NYPD releases car stop data for the first time

According to NYPD records, police pulled over automobiles about 675,000 times in 2022, comparable to the volume of street stops made when the stop-and-frisk debate peaked more than ten years ago.

The newly revealed information, the first-ever year-end accounting of NYPD vehicle stops, includes information on the race of the drivers who were stopped and any searches, summonses, or arrests that may have occurred.

According to the data, Black drivers were stopped more frequently.

According to the statistics, the NYPD stopped 673,120 vehicles last year, including 61,025 at vehicle checkpoints. 77% of all stops—or around 518,000—involved summonses being given to the driver.

Around 15,000 stops, little more than 2% of all visits, resulted in arrests.

Searches were done in roughly 13,000 places.

A closer examination of the data is warranted, according to Christopher Dunn, legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, which was mandated by a city ordinance passed in 2021 intended to prevent racial profiling.

Dunn said the NYPD was obliged to share pedestrian stop data in 2007, and the information indicated nearly 500,000 stops in 2006. “This initial disclosure of the number of car stops reminds me of that year,” Dunn said.

“It started the public debate about pedestrian crossings, and we think this new information should make car stops the subject of rigorous examination. With the high prevalence of racial profiling in traffic stops and the potential for contentious, even violent, car encounters, the sheer volume of stops is concerning.

“About 1 million people—drivers and passengers—were probably involved in NYPD traffic stops last year,” he continued. Any police operation that magnitude must be strictly governed and open to the public.

The Neighborhood Safety Unit, which focused on firearms and replaced the contentious Anti-Crime Unit, which was implicated in a disproportionate number of shootings and the target of multiple misconduct claims, did not make clear how many stops they made.

In a statement, the NYPD claimed it was still too early to fully evaluate the number of stopped vehicles.

Don’t be misled; the department warned: “Whether for street encounters or car stops, both are vital tools in a deliberate and multifaceted public safety approach adopted by the NYPD to keep all New Yorkers safe and fearless.

The statistics do not show how many stops entailed possible action against a passenger.

The U.S. The NYCLU reported that according to census data, white people make up roughly 34% of city commuters who use vehicles, followed by Latinos at 25%, Blacks at 24%, and Asians and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) at 16%.

Nonetheless, Black drivers were stopped the most frequently – 197,000 times or 32% of all stops – for the 620,987 stops where the person’s race was recorded.

White drivers were next, making up 26% of pauses with 160,000 stops, followed by Asian drivers with 79,000 stops, or 13%, and Hispanic drivers with 173,000 stops, or 28% of stops.

Donovan Richards, the mayor of Queens and former chair of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee, said the 2022 statistics are shocking and brought him back to his 20s when he was stopped in Springfield Gardens the day he bought his first automobile and left his house to fetch milk.

He claimed that he was issued a summons for driving without insurance despite having insurance documentation. The ticket was eventually thrown out.

The NYPD also made statistics on street stops and car-stop data available. Fourteen thousand seven hundred eighty-two such stops were performed by police last year.

That’s a significant decrease from the record-breaking number of stops in 2011, more than 686,000, two years before a federal judge determined that the NYPD’s use of stop-and-frisk practices violated minorities’ constitutional rights.

However, the number from last year is the biggest since 22,939 stops in 2015. Blacks and Latinos were stopped more frequently than anyone else, accounting for over 90% of all stops. Around 35% of those stopped were arrested or issued summonses, up from 10% in 2006.

Compared to previous years, when hundreds of thousands of stops were made, the NYPD stated that the increased enforcement “is the definition of fair and effective policing.”