HARTFORD, Conn. — Detective Jeffrey Placzek has been assigned to Hartford's background division, conducting background checks and other administrative duties.
In December 2020, Placzek was suspended and demoted from the Hartford Police Department for sending a text proposing a wager to others in the Major Crimes Division regarding where the capital city’s first homicide of 2021 would be.
Placzek was given the option to return to the department following his four-month suspension after completing and passing a fitness for duty evaluation and participating in a restorative justice program.
Black Lives Matter 860 released the following statement regarding Placzek’s reassignment.
“In a city where residents have to balance inner city violence and poverty, suburban police decided to make a game out of which one of our neighbors or loved ones would die. The same people who are tasked with ‘protecting us.’ The fact that an officer indifferent to resident’s fear of violence can still have a job to “protect us” further traumatizes our community. Rather than a public lynching for their entertainment like our grandparents era, they now laugh at our murders. We have to say it’s a violation of the public trust. This officer is not fit to mop floors on the taxpayer dime.”
Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin who criticized Placzek after the incident saying he was ‘disgusted’ and ‘outraged’ issued the following statement Tuesday:
"Detective Placzek's mistake two years ago caused real pain to the Hartford community, and he was rightly demoted, suspended, and removed from the major crimes division -- discipline which he accepted without appeal or challenge, and with remorse. He had the right to compete for a detective position, and he’s been assigned to an administrative role in the backgrounds division.”
Jake Garcia is a multimedia journalist for FOX61 News. He can be reached at jgarcia@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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