HARTFORD, Conn. (CN) — Before picking the state’s first inspector general devoted to investigating instances of police killings, the Connecticut Criminal Justice Commission had a couple questions.
One of the four candidates the commission considered Monday would be tasked with building the office from scratch, setting the tone for the office’s independent investigations into police killings around the state for years to come.
In a hearing room in the Legislative Office Building where onlookers included a dozen or so members of the American Civil Liberties Union wearing blue T-shirts, the commission tried to understand how each candidate would approach the job created by the legislature in the aftermath of protests over police misconduct and the death of George Floyd.
Would they consider hiring a retired police officer as one of their investigators? Would they reopen investigations into years-old deaths of individuals at the hands of Connecticut law enforcement? What would they do if someone flaunted the inspector general’s subpoena power?
Five members of the commission wanted to know.
Ultimately, after an executive session where the commission huddled together in a darkened and closed cafeteria, the members voted unanimously to appoint Judge Robert Devlin Jr. as Connecticut’s first inspector general.
Devlin told the commission that to “stand up this office from a clean sheet of paper” and to leave it with a measure of credibility with Connecticut residents would be a good way to end his career, which was spent around the criminal courtrooms in the state. Before seeking this position, Devlin worked as a public defender, state and federal prosecutor and judge.
“There are people in our society who think that police can do no wrong and there are people in our society who the police can do no right," Devlin told the commission. "And it's in that center spot that the inspector general has to work and try to create confidence based on the work product."
While the bill to create the office of inspector general passed last year, the position wasn’t filled until now because the commission’s vote last year was a 3–3 split.
Andrew McDonald, associate justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court and chairman of the commission said in an interview that given Devlin’s long tenure in the courts, his work on the state’s sentencing commission and his position as chief administrative judge for the criminal division, “we think he’s the right person to be the initial inspector general and to set the highest standards for the operation and independence of the office.”
The ACLU of Connecticut said that in the past two decades, the state has seen 81 instances of deadly force by police but the way those investigations were handled — a state attorney taking the cases — yielded only two cases where charges were filed.
As a finalist for the position, Devlin went up against candidates from a diverse slate of backgrounds. One was a federal public defender. Another worked as a federal prosecutor handling fraud and public corruption cases. The last, an attorney in private practice, started as a private investigator when he was 19.
Fielding questions from the commission, Devlin said he would consider hiring a retired police officer as a member of his staff if they were committed to the role of the inspector general’s office and was unbiased. He would prefer to see a gap on their resume between their work as an officer and their application for a job in his office, he said.
Speaking about the pressures that come from the position, Devlin said he “wouldn’t take a call from a police union representative.”
Under questioning from commission member Robert Berke, who noted that the new inspector general role is the only state attorney with subpoena power, Devlin likened the power to a grand jury subpoena and if an individual who cannot invoke the Fifth Amendment does not show up, then Devlin said the consequence could be a finding of contempt of court.
Berke also noted the state police investigated police killings in the past and Devlin said he would continue to work with the state police.
“In the reports that I've read of the investigations, they have done a thorough job in investigating every single facet of the case. I might take a more active role in supervising those investigations and making suggestions,” Devlin said.
He said the principal way he would communicate with the public would be through detailed arrest warrants and detailed reports, “written documents that would represent the product of and findings of the investigation.”
Devlin told the commission he believed it was not in the purview of the inspector general office to look back on prior instances where people died from police use of force.
During a brief public comment period before the commission deliberated in executive session, Corrie Betts, chair of the Criminal Justice Committee for the Connecticut NAACP, told the commission he had concerns about a former prosecutor filling the spot, because as law enforcement themselves, most prosecutors err towards deference to other members of law enforcement.
“[If] the wrong person is chosen for this job it will send a terrible message — a disheartening messages to the communities we serve,” Betts said. “We have to get this right.”
Before the hearing, the ACLU of Connecticut sent a list of 15 questions to each of the candidates. In his answers, Devlin told the group — when asked if his office would create a list of officers found to have lied or engaged in misconduct, for instance — that a list like that is a question for policymakers to answer.
Claudine Fox, public policy and advocacy director for the ACLU of Connecticut, said the group plans on reaching out to Devlin to discuss his views on what the inspector role entails.
“The hope is, again, that whoever takes up the inspector general role has an explicit value and belief that Black lives matter, an understanding that racial inequity is just inherently present in the criminal legal system,” Fox said, adding that the person would ensure police accountability.
According to David McClintock, chair of the governmental affairs committee of the Association of Inspectors General, the role of inspector general is an office that is imbedded into an organization and it has access deep inside that organization. But as an independent office, it’s beholden not to the organization but the public.
The office had its origins with the French military, McClintock said and was adopted by George Washington’s Continental Army. It wasn’t until the late 1970s when the role of inspector general jumped over into civilian life, where offices were tasked to look over whole federal departments. Recently, though, McClintock said, newly established inspector general offices are being created to oversee more specific areas of government.
“Over the past two decades the [Association of Inspectors General] has learned that well-established OIGs operate independently of external influence and support the essential principles of transparency, accountability and integrity that are vital to government’s credibility,” McClintock wrote.
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