A watchdog serving Hartford's independent police oversight board will issue subpoenas to the police department, marking one of the broadest uses of investigative power in the history of the civilian panel.
Members of the Civilian Police Review Board (CPRB) voted unanimously last week to compel the Hartford Police Department to turn over internal affairs records in seven cases, including material such as interviews with officers and body-worn camera videos.
The board will also seek to force five Hartford officers to testify in connection with a pair of other investigations. The officers will be required to sit for interviews at police headquarters or appear before the board to answer questions in closed-door meetings, Inspector General Joseph Lopez said last week.
Lopez, a lawyer who investigates citizen complaints on behalf of the board, asked commissioners to approve the measures Wednesday. Lopez said his work has been derailed in recent months by a lack of cooperation from the department. Some cases before the civilian review board have been pending as long as 10 months, he said.
The process of obtaining investigative records is typically slow, but the pace decreased sharply in recent months as police withheld records in a growing number of cases, Lopez said.
"This is frustrating," he said. "This is upsetting. This is impacting our ability to investigate these cases."
Lopez said last week he planned to email the subpoenas to the police chief or have them physically served on individual officers. Police will face a deadline to comply with the subpoenas or attempt to have them quashed in court.
A spokesperson for the Hartford Police Department did not provide comment on the board's action and referred questions to the police union.
Patrick Tomasiewicz, a lawyer for the union, said the group is reviewing whether the issuance of subpoenas conflicts with state law or the union's collective bargaining agreement.
"This matter is under study," he said, "but the union does not intend to play dead on this issue."
Test of new powers
The board's decision is the latest sign of growing strain between police and the oversight board, which has taken unprecedented steps in recent months to exercise new powers granted by the city to carry out its work.
The board investigates allegations such as excessive use of force in parallel with the Hartford Police Department's Internal Affairs (IA) Division. It renders independent judgments, which it sends to the police chief.
Former Mayor Luke Bronin and members of the City Council significantly strengthened the board in 2020, drawing on new state legislation that authorized subpoena power for civilian review boards.
Former Inspector General Liam Brennan issued subpoenas to Hartford police in the past, though their use has been rare. Lopez said those attempts proved inconclusive because efforts to enforce the subpoenas in court were left unresolved.
Hartford officials also empowered the CPRB to send cases to binding arbitration if the chief rejects a charge the board has sustained.
Commissioners initiated that process for the first time last year. The State Board of Labor Relations is now weighing a challenge from the union, which contends that independent arbitration violates its contract.
The union has separately limited the inspector general's access to the department's internal disciplinary process. Under a previous agreement, the union permitted the inspector general to attend officer interviews conducted by the Internal Affairs Division — an accommodation made in part to head off potential subpoenas.
However, the union terminated the arrangement after Lopez became inspector general in November 2024. Lopez said he tried unsuccessfully to break the logjam through meetings with the chief of police, internal affairs and union leadership.
Union President James Rutkauski said the city ordinance doesn't grant the inspector general the ability to participate in the IA process. Rutkauski said residents should question the wisdom of funding the inspector general's office, adding that much of its work duplicates the findings of internal affairs.
"We believe in the accountability and transparency and the oversight, but I think the community truly needs to know that Inspector General Lopez is not doing an independent investigation," he said.
Dispute over case records
One point of contention is whether the inspector general should be allowed to view police records while an internal probe is underway.
A city ordinance specifies the inspector general must get access to the same files as internal affairs, "as allowed by existing statutes or requirements of law."
Police and a city lawyer have interpreted that language to mean only records available to the public under Connecticut's Freedom of Information (FOI) law can be turned over to the inspector general, Lopez said.
An exemption to the FOI law prohibits the release of some police investigative records.
"I can have no more materials than anybody off the street making an FOI," Lopez said. "I find that illogical, unreasonable, and I don't believe that that's what the ordinance intended."
In at least two instances, Lopez said police also blocked him from obtaining records associated with family violence cases, citing a state statute that prohibits the release of records identifying family violence victims.
In one case, a citizen filed a complaint on Dec. 28, 2025 using a form on the city's website, which included the name of the victim. However, police redacted the victim's name in material they provided to Lopez, he said.
Lopez said he contacted the victim, who filed a complaint about how police interacted with her. Lopez said the woman signed and notarized a form consenting to have the investigative materials released, but the police department declined.
"IA, whoever is informing them, has taken the position that a woman who wants to make a complaint against a police officer cannot do so because they won't provide me her name, even if she requests it and signs a waiver," Lopez said.
Responding to questions from Connecticut Public, a spokesperson for the office of Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam said the issue is complex.
"The city will continue to prioritize giving the Civilian Police Review Board and the Inspector General the access necessary for rigorous oversight while remaining equally dedicated to ensuring the respect and privacy of family violence victims," the mayor's office said in a statement.
Lopez said he has spoken with members of the City Council, who said their intent in revising the ordinance was for the inspector general to have access to the full IA case file. He called on city leaders to revise the ordinance to make the meaning clear.
With CPRB investigations now stalled, Lopez said citizens are being denied the right to an independent review of their complaints.
"I cannot, in good conscience, just sit here and just let this keep going," he said.
Editor's note: Arunan Arulampalam's father-in-law is Gregory B. Butler, who is a member of the Board of Trustees of Connecticut Public.
