POLICE;

You asked about the number of court cases against police based on racial profiling in Connecticut in recent years.

We could not find a definite answer to your question.

Rich Kehoe, of the Attorney General’s Office, stated that his office has been involved in one case alleging racial profiling in the last two years (Dawkins v. Comeau) and the state won the case. The attorney general’s office would defend the state police in any cases involving allegations against them. Kehoe stated that his office’s computer system could not look back further because of technical problems and because cases may not have been flagged as racial profiling cases.

West Hartford Police Chief James Strillacci, a director of the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association, did not know of any cases and stated that he was only aware of minimal complaints of racial profiling around the state.

Jack Cronan, of the Chief State’s Attorney’s Office, stated that his office reviewed 25 to 30 claims of racial profiling during the three years that his office collected data on traffic stops. He stated that none of the claims were substantiated by the local police department involved during their internal investigation and the Chief State’s Attorney’s Office did not

re-open the cases on review. He stated that he was not aware of any court cases involving local police departments but this information was not part of the reporting requirement.

We searched the Hartford Courant’s archives for the past 10 years and found several articles discussing racial profiling. One article from June 17, 1999 discusses a case filed in federal district court against the Milford Police Department and states that it was believed to be the first racial profiling suit in state history. Another article from October 23, 2000 discusses a case filed by four Wesleyan students based on a 1995 incident. The article states that the students settled a racial discrimination lawsuit against Middletown in June 2000. Attached are several stories relating to racial profiling claims.

CR: ro