2022 Connecticut Traffic Stops Analysis

 

Background

Every police department in Connecticut is required to collect and provide data about each traffic stop conducted by their department. This data includes details about the traffic stop, such as the reason for the stop, demographics of the driver, the outcome of the stop, and more. The traffic stops data repository is maintained by the Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy (IMRP) at the University of Connecticut. Each year, CTData partners with IMRP to provide the raw dataset, formatted data tables, and data analysis on our Traffic Stop Data Platform.

 

General Findings

In 2022, a total of 313,346 traffic stops were conducted by police departments in Connecticut. This represents a 39% decrease in traffic stops compared to 2019, the last year before the Covid-19 pandemic. There were a total of about 513K traffic stops in 2019, 242K in 2020, 274K in 2021, and as mentioned previously, 313K in 2022. The data suggests that the number of traffic stops have been slowly increasing over the past few years, but are still far from pre-pandemic levels.

Explore data for a specific department with the table below.

 

Demographics of Stopped Drivers

The data in traffic stop reports include demographic data of the driver, such as race, ethnicity, and sex.

The race categories reported are Asian, Black, American Indian, and white and the ethnicity categories are Hispanic and non-Hispanic. Race and ethnicity are collected as two separate categories. The sex categories are female and male. Only one option can be selected for each demographic category.

Because we don’t have great data on the total population of drivers, it can be difficult to compare the traffic stops data by race and ethnicity to the total population of drivers. However, we found that a noticeable 63% of traffic stops were for male drivers.

Explore data by demographic category with the visualization to the right.

 

Diving Deeper Into the Data

In addition to basic demographic data, we analyzed data related to the nature of the stop, searches and contraband, outcomes, and more. This section will dive deeper into the traffic stops data and focus on disparities between drivers of different races and ethnicities.

Stop Enforcement Method

Police officers can conduct traffic stops through various different methods:

  • Blind stops include: radar/laser, license plate readers, DUI checkpoints, and truck weighing operations.

  • Spot Check stops include: seat belt use, cellphone use, or any other activity except DUI checks. For Spot Check stops, data is only collected when action is taken.

  • General stops include all other stops.

For all race and ethnicity groups, general stops were most common, followed by blind stops, and finally spot check stops. However, there were noticeable differences between races and ethnicities:

  • Black and Hispanic drivers were about 20% more likely to be stopped via a spot check compared to overall data.

  • American Indian drivers were 23% more likely to be stopped via a blind stop compared to overall data.

Explore detailed data by race/ethnicity and stop enforcement methods with the visualization to the right.

Reason For Stop

A statutory authority must be cited by the officer to stop a motor vehicle. The categories have been combined and condensed into the 16 categories shown below. There are many data points in the table due to the large number of categories; here are some of our findings from exploring the data:

  • Overall, the top five reasons for stops made up 70% of stops - these were Speeding Related (35%), Stop Sign (10%), Registration (9%), Moving Violation (8%), and Traffic Control Signal (7%). Apart from small differences, this was relatively consistent between different race and ethnicity groups.

  • Black and Hispanic drivers were less likely to be stopped for a Speeding reason compared to the overall data, but much more likely to be stopped for reasons related to Administrative Offense, Display of Plates, and Window Tint.

  • Asian drivers were more likely to be stopped for Speed Related, Moving Violation, and Stop Sign reasons compared to the overall data, but less likely to be stopped for most other reasons.

Explore detailed data by race/ethnicity and reasons in the table below.

Length of Stop and Vehicle Searches

Traffic stops can vary in length, and the duration of the stop is required to be reported by the officer. In the traffic stops dataset, duration is reported in three categories: 0 to 15 minutes, 16 to 30 minutes, and Over 30 minutes.

As seen in the visualization below, Asian and American Indian drivers have the highest chance of being stopped for 0 to 15 minutes, where as Black and Hispanic drivers are much more likely to be stopped for 15 to 30 minutes and over 30 minutes. In fact, Black drivers are 39% more likely to be stopped for over 30 minutes compared to overall data and Hispanic drivers are 68% more likely.

While there are many reasons a traffic stop might take longer, one procedure that certainly extends a traffic stop is a vehicle search.

On average, about 1 in 58 (1.7%) of vehicles are searched. However, this varies greatly by race and ethnicity. While Asian and American Indian drivers experience vehicle searches at a rate well below the average, data shows that about 1 in 36 Black drivers and 1 in 31 Hispanic drivers experience vehicle searches.

Contraband was found in 24% of vehicle searches. While white and non-Hispanic drivers were less likely than average to have their vehicles searched, they were most likely to have contraband found in their vehicle. On the contrary, Black and Hispanic drivers, who had the highest chance of having their vehicles searched, were slightly less likely than average to have contraband found.

Disposition of Traffic Stops

The disposition, or outcome, of a traffic stop can be one of the following: Verbal Warning, Written Warning, Infraction, Uniform Arrest Report, Misdemeanor Summons, or No Disposition. In the table below, we have combined the less serious outcomes (Verbal Warning, Written Warning, and No Disposition) into one category.

Overall, the most common dispositions were Verbal Warning (39%), Infraction (30%) and Written Warning (22%). Only about 1% of traffic stops resulted in No Disposition.

For the more serious dispositions, the data shows a disparity between drivers of different races and ethnicities.

Infraction

  • Compared to the overall data, American Indian drivers were 28% more likely to receive an infraction.

  • Hispanic drivers were 22% more likely.

Misdemeanor Summons

  • Compared to the overall data, Hispanic drivers were 79% more likely to receive a misdemeanor summons.

  • Black drivers were 63% more likely.

Uniform Arrest Report

  • Compared to the overall data, Hispanic drivers were 57% more likely to be arrested.

  • Black drivers were 37% more likely.

Explore traffic stop dispositions by race and ethnicity in the table below.

For More Information

Explore our full Traffic Stop Data Platform to download data tables and read our previous traffic stops analyses. We are planning to revamp the platform in 2024, so stay tuned for updates!