From Lisa Backus, CT News Junkie:
An annual report examining the potential for racial profiling in traffic enforcement flagged fewer police departments for having statistical disparities in traffic stops, but authors say more work needs to be done to continue the trend.
The report completed by the Central Connecticut State University Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy examined more than 500,000 traffic stops made in Connecticut by municipal and state police in 2018. As part of its methodology, it compares the number of minority drivers who were stopped in daylight hours compared to the number stopped in twilight hours when officers could not easily see the driver.
The results showed two departments required further scrutiny: Bridgeport and State Police Troop K. Both departments will undergo additional study to determine what is driving the disparities, author Ken Barone, IMRP project manager, said.
Barone and the Connecticut Racial Profiling Prohibition Project have looked at traffic stops throughout the state since 2012 to determine if more minority drivers are being targeted by police for enforcement action compared to non-minority drivers. In its earliest findings, the group highlighted about a dozen police departments as requiring more study based on the traffic data. In the report issued Tuesday, authors noted that for the second year in a row, fewer departments were flagged for statistical disparities in traffic stops and other traffic enforcement.
… This year, the Bridgeport Police Department was identified as stopping minority drivers at a rate 1.2 times higher in daylight, than under the “veil of darkness” when it’s harder to tell the race of a motorist, the report concluded. However, that city’s data was found to be inconsistently reported as a result of a change in its record management system. The department will undergo a second review and be subject to a supplemental report after its 2019 data is studied.
Full story here.
