Press Releases
11/03/2021
Office of the Inspector General to Assume All Pending Investigations on the Use of Force by Police Officers
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Rocky Hill, CT) - Chief State’s Attorney Richard J. Colangelo, Jr., announced today that Deputy Chief State’s Attorney, Inspector General Robert J. Devlin, Jr., has assumed all pending investigations on the use of force by police officers.
Deputy Chief State’s Attorney Devlin was appointed by the Criminal Justice Commission on September 27, 2021 to serve as Inspector General. The position was formalized pursuant to the recent passage of Public Act 21-8.
“The Division of Criminal Justice believes reassigning the pending police use-of-force investigations to the Office of the Inspector General is in keeping with the spirit of the recently passed legislation and will help assure the public’s trust and confidence in the criminal justice system,” Chief State’s Attorney Colangelo said.
The Inspector General is responsible for leading the Office of the Inspector General, conducting investigations of peace officers in accordance with C.G.S. §51-277a, as amended by the Act, prosecuting any cases in which the Inspector General determines a peace officer used force found to not be justifiable pursuant to C.G.S. §53a-22 or where a police officer or correctional officer fails to intervene in any such incident or to report any such incident, as required under subsection (a) of C.G.S. §7-282e or C.G.S. §18-81nn, as applicable.
Deputy Chief State’s Attorney Devlin will assume investigations previously assigned to State’s Attorneys in Connecticut’s 13 Judicial Districts. The reassignments will likely extend the amount of time that is needed to resolve the investigations. The Office of the Inspector General is committed to completing each investigation in a fair, impartial and timely manner.
“I want to thank the State’s Attorneys for the considerable amount of work they have done on these investigations,” Deputy Chief State’s Attorney Devlin said. “My objective is to conduct thorough, fair and complete investigations in the most timely manner possible, while continuing to keep all parties affected apprised of the progress that is made in these investigations.”