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Report Finds Racial Disparities In Connecticut Traffic Stops

HARTFORD, Conn. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Connecticut's first analysis of police traffic stops across the state has found racial and ethnic disparities that may suggest bias on the part of officers, but stops short of declaring that racial profiling is going on.

Officials say the report released Tuesday is the most comprehensive examination of police traffic stops in the country.

The report singles out five agencies for having "statistically significant" racial or ethnic disparities in their data and says further investigation is warranted. Those agencies are Groton town police, Granby police, Waterbury police and state police troops C in Tolland and H in Hartford.

Report Finds Racial Disparities In Connecticut Traffic Stops

Researchers said 33 out of the state's 102 law enforcement agencies had disparities in their data showing minorities were stopped at higher rates than whites, according to population and other statistics.

State and local police make 6,000 to 7,000 traffic stops each year, WCBS 880 Connecticut Bureau Chief Fran Schneidau reported.

Redding police Chief Douglas Fuchs, who represents chiefs on the advisory board of the profiling project, said that when drivers are stopped they're instructed about how to file a complaint "should they feel that they've been stopped inappropriately or profiled."

"I'm certainly not going to suggest that we don't have outliers or officers who are acting inappropriately," Fuchs said. "But I think it's important to keep everything in perspective that the vast majority of our officers each and every day do the right thing."

The idea behind the project is to stop biased policing before it becomes a crisis like it did in Ferguson, Missouri.

(TM and © Copyright 2015 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2015 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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