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The head of the Connecticut State Police Union said he "absolutely rejects" a claim that more than 100 officers reported fake traffic stops to appear more productive and criticized the audit behind the finding.
"We reject that notion 100%," Andrew Matthews, the executive director of the Connecticut State Police Union, told Fox News. "There is zero evidence that 130 troopers falsified records to appear productive."
There is a "high likelihood" that nearly 26,000 traffic stops between 2014 and 2021 were faked, according to an audit by the Connecticut Racial Profiling Prohibition Project published in June. It compared internal police data to court records of real tickets.
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A co-author of the audit, Ken Barone, told The New York Times officers' likely motivation was to "appear productive."
"Every time Trooper A said they stopped a car and issued a ticket, I should be able to find said ticket in the court system," Barone said.
Matthews said the audit was rushed and called it an "embarrassment."
"We think the audit was prematurely released," Matthews said. "We do question the methodology and the whole process of how it occurred."
"Mr. Barone doesn't want to tell people that he rushed to judgment and got everybody thinking that 130 troopers have committed wrongdoing," he continued. "He just failed to do a proper audit."
Matthews said the auditors didn't take the time to identify duplicate badge numbers, account for handwritten reports or meet with leadership to discuss how handwritten reports are sent to the courts. The union president, himself flagged in the report, denied wrongdoing.
"I don't know why he rushed the decision to put it out," Matthews said. "It caused a lot of damage to the reputation of the state police in the community."
But Barone disputed Matthews' claims in an email to Fox News. He detailed the audit's methodology, denied that it was rushed and said the team met with police leadership several times throughout the months-long process.
"The audit began in September 2022, with the full knowledge from CSP," Barone said. "We met with CSP command staff in September 2022 for several hours to fully understand the data collection and reporting system."
Barone said the investigation used a "very conservative methodology," erring on the side of the police whenever there was uncertainty. He also said they ran the analysis over 20 times.
"One of the things that stood out to me: The trend never changed. And that's telling in statistical analysis," he told the Associated Press. "The more we ran it, the more the trend stayed the same."
Andrew Matthews, the executive director of the Connecticut State Police Union, said he rejects the claim that troopers falsified traffic stop records. (Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)
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Matthews said 27 Connecticut State Police officers have already been cleared of wrongdoing, though Barone, citing issues with duplicate badge numbers, said only 20 have been absolved. Still, the union president said that proves the audit has flaws.
"Any prudent person doing a thorough exam should know that there were duplicate badge numbers before releasing," Matthews told Fox News. He said auditors likely didn't account for badge numbers changing from promotions and other reasons.
Barone said his team was not made aware of the badge number issue until a month after the report's release and four months after the police received a draft.
Matthews also said the audit did not accurately check hard copies of handwritten tickets against court records. He added that nearly one-third of police vehicles were not equipped with a computer that would allow stops to be logged electronically, causing difficulty with the data input.
Barone said all available data on both handwritten and electronic tickets the courts received were accounted for.
"If for some reason a record was not received by the court, which should be extremely rare, then it would not have been included in the data we reviewed," Barone said to Fox News.
Matthews said auditors reviewed court data, not the actual carbon copy tickets themselves, resulting in discrepancies from handwritten tickets being misplaced before making it to the courts.
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Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont ordered an independent investigation led by Deirdre Daly, a former U.S. Attorney, in July. The U.S. Department of Justice also launched a probe.
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont ordered an independent investigation into the state police over an alleged mass falsification of traffic stop reports. (Brad Horrigan/Hartford Courant/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
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Barone also said some of the reported stops appeared physically impossible. The Times pointed to a trooper who logged five violations within 30 minutes and another who reported issuing three speeding tickets in 14 minutes.
The state police union sued to prevent the release of the officers' names until after the investigations. Matthews said the troopers are entitled to due process.
"We had a death threat," Matthews said. "The safety of our troopers are paramount."
If troopers did act improperly in their reporting, Matthews said they should face consequences.
Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection Commissioner James Rovella, right, seated alongside Connecticut State Police Superintendent Col. Stavros Mellekas, center, and Lt. Col. Mark Davison at a legislative hearing over the alleged falsification of tens of thousands of traffic stop reports by state troopers. (Susan Haigh/Associated Press)
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"We have no problem with the public ultimately knowing who is at fault when there is an impartial investigation, not an audit that isn’t done properly," Matthews added.
"If it is determined that there are people who intentionally falsified records, then they will be held accountable," Matthews said. "We think the list is going to continue to grow of people that are exonerated and had done nothing wrong."
The Connecticut State Police declined a request to comment, citing an ongoing investigation with pending litigation.