Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Hard News Hard Hitting News Source Global Political News

Business News

Judge Rejects Connecticut Troopers’ Union Request Bar Release Of Names In Fake Ticket Probe, For Now

FILE — Members of the Connecticut State Police Major Crime unit are on scene, Oct. 13, 2022, in Bristol, Conn. A judge has rejected a bid by the Connecticut State Police Union, Thursday, Sept. 7, 2023, to temporarily keep secret the names of 130 state police troopers under investigation for allegedly recording bogus traffic stops, but says it will get another chance.(AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File)

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. (AP) — A judge has rejected a bid by the Connecticut State Police Union to temporarily keep secret the names of 130 state police troopers under investigation for allegedly recording bogus traffic stops, but says it will get another chance.

The troopers are under investigation after an audit identified thousands of traffic stops that may have never happened, making it appear they were stopping and citing more drivers than they actually were.

Superior Court Judge Rupal Shah in Middletown denied the union’s request on technical grounds Thursday. Shah ruled the union’s request for an injunction was premature because the state Freedom of Information Commission has not yet decided whether the names should be publicly released.

Media organizations including The Associated Press have requested the troopers’ names. State public safety officials denied a request for the names by The Connecticut Mirror, which has a pending appeal before the Freedom of Information Commission. The judge said the union could appeal to the courts if the commission orders disclosure of the names.

The union asked that the troopers’ names not be released until investigations are complete. It said 27 of the 130 troopers have been cleared of wrongdoing by state police officials and it expects more troopers to be cleared. The union says many discrepancies found in the audit could be due to recordkeeping or data entry errors.

“We are reviewing the judge’s decision to determine whether it will be necessary to file an appeal,” the union said in a statement Friday.

An audit released by University of Connecticut data analysts in June found a “high degree of confidence” that troopers submitted information on at least 25,966 traffic stops that never happened.

Researchers looked at data submitted from 2014 and 2021 to a state database that tracks the race and ethnicity of drivers pulled over by police statewide. They say the false reports were more likely to identify drivers as white, skewing the data, which is meant to prevent racial profiling.

However, analysts cautioned that they did not try to determine whether the records were intentionally falsified or were wrong due to human error. They identified the stops as suspicious because the reported traffic citations never showed up in state court system records, where all tickets are adjudicated.

The union says releasing the troopers’ names before the investigations are complete could unfairly tarnish their reputations.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Source: https://hosted.ap.org/article/c6c3f76f89919cf2266a96c8df44c3e8/judge-rejects-connecticut-troopers-union-request-bar

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You May Also Like

Business News

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A fight between two groups turned deadly in Florida when a shooting in a Tampa street during Halloween festivities resulted...

Accidents

SEATTLE (AP) — A city watchdog agency is investigating after a body-worn camera captured one Seattle Police Department union leader joking with another following...

Business News

Authorities searched Monday for escaped murderer Danelo Souza Cavalcante who has eluded capture since breaking out of a southeastern Pennsylvania prison a week and a half...

Business News

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine’s attorney general concluded there was no criminal conduct when four law enforcement officers used a stun gun and beat...

Copyright © 2023 Hard News Herd Hitting in Your Face News Source | World News | Breaking News | US News | Political News Website by Top Search SEO