Adrian Stroud / Published April 19, 2023 @ 6:00 am PDT

When I started police work in 1980, I wanted to help people. I went to work every day and did the job, honing my skills as I went through my career. Fast-forward to today. I wouldn’t know how to do the job now. We exist in a country where the police have been defunded, demonized, demoralized and disrespected. I used to say, the public can either respect me or fear me. A healthy dose of both allowed you to get the job done usually unscathed. The men and women who patrol our streets now have neither quality to rely on. They are videoed at all times, GPS-tracked and Monday-morning-quarterbacked instantly on YouTube. This has given the word “thankless” a whole new meaning.

I was a police officer in Connecticut. This is a liberal state on a good day, and we had to contend with not only the U.S. Constitution, but a more restrictive Connecticut Constitution. It doesn’t say “the Constitution State” on the license plate for nothing.

In 2020, the Connecticut Legislature passed the Police Accountability Act. It’s a lengthy document that has had, predictably, disastrous results for Connecticut’s police officers. At the time, police officers protested outside the state Capitol... Click Here for Full Article