Connecticut State Troopers Falsified Thousands of Traffic Tickets
A recent audit of the Connecticut State Police has uncovered tens of thousands of falsified traffic tickets that had been filed by officers into a database used to measure racial profiling within the department.
The audit came as a result of a report from CTInsider back in August 2022, which discovered that four officers in the same unit had been falsifying tickets to give the appearance that they were more productive. Those four were not alone in their behavior, as the audit discovered that some 311 state troopers were responsible for major record keeping discrepancies. The officers filed more than 26,000 completely falsified traffic tickets, as well as more than 32,000 tickets with inaccurate information into the racial profiling system. The study suggests this was done to bolster their own careers, with additional benefits offered to highly productive officers. One officer alone was responsible for more than 1350 of these fake citations. That was equivalent to 83 percent of that officer's infraction records. The audit also found that a quarter of all state troopers had filed falsified tickets.
It is important to note that these fake tickets didn’t result in individuals facing fines or court appearances. Connecticut state law requires troopers to file any traffic tickets into two separate systems. One of these systems is tied into the state’s judicial branch as you’d expect, while the other is a database for demographic data. The idea behind that database is to study and hopefully reduce racial profiling within the state’s policing bodies.
The fake tickets filed by the state troopers have significantly skewed the data on hand. The majority of the fake tickets were listed as involving white drivers, notably the first selection officers can make on their computer software. The tickets also often took place at exactly midnight, similarly the first option in the software’s dropdown menus. Making things worse, the state trooper’s also reportedly failed to file some 16,000 tickets involving real citations into the demographics database. The vast majority of these tickets impacted people of color. The combination of the two situations means the department has essentially hidden its real record on racial profiling.
Governor Ned Lamont has come out stating that any individuals that intentionally took place in these actions should be let go from the force. This includes anyone in management who allowed this to take place. State lawmakers are also looking for more answers, as frustration continues to grow. Some officers could face serious criminal charges, including forgery. Connecticut lawmakers are holding a hearing on the matter on July 27th.
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