Chief of Police: Abolishing The Death Penalty Creates More Resources For Police

In Connecticut we’ve been forced to lay off state troopers and police officers in departments around the state. Like so many others, law enforcement in Connecticut we have been forced to tighten our belts and expected to maintain the same level of police services, with considerably less. This is unfortunate in any situation, but it is just absurd that we would pull officers from the streets and at the same time spend millions of dollars to have a death penalty system that has not been proven to prevent crime.

Connecticut’s non-partisan Office of Fiscal Analysis has estimated that we spend $4 million above and beyond the cost of life without the possibility of release to keep the death penalty on the books. That’s $4 million extra every single year, all this for a punishment that has only been handed out to 10 people in the last 40 years, and carried out only once. Believe me I can do a lot to prevent crime with $4 million.

I’m also troubled by the death penalty because of my work with homicide survivors. As first responders, police officers work closely with victims’ families from the time of a murder, often throughout the legal process. I have seen how that process is painfully extended when the death penalty is involved. A case that could have had a quick resolution with a life sentence can drag on for years in trials waiting for a death sentence and then additional decades waiting for the execution to come. The death penalty in Connecticut is a false promise for a resolution that never seems to come.

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Source: CT News Junkie, December 26, 2011 - Op-ed by Daryl K. Roberts. Mr. Roberts is the chief of police in Hartford. He’s retiring on Dec. 31 after 30 years with the department.

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