The top two leaders of Connecticut State Police will be stepping down in the middle of multiple investigations into whether troopers submitted bogus data on thousands of traffic stops that may have never happened, Gov. Ned Lamont said Wednesday.
State public safety Commissioner James Rovella will retire and Col. Stavros Mellekas, commanding officer of state police, will also leave state service, Lamont said.
“I think at the end of four years, you want a fresh start," said Lamont, referring to his second term that began in January. “I wanted that in a lot of my departments and I thought it was the right thing to do in public safety."
Rovella, who was appointed comissioner of the agency that oversees state police in 2019, will be succeeded by Ronnell Higgins.
Higgins has worked for Yale's police department since 1997.
The Democratic governor said Rovella and Mellekas were not being forced to leave, but
Rovella said Wednesday the ticket probe did come up when he met with Lamont.
"We had a conversation. It was included," Rovella said, "and that wasn't the driving force behind this," he said, referring to his decision to retire.
During a press conference Wednesday, Rovella got emotional when asked how difficult it is to step away. He's been in law enforcement for four decades, including as a homicide detective and as chief of the Hartford police.
"After 42 years ... it grates on you," Rovella said. "What I want to tell you, everyone, is that after a conversation with the governor, I felt relieved."
Mellekas, commanding officer of state police, was not as the news conference and was not immediately available to comment, through a state police spokesperson.
"I only saw the Colonel briefly today. I don't know where he is right now," Rovella told a reporter.
U.S. Department of Justice investigators are looking into whether dozens of troopers falsified information about traffic stops that were never made. There also is an independent investigation ordered by Lamont that is being led by a former federal prosecutor.
The information in question was entered into a database tracking the race and ethnicity of drivers stopped by police, under a Connecticut law aimed at preventing racial profiling.
But auditors said the alleged false data was more likely to identify motorists as white, skewing race and ethnicity numbers. Even so, the reports still have shown Black and Hispanic drivers are pulled over at disproportionate rates compared with white motorists.
In August, the state police union voted no confidence in both Rovella and Mellekas, accusing them of not defending troopers against allegations involving the traffic stop data.
Lamont was asked Wednesday if the departures are an indication that investigations into the ticket scandal will reflect poorly on the department.
"No, I wouldn't prejudge that at all," Lamont said. "I think that the change is just the fact that [after] four years is good time to have a fresh start," Lamont said.
This story has been updated. Connecticut Public Radio's Jennifer Ahrens, Patrick Skahill and the Associated Press contributed to the report.
