In recent months, young people and community activists across the country – and in New Haven, CT – have come together to call for an end to police abuse and racially targeting policing practices and demand increased police accountability.
In New Haven, Connecticut, our partner the People’s Art Collective along with other community groups including New Haven Against Police Brutality, ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and Racism), and the Malik Jones Foundation, testified at a packed public hearing calling for a stronger civilian review board. In its current form, New Haven’s civilian review board can only recommend that the Internal Affairs department of the New Haven Police Department open an investigation, but the board cannot perform its own inquiries into police misconduct. Activists are proposing strengthening the civilian review board by making it more independent and giving it subpoena power as well as the ability to sanction and discipline police officers.