HARTFORD, Conn. — A former Hartford police officer was arrested Tuesday in connection to an audit that found he had falsified dozens of traffic stops during his time in the traffic division. He now faces state forgery, perjury, and computer crime charges.
An internal audit revealing former Hartford police traffic officer Michael Fallon falsified and overreported dozens of traffic stops in his weekly reports was released in March 2023 by the police department's Internal Affairs Division.
Fallon had overreported 195 traffic stops in 2022; around 30 of those reports did not exist and were falsified, the audit revealed.
In an annual Hartford Police Traffic Division audit, Fallon's weekly reports from Dec. 18, 2022, to Jan. 14, 2023, showed that he overreported 25 traffic stops that did not happen and 13 infractions that were not issued. These discrepancies prompted the internal investigation.
Many of the reported traffic stops had data discrepancies, such as a lack of body-cam footage to prove the traffic stop happened, and errors in correctly listing a vehicle driver's gender or race in reports that did happen. Fallon did not have his body-worn camera on during at least seven traffic stops, according to the investigation.
Fallon had told his supervisors he did not want to disappoint his supervisors with a limited amount of activity, according to the memorandum.
A previous department audit in January 2022 found several "unintentional" human errors, so police provided counseling to all officers, including Fallon, to address the issues. The 2023 audit found that Fallon was the only officer who "purposely and willfully" reported false information in his reports, the memorandum states.
In February 2023, Fallon faced administrative charges of knowingly and willingly making a false entry into a report, negligent entry in a department record, failure to comply with lawful orders, and failure to provide evidence in a timely fashion due to neglect.
Fallon resigned on March 6, 2023, and declined to be part of the internal investigation into this matter, the memorandum states.
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