LCO No. 3226 1 of 3
General Assembly Raised Bill No. 6462
January Session, 2021
LCO No. 3226
Referred to Committee on JUDICIARY
Introduced by:
(JUD)
AN ACT CONCERNING US E OF FORCE BY A PEACE OFFICER.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. (Effective March 31, 2021) Section 29 of public act 20-1 of the 1
July special session general statutes shall take effect October 1, 2022. 2
Sec. 2. Subsection (c) of section 53a-22 of the general statutes, as 3
amended by section 29 of public act 20-1 of the July special session, is 4
repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective October 5
1, 2022): 6
(c) (1) Except as provided in subsection (d) of this section, a peace 7
officer, special policeman appointed under section 29-18b or authorized 8
official of the Department of Correction or the Board of Pardons and 9
Paroles is justified in using deadly physical force upon another person 10
for the purposes specified in subsection (b) of this section only when his 11
or her actions are objectively reasonable under the circumstances, and: 12
(A) He or she reasonably believes such use to be necessary to defend 13
himself or herself or a third person from the use or imminent use of 14
deadly physical force; or 15 Raised Bill No. 6462
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(B) He or she (i) has [exhausted] considered the reasonable 16
alternatives to the use of deadly physical force, (ii) reasonably believes 17
that the force employed creates no [substantial] unreasonable risk of 18
injury to a third party, and (iii) reasonably believes such use of force to 19
be necessary to (I) effect an arrest of a person whom he or she reasonably 20
believes has committed or attempted to commit a felony which involved 21
the infliction of serious physical injury, or (II) prevent the escape from 22
custody of a person whom he or she reasonably believes has committed 23
a felony which involved the infliction of serious physical injury and if, 24
where feasible under this subdivision, he or she has given warning of 25
his or her intent to use deadly physical force. 26
(2) For purposes of evaluating whether actions of a peace officer, 27
special policeman appointed under section 29-18b or authorized official 28
of the Department of Correction or the Board of Pardons and Paroles are 29
reasonable under subdivision (1) of this subsection, factors to be 30
considered include, but are not limited to, whether (A) the person upon 31
whom deadly physical force was used possessed or appeared to possess 32
a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument, (B) the peace officer, special 33
policeman appointed under section 29-18b or authorized official of the 34
Department of Correction or the Board of Pardons and Paroles engaged 35
in reasonable deescalation measures prior to using deadly physical 36
force, and (C) any unreasonable conduct of the peace officer, special 37
policeman appointed under section 29-18b or authorized official of the 38
Department of Correction or the Board of Pardons and Paroles led to an 39
increased risk of an occurrence of the situation that precipitated the use 40
of such force. 41
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 March 31, 2021 New section
Sec. 2 October 1, 2022 53a-22(c)
Raised Bill No. 6462
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Statement of Purpose:
To delay changes to provisions concerning use of force by a peace officer
enacted as part of public act 20-1 of the July special session and to make
certain other changes to said provisions.
[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except
that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not
underlined.]