CT State Police Ticket Scandal Investigation Findings Released: Here's What To Know

CONNECTICUT — Gov. Ned Lamont's Office has released its report on the investigation into the Connecticut State Police's false ticket scandal.

The report, by former United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut Deirdre M. Daly and the law firm of Finn Dixon and Herling LLP, largely exonerates the state law enforcement personnel of any intentional or systemic wrongdoing.

In June 2023, an audit by the Connecticut Racial Profiling Prohibition Project highlighted the discrepancies between the state's racial profiling database and the one maintained by the Centralized Infractions Bureau in the Judicial Branch, which is the state's official court record.

The audit indicated that members of the Connecticut State Police overreported at least 26,000 racial profiling records between 2014 to 2021 and underreported at least 16,000 records from 2015 to 2021.

The audit suggested that as many as 81 active troopers and constables may have engaged in the intentional falsification of traffic stop data, based on the audit’s identification of RPD entries that could not be matched to infraction data maintained by the Connecticut Centralized Infraction Bureau.

The findings of the investigation by Daly and her team commissioned by the Governor's Office concluded that "this suggestion is not supported by the evidence."

Instead, investigators report that 74 of the 81 active troopers and constables identified in the audit process are not likely to have engaged in intentional misconduct.

Six active troopers and one constable have been referred to the state police for further investigation by Internal Affairs of potential falsification of traffic stop data.

Investigators confirmed that one active trooper, currently assigned to desk duty, intentionally entered verbal warnings as infractions to appear more productive to his supervisors.

The investigation found no evidence that any trooper or constable "engaged in conduct with the intention of skewing racial profiling data, or of concealing their own racial profiling." However, investigators determined that "further scrutiny" of the officers' conduct by Internal Affairs is warranted.

According to the report, the investigation identified "serious failures" by the Connecticut State Police that enabled "deficient data-entry practices to develop and persist." But many of the over-reported records were not the result of intentional falsification of traffic stop data.

Discrepancies were more likely caused by inattention and carelessness, a lack of training on appropriate data-entry practices, miscommunication or errors by dispatchers, and equipment/connectivity malfunctions surrounding the mobile data terminals and electronic-ticket printers, according to the report.

The ability of investigators to determine the culpability of the 49 Troopers flagged in the original audit who are now retired "was more limited," according to the report. Those officers were not required to cooperate with the investigation, and CSP had not completed its initial reconciliation of those troopers' data. Nevertheless, the report concluded the majority of retirees were "unlikely to have engaged in intentional misconduct.

Three retired troopers flagged in CTRP3’s audit were found by Internal Affairs to have falsified traffic stop data in 2018.

"On one hand, the governor's independent investigation provides some measure of closure for the 74 active State Troopers who were unfortunately accused of malfeasance. However, I remain troubled by the lack of scrutiny from senior command staff that led to these accusations, including a seeming abdication of their supervisory role when the issue was first raised in 2018," Rep. Fishbein, Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee said. "I'm encouraged that this report will help restore the public's trust of law enforcement in Connecticut."

Here's the report:

20240201 Finn Dixon Herling Report on CSP by Rich Kirby on Scribd