A Connecticut state trooper has been suspended from the force for issuing 1,000 fake tickets and falsely claiming many of the drivers were “Native American,” even though they were of other races and ethnicities. Officer Chris Melanson was indefinitely suspended this week after an internal investigation found hundreds of the troopers fabricated thousands of police reports. “Maybe they didn’t get the information to input it correctly, maybe a lot of mistakes were made. And I also have a feeling some of the people there are doing this purposefully,” Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said, adding that he is hiring an outside firm to conduct an independent probe. “It’s also very clear at this point that federal authorities are looking into this as well… not just the troopers who did it, but the supervisors who allowed this to happen, or perhaps encouraged it.”