Seven Connecticut state police officers “may have” intentionally falsified traffic stop data, far fewer than the dozens of troopers identified in an audit last year as possibly having submitted bogus or inaccurate information on thousands of stops that never happened that skewed racial profiling data, according to a report released Thursday.
A new report cleared 74 state troopers and constables Thursday, concluding an investigation into whether they intentionally falsified traffic tickets.
The report did refer six troopers and one constable for internal affairs investigations, though, after investigators could not determine whether they did so intentionally.
Gov. Ned Lamont asked the Stamford lawfirm Finn Dixon & Herling after a racial profiling audit in July raised questions about the accuracy of thousands of traffic tickets from state police.
“I have as much confidence in my state police today as I ever have,” Lamont said during a press conference at the Capitol Thursday.
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The Connecticut Racial Profiling Prohibition Project identified tickets from 130 state troopers and constables, raising questions about whether those tickets were fake.
Thursday’s report said the number of troopers was smaller because some identified by the group had duplicate bade numbers.
Investigators cleared 74 troopers and constables, saying they didn’t intentionally falsify tickets. They also said 49 have since retired and made no determination.
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Instead, the report said poor training and old equipment resulted in mistakes when troopers and constables entered information into a tracking system.
The report went on to say that the state police department didn’t properly train troopers on entering data related to racial profiling. Outdated equipment and practices, like using paper tickets, also led to entry errors.
“The Connecticut State Police is committed to continuous improvement, we will get better, we will,” Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection Commissioner Ronnell Higgins said.
Higgins said the department has already started investigations for the seven members referred by investigators.
According to the report, those troopers couldn’t provide adequate reasons for any discrepancies or had a significant number of questionable tickets.
Higgins said those troopers are on administrative duty. He also said they could be fired and decertified if an investigation found they intentionally falsified tickets.
“I won’t tolerate it, it’s as simple as that,” Higgins said.
The report noted this isn’t a new issue for the department. Investigations in 2018 found four troopers intentionally falsified tickets to appear busier to supervisors.
Those troopers received suspensions of between two and 10 days, but were allowed to remain on the force. State police also made no changes to address the problem.
“Our agency has lacked leadership for decades,” Sgt. Todd Fedigan, president of the state police union, said.
Fedigan called Thursday’s report vindication for the cleared troopers and constables. The audit led some to question whether state police had a rampant problem with troopers writing fake tickets, prompting Lamont’s investigation.
“This is validation that this was blown out of proportion from the start,” he said.
But the author of the audit didn’t back down. CRPPP Project Manager Ken Barone said he merely identified discrepancies that he thought needed to be investigated.
“It’s stated no less than three or four times in our report that it was beyond our scope to determine whether records were intentionally falsified, the result of carelessness or human or technical error,” Barone said.
Investigators said they found no evidence any troopers intentionally falsified tickets in order to skew racial profiling data. Barone didn’t question that determination but said the impact can be the same anyway.
“Those in accuracies had a statistically significant impact on our work,” he said.
