Roughly one month after a shooting involving police officers from Hamden and Yale, Hamden’s town council passed a resolution they hope will increase transparency and accountability.
Monday night the public came out to give their thoughts on the resolution. Some said they were glad to see it, while others said it was not enough.
This all stems from a police shooting on April 16 when a Hamden and Yale police officers fired on an unarmed couple in a car.
The female passenger was injured.
Since then there have been multiple protests, and council members say hearing from the public is what led them to spell out the changes in the resolution.
It proposed an external independent investigation for all officer-involved shootings leading to injury or death, use of force resulting in death, and in-custody deaths.
It also creates a civilian review board and restructure the police commission and appoint a third party to review all town investigations from the April incident.
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There was a range of reactions to the proposal.
“I just want to commend the legislative council for creating this resolution. I think it does a lot of things the community has called for,” one commenter said.
“I was really infuriated when I saw this final resolution and there was absolutely no mention of Jarelle Gibbs’ life - his life had just as much value as each one of you sitting here,” another resident told the council.
After hearing from the public, the council added investigating a 2018 police chase that ended in the death of Jarelle Gibbs.
Police said Gibbs was a passenger in a stolen car that crashed during a police pursuit.
“This is step two of a thousand-mile journey. There's a lot of unravel here, there are a lot of changes that need to be made and they need to be made slowly deliberately with time,” said Mick McGarry, Hamden Legislative Council president.
The council said they have not spoken to the police department or union about the resolution. NBC Connecticut reached out for comment but has not heard back.
