. The union had some issues and did this poll. But I don’t think it has any meaning in terms of the commitment of our folks to keep this state safe."
Specifically, the union contends that legislators violated the very union contract they approved by allowing the police accountability bill to give the public access to personnel files. State Sen. Dennis Bradley Chairs the legislature’s Public Safety Committee. He said, "The intent of the legislature when we crafted that portion of it was to show the public that no one is hiding anything here. We talked about the Great Wall, the blue code of silence that has had a negative effect on many police departments. We are making sure we can pierce that."
Both Bradley and Gov. Lamont committed to working to amend and fix the bill before the provisions of it actually take effect.
RELATED: Connecticut State Police union overwhelmingly approves vote of no confidence in Lamont, CSP leaders
"People will say we’ll your the chair of public safety. Shouldn’t those committees work together? Absolutely. And the work is not done yet. Our committee along with judiciary are going to work together to craft a better piece of legislation and address some of the issues police departments rightfully may have in terms of making sure we are not violating contracts," said State Sen. Bradley.
Gov. Lamont said, "Yeah, why not? If there is something that conflicts with the law we have to clean that up. We would go that probably not in a short session but certainly, do that next year. I’m told nothing goes into place for another 11 months so the legislature smartly anticipated there may need to be some cleanup in the bill."
The union has asked for the courts to get involved. They want a U.S. District Court judge to issue an order stopping seductions of the new law from being enforced.