HARTFORD, Conn. — On the heels of a traffic ticket scandal involving the state police, FOX61 has learned they aren’t the only law enforcement agency with discrepancies. FOX61 dug into an internal affairs investigation involving a former Hartford police officer who violated the code of conduct.
The 13-page internal affairs report shows that Traffic Officer Michael Fallon ultimately resigned in March. but not before he admitted to creating traffic stops that never existed.
“I can’t tell you why someone would engage in this type of misconduct. It doesn’t make any sense to me,” remarked Hartford Police Chief Jason Thody. “It’s never good to find something like this."
An annual audit of records found that during a four-week period from the end of 2022 to the beginning of 2023, Traffic Officer Michael Fallon over-reported 195 traffic stops and 31 tickets. He also completely fabricated 33 traffic stops, and even entered a false arrest warrant.
“This was an officer who submitted an arrest warrant that had information in it that we didn’t believe was accurate and we quickly called over to the court and had that warrant vacated,” explained Thody.
When confronted, Fallon said, “he did not want to disappoint his supervisors with a limited amount of activity.” Thody responded, “That’s just no excuse.”
The internal affairs investigation went on to discover that during traffic stops, Fallon incorrectly reported the driver's gender 12 times and their race 19 times. He also failed to properly tag evidence and failed to properly operate his body camera.
The good news is that Hartford’s policies and procedures created to catch this misconduct worked.
“We have processes in place to find it quickly and address it aggressively,” said Thody.
Admittedly, Hartford PD is still working to streamline data reporting and record processing. They are one of the only departments still on a hybrid paper-based system.
“We were on a 100% paper system. That was not that long ago. We had to be one of the last departments in the state and maybe even in the country to go to a digital system and we still have paper reports,” said Thody.
Ken Barone of the state’s Racial Profiling Prohibition Project monitors traffic stop data statewide. He told FOX61 that a lack of officer credibility can have far-reaching consequences including impacting court cases.
“It's why it’s drilled into them from day one when they are hired and go through the police academy. Whatever you do, do not lie,” said Barone.
But for their faults, Hartford is also unique in that it’s not just the police policing themselves.
“I think they are the only city in Connecticut that has their own inspector general which is this outside entity who has the authority to investigate complaints and review investigations of the department. That doesn’t really exist in most places,” explained Barone.
Hartford Police said this was an isolated incident involving only Officer Fallon, but his violations were so serious that the department has moved to have him decertified, meaning he wouldn’t be able to work in law enforcement anywhere in the state.
Read the full report underneath:
Matt Caron is a reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at mcaron@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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