Stop Data

In July 2019, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) implemented new data collection methods that enabled officers to collect more comprehensive information about each police stop in an aggregated manner. More specifically, these changes have allowed for more detailed data collection on stops, protective pat down (PPDs), searches, and arrests. (For a complete list of terms, see the glossary on page 2.) These changes support data collection requirements in the Neighborhood Engagement Achieves Results Amendment Act of 2016 (NEAR Act). The accompanying data cover all MPD stops including vehicle, pedestrian, bicycle, and harbor stops for the period from January 1, 2023 - December 31, 2025. A stop may involve a ticket (actual or warning), investigatory stop, protective pat down, search, or arrest. If the final outcome of a stop results in an actual or warning ticket, the ticket serves as the official documentation for the stop. The information provided in the ticket include the subject’s name, race, gender, reason for the stop, and duration. All stops resulting in additional law enforcement actions (e.g., pat down, search, or arrest) are documented in MPD’s Record Management System (RMS). This dataset includes records pulled from both the ticket (District of Columbia Department of Motor Vehicles [DMV]) and RMS sources. Data variables not applicable to a particular stop are indicated as “NULL.” For example, if the stop type (“stop_type” field) is a “ticket stop,” then the fields: “stop_reason_nonticket” and “stop_reason_harbor” will be “NULL.” Each row in the data represents an individual stop of a single person, and that row reveals any and all recorded outcomes of that stop (including information about any actual or warning tickets issued, searches conducted, arrests made, etc.). A single traffic stop may generate multiple tickets, including actual, warning, and/or voided tickets. Additionally, an individual who is stopped and receives a traffic ticket may also be stopped for investigatory purposes, patted down, searched, and/or arrested. If any of these situations occur, the “stop_type” field would be labeled “Ticket and Non-Ticket Stop.” If an individual is searched, MPD differentiates between person and property searches. Please note that the term property in this context refers to a person’s belongings and not a physical building. The “stop_location_block” field represents the block-level location of the stop and/or a street name. The age of the person being stopped is calculated based on the time between the person’s date of birth and the date of the stop. There are certain locations that have a high prevalence of non-ticket stops. These can be attributed to some centralized processing locations. Additionally, there is a time lag for data on some ticket stops as roughly 20 percent of tickets are handwritten. In these instances, the handwritten traffic tickets are delivered by MPD to the DMV, and then entered into data systems by DMV contractors. On August 1, 2021, MPD transitioned to a new version of its current records management system, Mark43 RMS. Beginning January 1, 2023, fields pertaining to the bureau, division, unit, and PSA (if applicable) of the officers involved in events where a stop was conducted were added to the dataset. MPD’s Records Management System (RMS) captures all members associated with the event but cannot isolate which officer (if multiple) conducted the stop itself. Assignments are captured by cross-referencing officers’ CAD ID with MPD’s Timesheet Manager Application. These fields reflect the assignment of the officer issuing the Notice of Infraction (NOIs) and/or the responding officer(s), assisting officer(s), and/or arresting officer(s) (if an investigative stop) as of the end of the two-week pay period for January 1 - June 30, 2023 and as of the date of the stop for July 1, 2023 and forward. The values are comma-separated if multiple officers were listed in the report. For Stop Type =...