Multiple CT police departments sued for gender discrimination

Last week, a Boston detective was awarded $2 million by a jury that found she had proven all her claims of gender discrimination against her supervisor and department.

Redding, Glastonbury, East Hartford, New London, Cromwell, Madison and Wilton are among the towns in Connecticut whose police departments have been recently hit with gender discrimination lawsuits for violating Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

In the case documents, accessible online, plaintiffs claim a pattern of being alienated by male colleagues, subjected to sexual harassment and demeaning comments, and held to different performance standards. They are denied promotions and assignments; in some cases they are wrongfully terminated.

Wilton, CT is the defendant in a closely watched federal sexual discrimination and retaliation lawsuit brought by Detective Eva Zimnoch, who was hired in 2005 and honored with the Officer of the Year award in 2015. When she became the first woman promoted to the town’s detective bureau, however, Zimnoch says she was subjected to ongoing sexual harassment by her new colleagues. She filed a complaint with the Connecticut Commission of Human Rights and Opportunities, which resulted in a monetary settlement in 2018 and an agreement by the department to conduct sensitivity training for its officers.

She states in her current complaint that the problems grew worse. She was denied overtime and undercover assignments, removed from her position as tactical operator on an elite emergency response team, and placed on a “performance improvement plan” and then on administrative leave, despite, she claims, no valid explanation as to why. The case is scheduled for trial in 2022.

“Retaliation against a complainant officer occurs often,” Western Connecticut State University professor Terrence Dwyer states in a research report he wrote for Police1 https://www.police1.com/office.... “It is usually disguised as an administrative event unrelated to the complaint. Unfavorable job assignments, denial of overtime or leave, contrived disciplinary offenses and isolation of the complaining officer all factor into retaliatory allegations in a civil lawsuit.”

Trumbull is another town fighting a federal lawsuit. And Madison, CT is the defendant in two gender discrimination cases. There is a pending federal case filed by Officer Cara Hewes, who states in her complaint that she was removed from her job as a narcotics K-9 handler after becoming pregnant in 2018, despite medical clearance from her physician. Two other female officers, Sgt. Kimberly Lauria and Officer Natasha Pucillo are suing the town of Madison claiming that they were subjected to a pattern of hostile behavior and belittling remarks by colleagues, and denied job assignments in favor of lesser-qualified male officers.

“If U.S. policing is to make a significant gain in the number of women recruited to the profession,” Dwyer writes in his report, “then police administrators and line supervisors must do a better job of ensuring disparate treatment and sexual harassment no longer stand in the way of drawing qualified candidates to the job.”

Hartford, Meriden and Wethersfield are getting ahead of the problem by signing on with the 30 x 30 initiative, designed to help departments reach a level of at least 30% women on their forces by 2030. Right now, the number nationally is 12%; it's lower in many Connecticut towns. And women only make up 3% of law enforcement leadership positions. More women hired and promoted creates a strength-in-numbers result. It leads to fewer instances of discrimination, which means fewer lawsuits filed, fewer tax dollars spent on legal fees, and a big decrease in bad PR.

Communities also end up safer with more female police officers. “Ensuring that policing agencies are environments where women officers not only survive but thrive is of course critical from a gender parity perspective, but it's also critical for improving public safety outcomes,” says 30 x 30 co-founder Maureen McGough. “They use less force and excessive force, are perceived as more honest and trustworthy, achieve better outcomes for crime victims, and are named less often in complaints and lawsuits.”

Check back for updates on these cases, and steps that these and other towns are taking to curb discrimination among their own police departments.