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Researchers: State Has "Significant Racial and Ethnic Disparities" in Police Traffic Stops

Steve Lyon
/
Creative Commons

A new study of recent police data finds significant racial disparities in traffic stops in some Connecticut police departments. In this third in a series of stories, WNPR has this report on the analysis that was released this week. 

Researchers at Central Connecticut State University used a combination of six analytical tools to review hundreds of thousands of traffic stops. The new study shows stops of minority drivers were more likely to happen during the day "when a driver's race and ethnicity are visible."

Michael Lawlor, the governor's undersecretary for criminal justice issues, spoke at a meeting of the Connecticut Racial Profiling Prohibition Project's advisory board where the report was presented.

"This is just data. This is not a verdict,” Lawlor said. “This is not a determination of who is guilty of what. This is simply real data being gathered in real time from real law enforcement agencies. But the purpose of this project is not to decide whether or not anyone's actually being unfair. It's simply to present real data so that policy decisions are made based on evidence and data instead of anecdotes."

Based on the analysis, nine municipal departments and one state police troop will get further review because of the disparities in their data: New Milford, Norwalk, West Hartford, Wethersfield, Bloomfield, Meriden, Newington, Trumbull, Windsor, and Troop H.

The 292 page report makes several points. One has to do with what's called the "veil of darkness." The question is, do racial and ethnic minorities get pulled over more frequently when their race or ethnicity can be plainly seen?

"The results indicated... a statistically significant disparity for Hispanic drivers in the state of Connecticut as a whole,” said Ken Barone, one of the researchers who prepared the report.

“And when we combined both black and Hispanic drivers together, the statistical disparity remains strong." Barone also said the data explains how racial disparities exist in searches of cars after they're stopped. "Minorities are searched more often, contraband is found less,” he said. “White drivers are searched less often, contraband is found more."

Finally, the report talks about so-called discretionary stops -- such as when an officer pulls someone over for a busted tail light. That data particularly bothered Dr. Cato Laurencin, a physician and UConn professor who is on the project's advisory board.

"It's my belief that, in terms of these discretionary stops, they have to become non-discretionary,” Laurencin said. “Meaning -- either everybody's stopped for it, or you do it during a road block, or don't do it at all. But clearly -- where there's discretion that's involved, that's where racial discrimination can take place. And I think the data really bears that out."

Laurencin underscored another reason for urgency -- he said there is evidence that racial discrimination is a source of health disparities.

Douglas Fuchs is the chief of the Redding Police Department. He represents the Connecticut Chiefs of Police Association, and he told the board that he values the project. But it has its flaws.

"Most will agree that judging one's ethnicity as they drive by you at 40 miles an hour is a very difficult thing to do,” said Fuchs, who said that police are unwaveringly in support of the project.

"Every police chief in Connecticut remains committed to the law, but, more importantly, to the principle that stopping an individual based solely on what they look like is completely unacceptable and is certainly illegal,” Fuchs said. “Our expectation is that our officers are stopping violators who represent a virtual mirror image of who's actually driving on our roadways."

Read WNPR's first story in the series, about a man suing the Bridgeport police for an allegedly unlawful search. Also read the second story, about one police department's reaction to the heightened focus on its strategies on the street.

Jeff Cohen started in newspapers in 2001 and joined Connecticut Public in 2010, where he worked as a reporter and fill-in host. In 2017, he was named news director. Then, in 2022, he became a senior enterprise reporter.

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