Working group adopts annual timeline for model family-violence policy, seeks clearer warrant, LAP and penalty language

A Connecticut law-enforcement working group agreed Friday to adopt an annual timetable for revising the state model family-violence policy and directed staff to draft clearer language on serving arrest warrants, reassignment of domestic-violence cases when officers are unavailable, inclusion of the lethality assessment protocol (LAP), and clarifying when an order-of-protection violation can carry an enhanced felony charge.

The change to the annual schedule is intended to align the committee’s product with the Police Officer Standards and Training (POST) council reporting cycle and the law-enforcement “red book” legal supplement, so policy text reflects legislative changes before publication. “So our goal as a subcommittee is to get a model policy with changes that we deem need to be made as a committee and approved by the full council,” Erin said, summarizing the amended timeline. She said the subcommittee would start substantive drafting in December, work through the legislative session, and present a final draft to the full council in August so it can be submitted to POST in time for the October 1 red-book update.

The timeline decision was presented as procedural rather than legislative: Alaric Fox, co-chair and chief of police in Enfield, said the annual submission would reduce the training burden on departments, noting that a department must train all officers on any new general order once POST adopts policy changes. “It’s Herculean from our perspective,” Fox said of repeatedly training more…