Is the use of deadly force by police justified? On Wednesday, Nov. 29, Sacred Heart University (SHU) hosted a talk as part of its Human Journey Colloquia series. The event took place in the Dr. Michelle Loris Forum at the Martire Center for Liberal Arts.
The featured speaker of this talk was Judge Robert J. Devlin, Jr., who is currently Deputy Chief State’s Attorney and Connecticut’s first Inspector General.
“He was chosen to speak on this topic because this is his area of expertise,” said Prof. Anthony Papa, head of the Pre-Law Program at SHU.
Before Devlin was picked for the role of Inspector General, he was a federal prosecutor from 1988-1992, then a judge on the state superior court from 1993 to 2019. He also served as a judge of the state Appellate Court from May 2019 to June 2020.
The job of the Inspector General in the state of Conn was established after the George Floyd case and protests in 2020. This role has a term of four years.
The Inspector General’s job is to conduct investigations of police officers’ use of force. Their role is also to prosecute cases where the police officers’ use of force is not justified or in certain cases where the police officer fails to intervene.
This position also investigates deaths in police custody and makes recommendations to the Police
Officer Standards and Training Council on what happens to the officer in question. Another part of the job is subpoena of production of documents and testimony.
Other states and the federal government have similar Inspector General roles, but it varies depending on the department in which it covers.
“An Inspector General works within organizations to make sure there is no fraud or misconduct,” said Todd Matthews, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice here at SHU. “They have oversight of entire organizations in state governments.”
At the Colloquium, the audience was shown slides of four cases where deadly force was used and ruled justified.
The first case was the shooting of Juan Villa, which occurred on Sept. 16, 2020. This involved the shooting of the person who was subjected to a welfare check, but ended up escalating after the subject lunged at his roommate with a knife and the officer shot at him. It was later ruled as justified use of force due to the circumstances.
The Colloquium was meant to be informative on when police use of deadly force is justified. The cases were presented in order to give examples to the audience of justified force.
