A conservative estimate puts it at around 26,000 false traffic citations.
According to the findings of an internal investigation, Connecticut State Troopers have allegedly filed nearly 26,000 false traffic tickets.
WFSB reports the audit found officers issued these fake tickets for their benefit, as productive troopers qualify for federally-funded overtime. Aside from the falsified tickets, an additional 32,000 tickets are reportedly inaccurate. The shocking discovery was made after Ken Barone, who works with the Public Policy Institute at UConn, motivated for an audit after an investigation discovered four troopers had forged tickets.
“There's no evidence these are real people,” said Barone, who also has concerns that this may affect racial profiling data. “The unmatched records were more likely to be white drivers, identified as white individuals, and the records that should have been likely reported to the system and were not, were more likely to be Hispanic motorists or motorists of some other race,” he added.
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It's believed that hundreds of troopers could be involved in this fraudulent activity. State Governor Ned Lamont has called on offenders to be kicked out of their positions, along with management who were in power while this was happening.
“If people were not investigating this thoroughly, if they knew there were purposeful mistakes, not mistakes but purposely representing what was going on, those people should go, and I think their management should take a look at themselves as well,” remarked Gov. Lamont.
Officials are pushing for answers, and while some troopers may face criminal charges of forgery, there's one problem: the statute of limitations for this crime is five years.
“Losing the lack of trust of the public in a situation like this has dire consequences for our sense of public safety,” said state representative Jason Rojas.
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Rolling Stone reports that one trooper is responsible for writing over 1,300 false tickets. Per the report, these tickets did not result in court dates or fines for drivers.
There are two systems in which troopers are required to file traffic stops and tickets. One is linked to the state's judicial branch, while the other records demographic information and is designed to deter any bias when making traffic stops.
For every demographic data entry recorded, there should be a matching ticket in the other system. The audit discovered 311 troopers had inconsistencies in their records, with thousands of tickets in the demographics database not corresponding to any in Connecticut's judicial records.
The greater majority of Connecticut State Troopers may have assigned most of the tickets to “white” motorists, as it's the first option on the dropdown menu. Similarly, most of these fake traffic stops seem to have happened at midnight, which is also the first option for time on the computer menu.
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“Basically, they were going through and checking the first box and not really putting in any information,” said Matthew Ross, a Northeastern professor who co-authored the audit. He believes many of the officers who falsified these tickets just wanted to bolster their numbers or hide the fact they were neglecting their duties.
Alarmingly, the audit believes that the number of falsified traffic stops is higher than the estimate and maybe even closer to 60,000. It will be interesting to see what comes of this. Still, we feel several troopers will soon be swapping their police-issued Ford Explorer patrol vehicles for something the criminal classes favors: a prison bus.
Last year, police officials in the Arkansas town of Menifee were prohibited from issuing speeding tickets for a year after an audit found that more than half the town's revenue was from traffic fines. State laws say income collected from traffic infractions cannot exceed 30%, which it did.
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Keyword: Connecticut State Troopers Caught Filing Thousands Of Fake Traffic Tickets