History

Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Mapp v. Ohio, applying the exclusionary rule to state and municipal police searches and seizures, Milton Fishman, then a state prosecutor and soon after a judge, obtained a federal grant to establish the Connecticut Criminal Law Foundation. The Foundation received tax-exempt status as a non-profit and Judge Fishman began teaching a 30- hour program to help officers perform their duties within the law. Demand for the training grew requiring Judge Fishman to bring on other prosecutors including John Kelly who later became Chief State’s Attorney. In 1980 Elliot Spector clerked for Judge Fishman and as a police officer in law school was assigned to teach one of the Constitutional Law courses. The next year Judge Fishman allowed Elliot to present a Civil Liability, in-service course he created as Hartford’s police civil litigation officer. MPTC asked Elliot to create a condensed version that is now required for recruit training. After Judge Fishman died in 1986 Elliot accepted the responsibility of leading the Foundation. When the legislature passed a law requiring review training for officers MPTC asked us to develop and provide the review course. Since then we have developed and taught numerous courses provided by expert practitioners in almost every area of policing. Tammy LaBonte has administered our training since 1990.  She expertly facilitates courses from concept through certification for SCJTN, as well as other training programs needing assistance in administration.

The ultimate goal of SCJTN is to improve the quality of law enforcement and security training which directly impacts the officers’ ability to save lives, protect property, solve prevalent crimes, provide a higher level of services to the community while reducing liability risks.