According to the findings of an internal investigation, Connecticut State Troopers have allegedly filed nearly 26,000 false traffic tickets.
WFSB reports the audit found officers issued these fake tickets for their benefit, as productive troopers qualify for federally-funded overtime. Aside from the falsified tickets, an additional 32,000 tickets are reportedly inaccurate. The shocking discovery was made after Ken Barone, who works with the Public Policy Institute at UConn, motivated for an audit after an investigation discovered four troopers had forged tickets.
“There’s no evidence these are real people,” said Barone, who also has concerns that this may affect racial profiling data. “The unmatched records were more likely to be white drivers, identified as white individuals, and the records that should have been likely reported to the system and were not, were more likely to be Hispanic motorists or motorists of some other race,” he added.