ACLU-CT Commends Governor for Stand Against Racial Profiling

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced today that he is committed to enforcing the law to eliminate racial profiling, a stand that the ACLU of Connecticut applauds and endorses.

The Alvin Penn Racial Profiling Prohibition Act prohibits police from stopping, detaining or arresting anyone solely on the basis of race and requires police departments to collect data on traffic stops and enforcement actions. The state is required to compile and analyze the data, but has failed even to create a form for collecting the information, as Sandra Staub, legal director of the ACLU-CT, told the Connecticut Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights at a hearing last month.

Gov. Malloy said his administration will change that. "I can assure Connecticut residents that my Administration is committed to enforcing the laws on the books and has moved forward to get this data collected, reported, and evaluated," he said in a written statement." Let me be clear: it is simply unacceptable that Connecticut law hasn't been followed."

Members of the legislature's Black and Puerto Rican Caucus called on Gov. Malloy for support on the issue, citing a written report from the U.S. Department of Justice that found the East Haven Police Department has a pattern of biased policing against Latino drivers.

The ACLU-CT supports enforcement of the Penn Act and legislation to strengthen it, including a provision to transfer responsibility for compiling and analyzing the data from the African-Affairs Commission to the state Office of Policy and Management, which has far greater resources for the task.

"With the support of state government and sensible changes to the existing law, we can make real progress toward quantifying and ending racial profiling in Connecticut," said Andrew Schneider, executive director of the ACLU-CT. "We look forward to that in 2012."