Connecticut City Will Have to Re-Hire Cop Fired for Premature Decision to Use Deadly Force

Former New London, Connecticut, police
officer Thomas Northup was fired by the city’s mayor in 2012 for a
2011 incident in which Northup shot Curtis Cunningham, the unarmed
driver of a stolen ice truck. An internal police investigation
found that Northup used force prematurely and hadn’t been
authorized to do so. Northup was, nevertheless not charged with any
crime, so the firing should have been the end of it. But as a cop,
Northup isn’t just any employee. Northup, entrusted by the
government with a gun, is also granted by the government the broad
ability to appeal any decisions regarding his employment, so he
appealed his termination. As The Day of Connecticut
reports:

The state Board of Mediation and Arbitration said the
city did not present credible evidence to establish that Northup’s
use of force was “not objectively reasonable or that it was
excessive,” or prove that Northup knew that the suspect did not
have a gun. Not only did the board order Northup’s reinstatement
but said he should be compensated for lost pay.

[New London Mayor Daryl] Finizio maintains the board’s decision was
“terrible … and fundamentally and legally
flawed.” 

At Finizio’s behest, the city appealed the decision by the state
arbitrator, but earlier this week the city council stepped in and
voted 4-3 to drop the city’s appeal. At least one councilman,
Michael Passero, insisted the city was violating its contractual
obligations to the fired Northup by appealing the order to rehire
him, the kind of logic that only makes sense in a politician’s
head.

While the mayor said it was “imperative an office found to have
violated department policies on the use of deadly force” be
terminated, he admitted the decision wasn’t just his or the police
department’s to make, and that he had to “respect the decision” the
City Council made.