Office of Legislative Research

Connecticut General Assembly

This report provides brief highlights of public acts affecting police enacted during the 2006 legislative session.

Not all provisions of the acts are included; readers are encouraged to obtain the full text of acts that interest them from the Connecticut State Library, the House Clerk's office, or the General Assembly's website (http: //cga. ct. gov). Complete summaries of all public acts passed in 2006 will be available in the fall when OLR's Public Acts Summary book is published; some are now available on the OLR website (http: //cga. ct. gov/olr/OLRPASumsER. asp).

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A new law replaces the State-wide Cooperative Crime Control Task Force in the Department of Public Safety (DPS) with the State Urban Violence and Cooperative Crime Control Task Force. It requires the task force to conduct and coordinate investigations of violent crimes and other criminal activity that local authorities are unable to contain.

The act requires that investigations and task force deployments be made pursuant to agreements between the municipal chief elected official or police chief and under the direction of the DPS commissioner or his designee (HB 5846, § 17, effective July 1, 2006).

A new law gives the State Police Bureau of Identification (SPBI) the option of maintaining fingerprints in either electronic or paper format. It applies to fingerprints (1) SPBI receives from police departments for people convicted of crimes of moral turpitude and (2) from people who submit to criminal history record checks required by law (HB 5846, § 43, effective July 1, 2006).

A new law requires the Criminal Justice Policy and Planning Division to notify each municipality's chief elected official of the number of people living in the municipality with outstanding rearrest and arrest warrants for probation violations. The division must send the notice by the 15^th day of each month beginning on the first month after the Office of Policy and Management gains access to the warrant data.

The act requires local law enforcement agencies to note any actions they take to execute a warrant and apprehend the accused person living in their community in any paperless rearrest warrant network that is available and accessible. They must enter the notation within 30 days after a rearrest or arrest warrant for a probation violation is entered into the network (sHB 5787, effective October 1, 2006).

A new law requires the consumer protection commissioner to appoint a prescription drug monitoring working group. The group must advise the commissioner on (1) how to implement the program, including adoption of regulations, and (2) how to effectively use the data to detect fraud while protecting legitimate use of controlled substances. The group must include a state police and local police officer (sSB 505, effective October 1, 2006).

A new law creates the felony crime of trafficking in persons. It directs the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW), in conjunction with the Police Officer Standards and Training Council (POST), to develop a training program on trafficking in persons.

Training must be provided to state and local police departments and community organizations upon request. The act appropriates $ 25,000 and $ 50,000 for FY 07 to PCSW and POST, respectively, to implement the training program.

Also, the act adds four members to the existing 25-member Interagency Task Force on Trafficking in Persons, which currently includes a municipal police chief appointed by the Connecticut Police Chief's Association.

By law, the task force collects information about trafficking in Connecticut, identifies federal, state, and local victim services and collaborative models, and evaluates approaches to increase public awareness of trafficking. It must also (1) analyze the adequacy of existing state criminal statutes and may recommend changes that specifically define and address trafficking and (2) consult with others to develop recommendations to strengthen state and local efforts to prevent trafficking, assist victims, and prosecute traffickers.

The act requires the task force to implement public awareness strategies. It must also identify criteria for providing victim services and address access to rights, benefits, and services for trafficking victims (PA 06-43, effective July 1, 2006).

The act revises the designation for the segment of Route 349 in Groton from the “William J. Snyder, Sr. Memorial Highway” to the “City Police Officer William J. Snyder, Sr. Memorial Highway” (sHB 5664, effective upon passage).

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