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Scandal: Connecticut Police Caught Faking Thousands of Traffic Stops to Boost Numbers
Red State ^ | 9/4/23 | Jeff Charles

Posted on 09/04/2023 3:14:49 PM PDT by CFW

Connecticut’s law enforcement has been rocked by a potential scandal involving how its officers have been reporting traffic stops. An audit exposed a troubling pattern of state troopers manipulating records to make themselves appear to be more productive.

The report reveals that at least 100 officers were fabricating traffic reports to boost their numbers. The revelation has raised questions about the credibility of officers tasked with upholding the law and has led some to question whether they can be trusted to handle more serious criminal cases.

(Excerpt) Read more at redstate.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; US: Connecticut
KEYWORDS: connecticut; corrupt; donutwatch; police; trafficstops
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To: wgmalabama

Some are ex military which have been the ones to use excessive force/violence.


21 posted on 09/04/2023 3:49:50 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: CFW

Goodhart’s law at work.

“When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.”


22 posted on 09/04/2023 3:53:23 PM PDT by atomic_dog
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To: TalBlack

I think you’re right. I see lots fewer people pulled over, and I don’t think it’s because the general quality and courtesy of driving have improved so much. It seemed to start during the COVID nonsense in 2020.

It also seems that when I do see police activity, they’re swarming a minor incident in ridiculous numbers. Some months ago, apparently there was a domestic dispute at our next-door neighbors’ place, though we didn’t hear sounds of violence or even raised voices. Anyway, no fewer than five sheriff’s vehicles showed up for that. No one was arrested.


23 posted on 09/04/2023 3:55:57 PM PDT by HartleyMBaldwin
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To: CFW

The feds give municipalities grant money if they prove 2.2 or greater interactions with law enforcement per year, per person. Thus “show us your papers”.


24 posted on 09/04/2023 4:01:37 PM PDT by blackdog ((Z28.310) My dog Sam eats purple flowers.)
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To: CFW
"the credibility of officers tasked with upholding the law and has led some to question whether they can be trusted to handle more serious criminal cases."

That could be a real weak spot the defense could take advantage of......but I'm not a lawyer.....never played on on TV..

25 posted on 09/04/2023 4:02:48 PM PDT by unread (I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic..!)
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To: CFW

This seems like a good “Freakanomics” situation.


26 posted on 09/04/2023 4:05:50 PM PDT by joma89 (Buy weapons and ammo, folks, and have the will to use them.)
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To: Secret Agent Man

I disagree. I worked side by side with Deputies (County) and Troopers (State..) the vast majority are straight “shooters” and committed to being in the right. There were a couple of asshats in the mix who would give ME, an Officer, a hard time.


27 posted on 09/04/2023 4:07:34 PM PDT by Shady (The Force of Liberty must prevail for the sake of our Children and Grandchildren...)
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To: PeterPrinciple
Well there is the problem, they needed to report fake black motorists.....................

Actually, I can almost guarantee you they fake reported mostly white people to get the percentages up. They were ticketing too many blacks and had to do something to get the number to where they would not end up on the front page news as being racist for pulling over a high percentage of blacks.

They were not targeting blacks, it is just that group breaks more laws than any other group in this country (DOJ stats) but scream that all laws are racist. Almost everywhere I drive in in our country the worst traffic law offenders are black.

28 posted on 09/04/2023 4:10:16 PM PDT by OldMissileer (Atlas, Titan, Minuteman, PK. Winners of the Cold War)
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To: cgbg

I am looking through the details of the audit.

On page 69 they confirm what I suspected:

“a. Overreported records with evidence of false or inaccurate data were more likely to be reported as White drivers and less likely to be reported as Black or Hispanic drivers.

b. Records that were underreported by troopers were more likely to be Hispanic or some other race and less likely to be White.”

The racial part of the false reporting was probably less important to the troopers than inflating the quantity of their reports to get “benefits” like new vehicles, choice of shifts, and promotions.


29 posted on 09/04/2023 4:10:48 PM PDT by cgbg ("Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training." Anna Freud.)
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To: Angelino97

Jack Webb was a wise man. He also married Julie London. Gave her up to Bobby Troup. Stayed friends..


30 posted on 09/04/2023 4:12:31 PM PDT by Shady (The Force of Liberty must prevail for the sake of our Children and Grandchildren...)
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To: CFW

This is what a collapsing society looks like.


31 posted on 09/04/2023 4:13:06 PM PDT by Trumpisourlastchance
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To: CFW
I find simplifying the language of articles sometimes lends clarity to what people are up to by removing the weasel words that soften the blow, especially in the context of public servants:

troopers manipulating records lying

officers were fabricating lying in traffic reports

a pattern of record manipulation lies

at least 25,966 recorded stops ... were false were lied about

as many as 58,553 may have been ... inaccurate partial lies

scheme of systematic deceit lies

the disparities lies

officers caught in the audit lying

officers are willing to fabricate data lie

officers might abuse their authority lie in particularly heinous ways


32 posted on 09/04/2023 4:16:36 PM PDT by verum ago (I figure some people must truly be in love, for only love can be so blind.)
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To: atomic_dog

In MBA courses they teach the dangers of any incentives.

Whatever you reward, you will get exactly that.

In most cases it is not the behavior you thought you wanted to reward.

This is very common in sales organizations where the product is “recurring”—ongoing and paid monthly by the customer for example.

If you pay commissions or extra rewards for sales then you get lots of sales but many of them will not be “quality” sales—the customer will take the discount for starting the service and then often drop the service when the discount period is over, for example.

One real life example I had as a manager was where I was rewarded on “new customers” but there was an upper limit. I always made sure to “hit the number” but not get much above it—I saved those extra good prospects for the next incentive period so I could max out the bonus two years in a row.

If management had not set an upper limit I would have tried to get as many customers as I could as soon as I could—which of course would have been better for the company.


33 posted on 09/04/2023 4:17:40 PM PDT by cgbg ("Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training." Anna Freud.)
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To: Cen-Tejas
Poor pay,

In SoCal, a HS grad can make $150K within a few years as a cop.

34 posted on 09/04/2023 4:17:49 PM PDT by Mr.Unique (My boss wants me to sign up for a 401K. No way I'm running that far! )
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To: CFW

Forget it, Jake. It’s Connecticut.


35 posted on 09/04/2023 4:18:54 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (The worst thing about censorship is ████ █ ██████ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ ████████. FJB.)
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To: CFW

“The ticket reports under scrutiny may have also irrevocably tainted the racial data that the state collects on traffic stops. That is because the motorists who were purportedly stopped were disproportionately white, said Mr. Barone, who is the manager of the Connecticut Racial Profiling Prohibition Project, which seeks to identify and address racial and ethnic disparities in traffic enforcement.”

Interesting tidbit


36 posted on 09/04/2023 4:19:26 PM PDT by Sertorius (A hayseed with no Greek and dam^ proud of it)
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To: CFW

LOCK EM UP.....fraud


37 posted on 09/04/2023 4:20:27 PM PDT by wardamneagle
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To: OldMissileer

“They were ticketing too many blacks and had to do something to get the number to where they would not end up on the front page news as being racist for pulling over a high percentage of blacks.”

Exactly correct. In addition it was officers in the “tougher” areas of the big cities with high black populations that did the most fakery. The state cops made Interstate stops in those cities.


38 posted on 09/04/2023 4:20:51 PM PDT by cgbg ("Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training." Anna Freud.)
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To: CFW

It’s not clear to me how this worked. If they were actual, but meritless, traffic stops, there would be tickets written, and presumably most people would pay them. But that doesn’t seem to be what was happening. It seems they were inventing traffic stops that never occurred at all.

But if you fake a traffic stop, is there a fake ticket issued? If so, who would pay it? No one. Eventually someone on the force would figure out there were huge numbers of unpaid tickets. Plus you’d have to invent fake license and registration information.

Alternatively, if they faked thousands of stops where there was just a “warning”, no ticket issued, no license or registration info taken, wouldn’t someone on the force get on their case for being too lenient?


39 posted on 09/04/2023 4:21:01 PM PDT by Flash Bazbeaux
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To: wardamneagle

The penalties for the blatant fraud appeared to be stuff like two week suspensions—a couple of the cops outsmarted everybody and just “retired”.

They could then “retire” to a warm state and start all over...and even if they could not get hired as a cop they could do private security.


40 posted on 09/04/2023 4:22:47 PM PDT by cgbg ("Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training." Anna Freud.)
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