Connecticut Police Allegedly Issued 26,000 Fake Tickets To Cover Up Racism

An investigation is reportedly being launched in Connecticut after an audit found a “high likelihood” that hundreds of Connecticut State Police troopers have been falsifying tens of thousands of traffic ticket records over the past decade to hide rampant racism, according to CT Insider.

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The report found that there was a “high likelihood” that at least 25,996 tickets were completely made up between 2014 and 2021. A further 32,587 records during that same time period show “significant inaccuracies,” and auditors feel those may be false as well. Keep in mind, the auditors emphasized that their analysis was extremely conservative and “the number of falsified records is likely larger than we confidently identified.” The false reports were submitted by about one quarter of the 1,301 troopers who wrote tickets in the time period.

The outlet also reports that the findings alleged a systematic violation of state laws and that the misreporting skewed racial profiling data to make it appear as though troopers were ticketing more white drivers and fewer non-white drivers than they really were.

“This report suggests a historical pattern and practice among some troopers and constables of submitting infraction records that were likely false or inaccurate,” CT Insider reports the audit read.

Now, Governor Ned Lamont’s administration is said to be conducting an “independent investigation.” However, he also urged the public not to rush to judgment and took issue with the tickets being labeled as “false.” He reportedly emphasized that the issues had been declining over the years.

From CT Insider:

Auditors said the misreporting they uncovered had “a substantive and statistically significant impact” on previously published analyses of racial profiling of police traffic stops in Connecticut. Overreported records were more likely to be reported as white drivers and less likely to be reported as Black or Hispanic drivers, the auditors found.

While underreported records were more likely to be Hispanic or some other race and less likely to be white, the audit said.

Previous annual analyses of state police traffic stops by the racial profiling project have documented concerning patterns in recent years, including troopers were more likely to stop Hispanic motorists during daylight hours and more likely to search drivers of color.

The outlet says that the part of the audit that focused on traffic stops that took place in 2018 warrant “concern that the Connecticut State Police have appeared each year as having statistically significant disparity in either or both of minority traffic stops and vehicular searches.”

At this point I really do suggest heading over to CT Insider for the full story. You’ll get a great breakdown of who exactly was falsifying the reports and how the audit came to be back in the late 2010s.