February 24, 2012 |
2012-R-0118 | |
NUMBER OF CONNECTICUT STATE POLICE OFFICERS ON FORCE | ||
| ||
By: Veronica Rose, Chief Analyst | ||
You asked for a year-by-year breakdown of the number of state police officers on staff since FY 99.
A 1998 state law directed the commissioner of the Department of Public Safety (now Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection (DESPP)) to appoint and maintain at least 1,248 sworn state police officers by July 1, 2001 (PA 98-151). In 2003, the legislature amended the law, postponing the compliance deadline to January 1, 2006 (PA 03-6). Currently, there are 1,080 sworn officers on the force and, as Table 1 shows, based on the July 1 data for each year, the 1,248 minimum was met only once (FY 02). Because we do not have daily personnel counts, we do not know if the minimum was met at any other time.
A Superior Court judge, on January 13, 2012, ruled that the staffing provision is mandatory. Thus, DESPP must have at least 1,248 sworn officers on staff. The decision came in response to a challenge by the state police union that DESPP's failure to maintain the minimum number of officers violated state law (see OLR Report 2012-R-0071 for a summary of the case: Connecticut State Police Union v. Commissioner of the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, Doc. No. HHD CV 116024776, (2012)). The case is on appeal.
Table 1: History of Sworn Staffing by Rank and Status: FY 99 through FY 11*
FY 99 |
FY 00 |
FY 01 |
FY 02 |
FY 03 |
FY 04 |
FY 05 |
FY 06 |
FY 07 |
FY 08 |
FY 09 |
FY 10 |
FY 11 | |
SWORN OFFICERS |
|||||||||||||
Commissioner |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
Deputy commissioner |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
Lt Colonel |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
0 |
3 |
2 |
Major |
1 |
8 |
7 |
8 |
7 |
8 |
7 |
6 |
4 |
6 |
7 |
7 |
4 |
Captain |
12 |
12 |
12 |
19 |
16 |
17 |
15 |
13 |
14 |
13 |
8 |
5 |
12 |
Lieutenant |
37 |
31 |
30 |
32 |
28 |
21 |
30 |
29 |
40 |
48 |
33 |
29 |
24 |
Master Sergeant |
19 |
18 |
18 |
16 |
14 |
11 |
14 |
14 |
14 |
15 |
12 |
12 |
12 |
Sergeant |
165 |
175 |
173 |
187 |
175 |
167 |
174 |
169 |
167 |
192 |
160 |
173 |
160 |
Trooper |
749 |
824 |
904 |
910 |
895 |
902 |
909 |
884 |
895 |
899 |
826 |
849 |
857 |
Trooper Trainee |
0 |
37 |
0 |
24 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
73 |
60 |
0 |
60 |
62 |
0 |
ACTIVE SWORN |
986 |
1,109 |
1,147 |
1,201 |
1,140 |
1,130 |
1,153 |
1,192 |
1,199 |
1,178 |
1,108 |
1,141 |
1,073 |
Workers compensation |
5 |
7 |
5 |
6 |
1 |
2 |
8 |
10 |
2 |
11 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
Leave |
3 |
4 |
3 |
23 |
29 |
12 |
18 |
9 |
16 |
14 |
10 |
15 |
19 |
Suspended |
1 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Light duty |
10 |
16 |
15 |
20 |
21 |
17 |
20 |
15 |
18 |
26 |
21 |
26 |
25 |
INACTIVE SWORN |
19 |
28 |
25 |
50 |
51 |
31 |
46 |
34 |
38 |
52 |
41 |
51 |
54 |
TOTAL SWORN |
1,005 |
1,137 |
1,172 |
1,251 |
1,191 |
1,161 |
1,199 |
1,226 |
1,237 |
1,230 |
1,149 |
1,192 |
1,127 |
Source: DESPP
* Represents the number of sworn officers on July 1 of each year.
VR:ro