Put the Brakes on Biased Traffic Stops

The ACLU of Connecticut called for concrete steps to be taken following a bombshell report that confirmed racial bias in traffic stops.

The report—the first of its kind in the country—showed that some departments in the Constitution State pulled over minorities at alarming rates.

David McGuire, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut, said, “You can’t measure what you can’t count. This information confirms that racial bias is a reality on the state’s highways and roads. Now that we can pinpoint problem areas, it is incumbent upon police departments to recognize and correct the conscious and subconscious bias that is driving a significant number of their traffic stops.

“We are glad that our law enforcement agencies are looking at this. The fact that they are monitoring this information could be the first step to remedying the problem. Now police must participate in fair and impartial policing training so that they understand how implicit bias can drive discriminatory behavior.”

Despite a generous margin of error, researchers found that 33 out of the state's 102 law enforcement agencies had concerning racial disparities in traffic stops.

McGuire added, “It is telling that the report also found that traffic stops of minorities were more likely during daylight hours, when their races and ethnicities were more easily identifiable.”

The ACLU of Connecticut strongly advocated for revisions to the Alvin W. Penn Racial Profiling Prohibition Act, which required reporting data on traffic stops.