State lawmakers will convene a special meeting next week to discuss possible actions they will take to respond to a recent audit that found a "high likelihood" hundreds of Connecticut State Police troopers falsified tens of thousands of traffic ticket records over most of the past decade.

The Connecticut General Assembly's Judiciary Committee and Public Safety and Security Committee scheduled a joint meeting for July 26 at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford to gather information and discuss possible responses to the audit. The exact time of the meeting was unclear.

The audit's findings, released in late June, alleged systemic violations of state law and that the misreporting of traffic tickets skewed racial profiling data making it appear troopers ticketed more white drivers and fewer minority motorists than they really did. Auditors cautioned their monthslong review did not attempt to determine if the widespread problems were intentional.

"This audit presents a real challenge for our state, and my colleagues and I will work to find a solution," state Sen. Herron Gaston, D-Bridgeport and co-chairman of the public safety committee, said in an announcement.

"As we continue to conduct a thorough review of the audit, I am reaching out to community members while collaborating with law enforcement as we assess what actions will be taken from here," Gaston said.

Meanwhile, the state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) scheduled a community forum to discuss the event at 6 p.m. Wednesday at 10 Prospect Street on the UConn Hartford campus.

Investigations underway

Hours after the audit's findings were released, Gov. Ned Lamont asked the state's top prosecutors, the Office of Chief State's Attorney Patrick Griffin, to investigate for potential criminal wrongdoing.

Soon after, Griffin's office announced it had opened a probe into the audit's findings as part of an investigation it launched last August days after a Hearst Connecticut Media Group investigation revealed that four state troopers in 2018 had faked more than 600 tickets for personal gain.

Criminal justice experts have criticized the investigation's lack of independence, given that Griffin's office is conducting the probe jointly with the State Police Central District Major Crime Squad.

Specialists have also questioned why Griffin's office has not decided whether or not to bring charges against the four troopers 10 months into their probe, particularly given that prosecutors appear to be running out of time under statute of limitations requirements.

The audit, also prompted by Hearst Connecticut Media's reporting last August, was conducted by the Connecticut Racial Profiling Prohibition Project, a state-funded group that analyzes police citations to determine racial profiling trends.

Under state law, local police officers and state troopers must record certain demographic information about those they ticket and transmit that data to the group.

The report found a "high likelihood" that at least 25,966 state police tickets were falsified between 2014 and 2021. Another 32,587 records over those years showed significant inaccuracies and auditors believe many of those are likely to be false as well.

The auditors emphasized their analysis was extremely conservative, and "the number of falsified records is likely larger than we confidently identified."

The findings showed significant numbers of false and inaccurate tickets were submitted by up to nearly one quarter of the 1,301 troopers who wrote tickets for the state's largest law enforcement agency during those years.

State police officials have stressed no drivers were actually issued fake tickets; officers only entered phony ticket information into databases.

Possible action

The audit's findings generated sharp outcry from a wide range of lawmakers and advocates.

This week, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn, said he was concerned about the audit's findings.

"First and foremost, you can't have a culture of rule-breaking inside the state police," Murphy said. "But second, what good are our protections around profiling and targeting if the data is compromised?"

State Rep. Steven Stafstrom, D-Bridgeport and a co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has called the audit's findings "shocking and downright disturbing."

He said the upcoming legislative meeting will be informational and a first opportunity for lawmakers to discuss the audit.

"At this point, all we have received is what we are reading in the newspaper," Stafstrom said. "What comes from [the meeting] is too soon to say. We don't have an investigative arm; our role is to sort or gather the information that's out there and ask questions about it and about next steps."

Ken Barone, a co-author of the audit and manager of Connecticut Racial Profiling Prohibition Project, has been invited to present the audit's findings.

Representatives from the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, which oversees several agencies including state police, were also invited to speak, according to Stafstrom.

Gaston said lawmakers will "discuss and determine how to implement a future system where this will not happen in Connecticut again."

"I will make it my mission to ensure equity and fairness for all Connecticut drivers behind the wheel," said Gaston, who is a member of the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus.

The chair of that caucus, Senator Pat Billie Miller, said the audit's findings were "yet another sobering example of how insidious systemic racism is."

"For years, multiple studies have uncovered Black and Latino drivers are more likely to be stopped than white motorists and these often routine stops for white drivers can, and have, become deadly encounters for Black and Latino people," Miller said in a statement. "We need accurate racial profiling data to properly assess whether our system of policing is fair and any officer that stands in the way of us gaining this information is not only breaking the law, but directly blocking racial justice in our state."

The Puerto Rican and Latino Caucus said it had "grave concerns" about the audit's findings.

"The Puerto Rican and Latino community is particularly affected by this as racial profiling data is skewed in the direction of no discrimination when it comes to traffic stops and ticketing. If the investigation proves intentional misinformation in ticketing was submitted throughout the years, there should be charges and repercussions brought to ensure there are consequences for damaging the public trust in our law enforcement."

Scott Esdaile, executive director of the state chapter of the NAACP, said the civil rights community is very concerned about the audit's findings.

"The biggest concern is this is racial profiling," Esdaile said. "We fought to have a check and balance system so we would see how pervasive the problem is. Now they are painting a picture that is a lie."

The NAACP event is also expected to feature a presentation by Barone on the audit's findings.

"This seems to be a culture that has been implanted for a very long time," Esdaile added. "It's totally unacceptable."

Representatives from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Connecticut also plan to attend the community forum Wednesday.

David McGuire, executive director of the Connecticut chapter of the ACLU, said there is widespread outrage over the audit's findings because of the implication that years of racial profiling analysis could be inaccurate.

"People will not move on from this lightly," McGuire said. "The whole idea of the act was to figure out if there is racial profiling and to correct it."