Only 27 police departments consistently file annual reports required by state law to show whether minorities are targeted in traffic stops — not that it would matter if more departments complied. No one has analyzed the limited data that is filed since 2001.
Laws that require data collection are really critical because without data there is little way to know what is actually going on. Connecticut passed its law banning racial profiling in traffic stops in 1999, but no one really enforced the law.
As a result, the article notes that some police departments didn’t submit data – and some, like East Haven Police Department, profiled – and minority state lawmakers are angry. And the Department of Justice had to come in and investigate:
“Based on our review, we find that the EHPD engages in a pattern or practice of systematically discriminating against Latinos,” wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thomas E. Perez. ”The pattern or practice of discriminatory policing that we observed is deeply rooted in the Department’s culture and substantially interferes with the ability of EHPD to deliver services to the entire East Haven community.”
Connecticut is a state that demographically mirrors the nation. It’s about 71 percent non-Hispanic White, 10 percent Black, 13 percent Latino and about 4 percent Asian American. That a quarter of the state faces possible profiling by law enforcement when driving even though there is a law prohibiting such conduct is unconscionable.
But as this story shows, the law is only as good as its enforcement.
