Connecticut makes ‘significant’ progress on tracking racial profiling

HARTFORD, Conn. – A March progress report shows that Connecticut’s anti-racial profiling efforts have improved substantially since changes were last made to the Alvin W. Penn Racial Profiling Prohibition Act.

The Central Connecticut State University’s Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy and the Racial Profiling Prohibition Advisory Board report revealed that 95 percent of Connecticut’s police departments are now compliant with the law while only three departments have had issues adhering to it.

“This is a very positive sign that law enforcement agencies want to be strong partners in our efforts to eradicate racial profiling,” CCSU Policy and Research Specialist Ken Barone said last month. “Even in cases where departments were notified that information was not being reported, steps have been taken to assure full compliance as soon as possible,” he said.

For more than a decade, the state failed to enforce the law requiring municipal police departments to annually report traffic stop data to the African-American Affairs Commission. The data was then going to be analyzed for racial profiling. But since the Alvin Penn Act was passed in 1999, only one report had been issued. According to 2010 data, only 27 of the state’s police departments comply with the reporting aspect of the law and the data that has been reported hasn’t been assessed by the state.

See the complete story at CT News Junkie.