Following an audit last month that revealed troopers had fabricated information on at least 26,000 traffic encounters between 2014 and 2021, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont launched an independent investigation into the state police on Monday.
The University of Connecticut’s data analyzers said that too many drivers were classified as white as a result of the reports.
However, they noted that they did not attempt to ascertain whether the data were incorrect as a result of negligence or human error or were purposely faked. Lamont initially requested an investigation into the disparities from the top state’s attorney’s office in Connecticut and said there was no proof of purposeful wrongdoing.
The governor, however, stated on Monday that a third-party investigation is required to “get to the bottom of this and learn how it happened, why it happened, and how to prevent it from ever happening again.
Deirdre Daly, a former United States attorney for Connecticut, has reportedly been chosen by the governor’s administration to head the probe. Depending on how many people may need to be questioned and the kind of cooperation the investigation receives, she and her staff have suggested their review might take up to six months or longer to complete, Lamont said.
Colonel Stavros Mellekas of the Connecticut State Police stated that he has instructed all state troopers to assist in the inquiry.
In accordance with a 1999 statute in Connecticut intended to prevent racial profiling, all police agencies statewide, including municipal ones, are required to provide traffic-stop data to the state.
Officers stopped Black and Hispanic cars more frequently than white drivers, according to data analysis and reports submitted on a regular basis by the Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy at Central Connecticut State University.
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