ACLU-CT Reaction to In-Depth Traffic Stop Report on Ten Connecticut Police Departments

HARTFORD — Today, researchers from Central Connecticut State University released the results of a supplemental study of ten Connecticut police departments that a previous statewide report identified as disproportionately stopping minority drivers. The study examined traffic stops from October 2014 to September 2015 conducted by the Bloomfield, Meriden, Newington, New Milford, Norwalk, Trumbull, West Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor police departments, as well as the Hartford-based State Police Troop H.

The following is a reaction from David McGuire, executive director of the ACLU of Connecticut:

“The results from this latest report are clear: too many police departments in Connecticut are relying on the unfair and ineffective practice of targeting neighborhoods where people of color live and drive when deciding where to enforce car equipment violations. These equipment traffic stops are a suburban version of stop and frisk, and we have no doubt that they are just as discriminatory and ineffective as that failed program. Members of the state Racial Profiling Prohibition Project Advisory Board, including police, recently heard from an elected official who was afraid to travel outside of her neighborhood for fear of being unjustly stopped or harassed by police in surrounding towns. The evidence of inequitable policing is clear. Now, the question is what our state will do to end these outdated traffic enforcement priorities, which do nothing for public safety but contribute to injustice.”