CT House of Representatives approves bill making falsification of police records a felony

The Connecticut House of Representatives passed a bill Monday that would specifically make it a felony for any person acting in a law enforcement capacity to intentionally falsify information in a law enforcement file.

House Bill 5055 passed unanimously by a vote of 149-0, and the governor’s bill was sent to the Senate.

The proposal follows reports of “significant failures” by the Connecticut State Police to address deficiencies in reporting racial profiling data and officers found to have intentionally falsified ticket data. Federal and state investigations into the ticket scandal are ongoing.

The legislation would make it a Class D felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine, for a person to knowingly make false written statements or enter false information in a law enforcement record. It specifically uses falsification of records as the basis for canceling an officer’s police license.

Officials expressed concern that existing laws do not make it clear that intentionally falsifying data in computer systems is a criminal offense.

Originally limited to law enforcement officers who falsify records, lawmakers expanded the bill earlier this year to punish any person who falsifies law enforcement records. The bill also prohibits the disclosure of “any records relating to a formal complaint against a police officer” prior to the investigation of that complaint. The provision came after a Supreme Court judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Connecticut State Police Union seeking to block officers from releasing the names of officers under investigation for allegedly falsifying traffic stops.

Reporting by Hearst Connecticut Media previously exposed how four state troopers falsified hundreds of traffic tickets for better assignments, raises, promotions and special vehicles. The individuals – Timothy Bentley, Noah Gouveia, Kevin Moore and Daniel Richter – were under internal investigation at the time but had otherwise evaded public scrutiny.

After the reports were released, the Connecticut Racial Profiling Prohibition Project, a team of researchers that collected statewide data on the race and ethnicity of people stopped by police, reviewed over 800,000 violations reported by 1,301 police officers between 2014 and 2021 became.

A falsified recording was a recording that did not reflect an actual traffic stop. One over-reported violation involved records identified in the state’s racial profiling system but not in the court system, called the Centralized Infractions Bureau. Underreported records were those found in the CIB but not in the profiling system.

Researchers were unable to confirm 25,966 stops submitted to the racial profiling database, but said the number of fake records could potentially exceed 58,000. The report said that over-reported traffic violations by state troopers were more likely to involve white, non-Hispanic drivers, while under-reported violations were more likely to involve black or Hispanic drivers.

The audit also found 311 soldiers with “significant deviations.” This number was reduced to 130 to better refine the analysis and reflect those with the “largest” inaccuracies.

State police officials then opened an investigation into the 130 troopers and promised to “investigate these names, exonerate those who are falsely accused, but prosecute those who forge these documents.” No resident received a forged ticket, they said officials as well.

More than 7,400 traffic stop records were falsified by troopers, researchers said, although they likely had minimal impact on the state’s annual traffic data analysis since troopers account for less than 5% of all stops reported by the state police.

After the audit, federal and local authorities and state lawmakers launched investigations to find out what happened. Public scrutiny led to the resignation of Commissioner James C. Rovella and Col. Stavros Mellekas, the state’s top two public safety officials, which led to the appointment of Commissioner Ronnell Higgins.

An investigation commissioned by the Lamont administration and conducted by law firm Finn Dixon & Herling LLP found “significant failures” by the Connecticut State Police in complying with the state’s racial profiling law. The investigation, which state police helped conduct, also found that the number of state troopers and troopers who intentionally falsified data was “far more limited” than the audit suggested.

“When we had the informational hearing in off-session, a lot of allegations were made, a lot of documents were obtained, there was a lot of rush to judgment,” Rep. Craig Fishbein, a senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said Monday. “Ultimately, the widespread evil that was alleged has truly not been proven. And unfortunately it had taken the state police so long to do something about it; No action could be taken on the four people believed to have done something wrong because the statute of limitations had expired.”

Rep. Greg Howard, a senior Republican on the Public Safety and Security Committee, praised lawmakers for working on the bill, which comes despite the ongoing investigation after months of what he said was unfair scrutiny of the state police.

“I hope our soldiers are listening … because we need them to get back to work,” Howard said.

The bill goes to the Senate next.

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