Racial profiling data incomplete

The state has given a temporary pass to the Bridgeport Police Department over data it was supposed to turn in to the Connecticut Racial Profiling Prohibition Advisory Board.

Instead, it will wait until this summer to report on whether the state’s largest city engaged in racial profiling when officers stopped drivers for motor vehicle violations during the daytime, when a driver’s race and ethnicity are more visible.

The fifth annual racial profiling study, released Tuesday by Central Connecticut State University’s Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy, was designed to see whether motorists stopped during the day were more likely to be non-white — an indication that local police were stopping people based on color rather than motor infractions.

But data for 2018, the information used in the report, was unavailable for Bridgeport because of what officials there said was a problem with how the information was collected. So Bridgeport’s information was left out of the information released Tuesday.

Bridgeport officials did not immediately respond to emails for comment.

Minus the Bridgeport data, “the findings from the 2018 analysis of Connecticut’s traffic stop data indicate that progress continues to be made in terms of the decision to stop a minority motorist,” the report states.

The report, which features a study of the 510,000 traffic stops conducted during the 2018 calendar year by all police agencies — some 90,000 fewer than when the study was first done in 2016 — also includes a comprehensive five-year analysis of traffic stop disparities for the Connecticut State Police.

One important aspect of the report was to analyze if there was an increase in stops of non-white drivers during the day when their race and ethnicity is visible as opposed to at night.

For the second year in a row, the report said there was no statistical difference.

“The release of this report marks a major achievement of reducing racial disparities in traffic stops for a second year in a row. This statewide initiative continues to engender a conversation that will lead to improved relationships between law enforcement and the communities they serve,” said Racial Profiling Advisory Board Chair William Dyson.

Ken Barone, CCSU’s IMRP project manager, said after they received data on the 2018 stops from all police departments, they noticed there were discrepancies with the data they received from the Bridgeport Police Department. They were missing data on thousands of 2018 traffic stops made by officers, he said.

Barone said he and his team met with Bridgeport officials and were told that data on traffic stops in Bridgeport had been set down on paper and the information from the first half of 2018 had been lost.

The city then began recording stop data electronically but only had information for the second half of 2018, Barone said.

“We didn’t want to just let them off the hook because they are required by law to report the data,” Barone said.

In the end, he said, the advisory board decided to wait on Bridgeport’s 2019 data instead of using incomplete information from 2018.

“We will do an analysis of 2019 for a supplemental report and we will likely publish that report in the summer,” he added.