CT State Police fake ticket scandal draws inquiry from federal prosecutors, proposal for audit

Barone said news of the fake ticketing scheme stirred concern that data his organization relies on to analyze law enforcement racial profiling trends on the state’s behalf may have been tainted. 

“We are going to do a full audit of state police records,” Barone said. “The reason we are doing a full audit is [to see] if it's more widespread.”

Barone said if the board approves his proposal, he expects the U.S.  Attorney’s office in Connecticut will be interested in the results. He said an official from the federal prosecutor’s office recently called him to ask if the racial profiling data had possibly been compromised and whether federal funding may have been connected to the troopers who created fake tickets.
 
The U.S. Attorney’s office in Connecticut declined comment on Wednesday.

A spokesperson for the state police said “the Connecticut State Police is open and transparent to any audits,” and noted a recently launched criminal probe into the fake ticket schemes by the Chief State’s Attorney, the state's top prosecutor, is ongoing.

That investigation, Barone’s planned audit and the questions by the federal prosecutors were sparked by a recent Hearst Connecticut Media Group report that state police investigators in 2018 discovered four troopers had collectively entered at least 636 fake tickets into the state police computer system over a nine-month stretch to make themselves appear more productive than they really were.

Officials believed some of the troopers had created additional fake tickets dating back years.

Internal Affairs reports show the tickets were fabricated to gain perks from supervisors, including specialty vehicles and positive evaluations, which can lead to better assignments, promotions and pay raises.

The troopers subsequently avoided criminal charges, even after state police supervisors discussed among themselves whether the troopers possibly violated criminal law, records show.

The misconduct was not exposed publicly until last month, when Hearst Connecticut Media published a report detailing findings from internal police files the news outlet recently obtained public records requests.

According to internal records, when state police supervisors first uncovered the fake tickets, they believed the schemes may have, at times, involved inputting phony demographic information collected under the racial profiling law. 

Several weeks ago, State Police Col. Stavros Mellekas, the agency commander and a member of the racial profiling project’s advisory board, said he did not believe the department’s racial data was impacted. 

“They could not have skewed that,” Mellekas said.

Barone emailed Mellekas recently and called the trooper’s actions “extremely troubling,” saying the misconduct could have created inaccuracies in the project’s work.

“An additional significant concern is that [the profiling project] was never notified State Police had identified false records,” Barone wrote. “A timely notification could have ensured that our analysis was properly handled prior to the public release of any report.”

Barone added: “One of this project’s most important goals has been to build a data collection and analysis system to help improve trust between law enforcement and the public. The actions highlighted in the reporting could gravely undermine that goal with regard to CT State Police data and have a lasting overall impact on our work.”       

Under a decade-old law, police officers statewide must document a driver’s race, ethnicity, age and gender when making a traffic stop. The law is designed to find and stop officers who pull drivers over due to bias and discrimination.

The data is analyzed by Barone’s office, which is based at the Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy at UConn Hartford, where Barone is an associate director. The project receives federal funds through the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration to support its work.

The law authorizes the state to penalize police departments that fail to comply with the data collection effort, including by withholding state funds.

Barone said he does not know if data sent to his agency was impacted or if other troopers also created fake tickets, but added there is enough concern to warrant a comprehensive audit. 

“We might as well assess the whole system,” Barone said. “Is this a small one-time problem or a big problem that is continuing. I’m not sure. We will see what the audit finds.”

Barone said the representative from the U.S. Attorney’s office asked similar questions.

“I had a conversation; I received a call from the U.S. Attorney's office asking what we knew,” Barone said. “I told them the same thing. We are not sure.”

Barone said his office would audit data dating back to Jan. 1, 2014, when all Connecticut police departments began collecting demographic data on those pulled over during traffic stops. He estimated it would take several months to complete the audit.

The project's yearly reports have documented some concerning patterns in recent years, including analyses that found evidence suggesting troopers were more likely to stop Hispanic motorists during daylight hours and more likely to search drivers of color.

The project's report focused on traffic stops conducted during 2018 said: "it warrants concern that the Connecticut State Police have appeared each year as having a statistically significant disparity in either or both of minority traffic stops and vehicular searches."

Although, the report said, no statistically significant disparities had been found for Troop E, the unit where the four troopers who created fake tickets worked.

After Hearst Connecticut exposed the fake ticket scheme, some state lawmakers called for investigations and said they wanted to give the state's inspector general jurisdiction over a wider range of misconduct, including cases like creating fake tickets.

The office of Chief State’s Attorney’s Patrick J. Griffin launched a criminal probe into the fake ticket schemes that is being spearheaded by its Division of Criminal Justice as well as the State Police Central District Major Crime Squad.

That investigation started after Griffin consulted with James C. Rovella, a member of Governor Ned Lamont’s cabinet and the commissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, which oversees several agencies including the state police.

Lamont, through a spokesman, said recently the state police handled the matter appropriately.

Representatives for Griffin did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday. Lamont's office declined to comment, referring questions to Rovella's office.