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 The year-long study of police traffic stops found a dozen police
departments where racial and ethnic disparities were so extreme that
they "may indicate the presence of racial and ethnic bias,"
according to the report.
They included East Hartford, New Haven, Manchester, Hamden, New
Britain, Meriden, Newington, Stratford, Norwich, Waterbury,
Wethersfield and Windsor, it said.
Other departments with "significant" racial and ethnic disparities
among traffic stops were Groton and Granby along with State Police
Troop H in the Hartford area and Troop C in Tolland, it said.
The data was collected from nearly every police agency in
Connecticut's 169 towns from October 2013 to November 2014.
Overall, of the 620,000 traffic stops statewide, 13.5 percent of the
drivers were black and 11.7 percent were Hispanic.
 U.S. Census statistics show 8 percent of the state population is
black and 9.7 percent is Hispanic.
The data was gathered in response to allegations of widespread
racial profiling by East Haven police, which led to a U.S.
Department of Justice probe and resulted in criminal indictments.
It was compiled by Central Connecticut State University's Institute
for Municipal and Regional Policy and the Connecticut Economic
Resource Center Inc, a nonprofit economic development agency.
Werner Oyanadel, executive director of the Latino and Puerto Rican
Affairs Commission, said using the traffic stop as a measure
constituted a comprehensive look at the issue of racial profiling.
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"What we have done here in Connecticut with this report can become a
national model emulated in every state to help stop racial
profiling,” Oyanadel said.
A report by the Justice Department earlier this year found traffic
stops played a significant role in racial tensions in Ferguson,
Missouri, where riots broke out last summer after a white police
officer fatally shot an unarmed black teenager.
The Justice Department said it found the mostly white police force
routinely targeted African Americans for arrests and ticketing in
part to raise revenue for the city through fines and fees.
Scot X. Esdaile, head of the Connecticut NAACP, said the
organization felt "vindicated" by the report.
"It's clear there is a pervasive problem with racial profiling in
the state of Connecticut, as black leaders have been insisting for
many years,” he said.
(Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Eric Walsh)
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