Suing Connecticut Police for Revealing an Anonymous Reporter's Identity

Attorney Answer

Probably not — municipal immunity makes this a hard case — but if you intend to try, you have six months to put the town on written notice, so treat that as the urgent item.

Start with the deadline, because it is the one thing that cannot be fixed later. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 7-465 is the statute that makes a town, city, or borough indemnify its employee for sums the employee becomes obligated to pay, where the employee acted within the scope of employment and the conduct was not wilful or wanton. It carries two hard rules: written notice of intention to commence the action, stating when and where the damages were incurred, must be filed with the clerk of the municipality within six months after the cause of action accrues, and the joint action against the municipality and the employee must be commenced within two years. Two limits matter here. Section 7-465 provides indemnification, not an independent cause of action against the town. And it expressly does not apply to libel or slander proceedings against the employee — so if what you are describing is really a defamation claim, municipal indemnification is off the table by the statute's own terms.

The liability question itself runs through Conn. Gen. Stat. § 52-557n, which governs the liability and immunity of political subdivisions and their employees. The obstacle is discretionary-act immunity under § 52-557n(a)(2)(B). How a detective handles information from a complainant is ordinarily a discretionary judgment, and immunity generally applies unless a narrow exception fits — most commonly where the plaintiff was an identifiable victim subject to imminent harm.

One authority people reach for does not help. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 1-210(b)(3)(A) says the Freedom of Information Act does not require disclosure of law enforcement records compiled in connection with detecting or investigating crime where disclosure would reveal the identity of informants or mandated reporters not otherwise known. That is permission for an agency to withhold against a records request. It is not a duty of confidentiality owed to you, and it creates no private cause of action.

On your second question: your ZIP code is in Connecticut, and everything above is Connecticut law. Virginia has its own immunity doctrines and its own notice deadlines, and they are not the same. If the disclosure happened in Virginia, nothing here answers it and you need Virginia counsel promptly, because that state's clocks may be shorter.

What you can do

1. Identify the agency precisely — a municipal police department, a resident state trooper, or the state police. The immunity and notice rules differ, and § 7-465 applies to municipalities. 2. Write down now, in detail, exactly what you were told about anonymity, by whom, and on what date. A specific promise is the difference between a case and a grievance. 3. Serve the written six-month notice on the town clerk before you decide whether to sue. Notice costs little and preserves the option. 4. Request the report and any related records in writing, and keep the response — the agency's own citation of § 1-210(b)(3)(A) documents that your identity was treated as protected. 5. If your sister has threatened or harmed you since, deal with safety first through a protective order and a new police report. That is separate from any lawsuit and more urgent. 6. Take the file to a Connecticut lawyer well before the six-month mark, not at it.

⏱ Time limits apply. Conn. Gen. Stat. § 7-465 requires written notice to the municipal clerk within six months of accrual and commencement of the action within two years. When your claim accrued depends on your specific facts, so get the notice out early rather than calculating it fine.