Gov. Ned Lamont announced on Thursday that federal law enforcement officials have dropped a probe that was looking into allegations that Connecticut State Police officers fabricated hundreds of traffic tickets.
Following a news conference at Connecticut’s Forensic Science Laboratory, Lamont said the U.S. Department of Justice recently informed state officials that it was dropping its examination of state police ticketing data.
The announcement brings partial closure to a years-long saga that began when Hearst Connecticut Media revealed that State Police leadership had discovered in 2018 that several troopers had created hundreds of fake tickets in an attempt to boost their reported productivity.
That coverage prompted subsequent audits by the Connecticut Racial Profiling Prohibition Project and several investigations, including one that was opened by federal prosecutors in Washington DC.
A federal grand jury subpoena that was issued in October 2023 showed the U.S. Department of Justice required the state police to turn over data on traffic tickets going back to 2014.
But, according to the governor, that investigation has ended without any criminal charges being filed.
Lamont and Ronnell Higgins, the state commissioner of the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, said officials in the U.S. Department of Justice informed state officials in recent weeks that the investigation into the ticketing data has been closed.
Officials with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section, which was leading that investigation, did not immediately return a call on Thursday.
Federal prosecutors did not provide the state with a letter confirming the closure of the investigation, but Lamont, a Democrat who is in his second term, painted the decision to drop the probe as vindication for the state police.
Lamont said the closure of the investigation showed that there wasn’t a “collective” effort to falsify tickets.
The governor acknowledged, however, that several state troopers and a state constable were still under internal affairs investigations within the state police and could face administrative discipline.
“It was perhaps six or seven troopers who were falsifying. Everybody else — there were mistakes made, but nothing conscious about what was going on,” Lamont said.
Those seven police officials were flagged as part of a separate investigation that was conducted by a law firm hired by Lamont’s office last year.
Higgins, who took over as the public safety commissioner late last year, said the internal investigations into those seven individuals were complete and were “in the final stages of administrative review.”
The closure of the federal criminal investigation, Higgins added, was positive news, but he also noted that state police have work to do to improve the processes for recording traffic stop and ticket information.
“We’re committed to continuous improvement,” Higgins said.
This story was originally published by The Connecticut Mirror August 1, 2024.
