The state plans to contract an outside firm within the next week to investigate the results of a recent audit suggesting that state troopers falsified tens of thousands of traffic enforcement records, Gov. Ned Lamont said Wednesday.
The governor said the yet-to-be-named firm will not to attempt to assess the guilt or innocence of the hundreds of troopers who apparently misreported enforcement data to a state panel on racial profiling. Rather the group will try to explain the results and identify ways to prevent similar events from happening in the future, he said.
“[The firm will] look at how this happened, how we can make sure it doesn’t happen,” Lamont said. “Are there technical issues? Is there training issues? Is it management issues?… We gotta do everything we can to build up the credibility for our State Police. They’re so invaluable to what we do.”
The announcement comes on the heels of news that two legislative committees will hold a hearing next week to question state police officials on the results of the audit by Connecticut Racial Profiling Prohibition Project.
The group, which works to identify racial profiling trends in state law enforcement data, released the audit in late June. The report found at least 25,966 instances between 2014 and 2021 where state troopers reported issuing tickets without corresponding records in the Centralized Infractions Bureau.
The audit’s authors said the misreported records distorted years of racial profiling analysis by the group.
On Wednesday, Lamont said that Chief State’s Attorney Patrick Griffin’s office would continue to investigate whether the troopers involved committed any criminal wrongdoing. So far, state prosecutors, who work closely with police, have not announced any charges related to the fraudulent tickets.
The governor told reporters that one person within police ranks had already left state service related to the misreported traffic records. Police who intentionally fabricated records should lose their jobs, he said.
“We’re looking at intentionality,” Lamont said. “Don’t jump to conclusions. How much of this was inadvertent? How much of it was intentional? If you’re intentional, you’re breaking the law, you shouldn’t be a state policeman.”
