New London — The university-based institute tracking compliance among police departments with the state's Alvin W. Penn Racial Profiling Prohibition Act has commended the New London Police Department on being a “model department" when it comes to recording traffic stop data.

Kenneth Barone, project manager for the Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy at Central Connecticut State University, said what is even more impressive is the fact the department is able to comply using an outdated system of paper traffic stop forms.

The institute on Thursday completed an audit of the department’s traffic stop data compiled between Oct. 1, 2015, and Sept. 30, 2016.

Departments are required under law to report traffic stop information to the state each month and include information on why the stop was made, the date and time and the race/ethnicity of the person stopped. The goal of the data collection is to ensure people are not being stopped, searched or detained for discriminatory reasons.

New London is one of seven departments in the state still using paper forms, which Barone said can be problematic when compared to computerized systems like those used in 95 other departments statewide.

In Hartford, for example, he said an audit on its paper system turned up problems that included large numbers of missing data. The issues prompted audits of the other six departments using paper: New London, Bridgeport, Clinton, Middletown, Wallingford and Cheshire.

“Out of the seven departments, (New London) is in really good shape,” Barone said. “New London certainly has a system in place that needs to be commended. They really are a model for a department that can comply with the law and have proper oversight.”

The New London Police Department’s forms requires an officer and supervisor’s signature, which Barone said ensures forms are completed for each stop. He said each form has a number that could be cross-referenced with dispatch logs.

While ideally every department would be able to electronically enter data from their vehicles, Barone said New London does not yet have the resources to be able to upgrade its technology.

The department this year had requested $900,000 that would have included software upgrades on computers and in police cruisers, along with training. The request did not make it into the mayor’s final proposed budget.

“As one of the few remaining law enforcement agencies in the state that utilizes paper forms to collect and report the data, the task of entering and submitting the traffic data can be very time consuming and tedious. Nonetheless, NLPD completes the task professionally and with pride,” New London Police Captain Brian Wright said Thursday in a statement.

Barone said the institute will make a formal presentation to the Connecticut Racial Profiling Prohibition Advisory Board on May 18 in Hartford.

“We plan to inform the advisory board of our findings and hope to highlight New London as a model for making a paper data collection system work,” Barone said in an email to the department.

The data contained in the form still is subject to analysis, Barone said, and findings from the traffic stop data will be released later this year.

 g.smith@theday.com