Politics & Government

No Program Cuts Under State Police Layoffs

A state police spokesman says initiatives like the Resident State Trooper program are safe.

No state police programs or services will be affected as a result of the layoff of 57 state troopers, state police spokesman Lt. Paul J. Vance said today.

“No programs are being impacted and no public safety will be impacted,” Vance said.

Under Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s plan to balance the state’s two-year budget and close a $1.6 billion shortfall, layoff notices were sent out Wednesday to the 57 troopers. All of the troopers are new recruits who graduated from the State Police Academy in Meriden in November of 2010 and were sworn in to the state police, Vance said. In fact, they represent virtually the entire graduating class, he added.

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As of today, those troopers are still on the job because their layoffs will take effect Aug. 24, Vance added.

State police supervisors, he said, will transfer personnel from other areas to ensure that programs are fully covered, including the resident state trooper program. Smaller towns, including Ledyard and Montville, rely on the resident trooper program as part of their police services in their communities.

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But even larger towns benefit from state police programs, including the Major Crime Squad, which assists local departments on serious crimes. State police troopers also patrol state highways in towns.

Vance said he could not provide information on exactly where the laid off troopers are assigned right now. However, a public safety press release issued by the state in November announcing the 2010 graduating class included the hometowns and troop assignments of the new recruits.

The release indicates that four recruits each were assigned to Troops F, H, and I and that seven recruits were assigned to Troop K.

In a joint press release issued today Malloy and Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman said they had hoped to avoid layoffs when they negotiated an agreement months earlier with the state employee union leaders.

“But at this point, with no clear path to reach a ratified agreement with SEBAC, it’s our job to find a way to fill the $1.6 billion hole in the budget and ensure our budget is balanced honestly,” they said in the statement. “Tomorrow we’ll send our full plan to the legislature, including these layoff numbers and additional service and programmatic cuts totaling $1.6 billion.  And then we’ll work as hard as we can to mitigate the impact these layoffs and cuts will have on the people of Connecticut.”

The governor’s office also released a breakdown, by state department, of the 6,500 layoffs that are being made to balance the budget. A PDF of that breakdown, as well as one detailing the layoffs in the state police forces, is available above.


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