Connecticut state police officials have agreed to annual audits of their traffic stop data for at least three years.
This follows a report from the state's Racial Profiling Prohibition Project that suggests more than 26,000 traffic stops were misreported over the last decade.
State Police Colonel Stavros Mellekas said the department received seven recommendations from the state project.
“The most important one, I thought, was the annual audit, which we're willing to submit to,” Mellekas said. “And obviously we want to get it right.”
At a session this week, report co-author Ken Barone suggested random auditing of local municipal police departments too.
“At this time, we're not concerned about a widespread issue in municipal agencies,” Barone said. “But we do agree that we should be fully implementing some sort of a random potential audit program of all agencies in Connecticut, just so that we can give the public peace of mind and have trust and legitimacy in our program moving forward.”
130 officers were flagged by auditors in the report. According to state police union officials, more than 20% of them have already been cleared, which is being verified by state officials.
The seven recommendations from the project are:
- The serious nature of submitting false or misleading traffic stop records can have consequences beyond the Alvin W. Penn law. CSP should immediately reinforce to all current troopers and constables the consequences that exist under state law for those found to be submitting unsubstantiated or fictitious records intended to mislead either supervisors or the racial profiling data review system.
- Timely supervisory review of records submitted by troopers is the key to assuring the continuing accuracy of traffic stop records. The expectations for troop commanders and supervisory staff must be reviewed regarding the importance of record accuracy for all those under their supervision. Supervisors must ensure that all personnel meet agency standards for the accurate reporting of information.
- An independent record of all traffic stops communicated to dispatch should be retained in the dispatch log.
- The CSP command staff should reevaluate how case numbers are issued.
- Whenever troopers or constables enter a traffic stop into the system that results in an infraction, the infraction ticket number should also be part of the data entered in the NexGen records management system.
- Provide clear guidance and training to troopers regarding the proper reporting of stops made involving a commercial vehicle.
- The advisory board should consider having CTRP3 staff conduct an annual audit of CSP data for at least the next three calendar years.
