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- Connecticut police logged massive discrepancies in its traffic stop records, according to an audit.
- It recorded at least 26,000 fake tickets over a five-year period, involving hundreds of officers.
- The figures skewed racial profiling data to appear like more white people were being stopped.
An audit of Connecticut State Police records found there was a "high likelihood" that hundreds of troopers had falsified almost 26,000 traffic tickets over a five-year period.
One trooper singlehandedly logged 1,350 fake tickets between 2014 and 2017, the audit, released late last month, revealed.
As a result, police skewed racial profiling records, making it appear that more white people had been stopped than was the reality, it said. The audit stressed that it did not examine potential motivations for this.
Connecticut's Alvin W. Penn Act requires officers to note the perceived racial identity of all subjects of a traffic stop, as part of efforts to reduce racial profiling.
In total, the audit found that 387 troopers and constables logged a "statistically significant" number of traffic stops that couldn't be substantiated in at least one year of the audit.
The total number of false records could ultimately be as high as 58,553, the researchers said. It was unclear if the fake tickets were deliberately falsified or were the result of human error, it said.
"This report suggests a historical pattern and practice among some troopers and constables of submitting infraction records that were likely false or inaccurate to the racial profiling system," it said.
The audit, which was conducted by University of Connecticut data analysts, followed an independent report that four officers were cooking the books to look busy and curry favor with their superiors.
That bombshell 2022 report, by Hearst Connecticut Media, found that the officers had created hundreds of fake tickets.
In appearing busier than they actually were, they accessed performance-related perks like better vehicles, nicer working locations, and other benefits of positive evaluations, the outlet reported at the time.
Ken Barone, a researcher behind the recent audit, told NBC CT that it showed "a pattern of having records where you cannot find a corresponding record in the court system."
He added: "If you claimed you stopped a car and issued a ticket, there should be a ticket."
Connecticut State Police said in a press release that it was working to reduce discrepancies, saying it is "deeply committed to ensuring the integrity of Connecticut's racial profiling data and to maintaining public confidence in the essential public safety services our troopers provide each day."
On Tuesday, it took the unusual step of suspending State Trooper Christopher Melanson indefinitely, NBC CT reported, but it did not say if this was in connection to the audit.