State site catalogs traffic stops

Grewal says police are on the right track

By: Steve Janoski
and Ashley Balcerzak
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... In a bid to increase police transparency and accountability in New Jersey, the state attorney general's office announced on Thursday [07/08/2021] the creation of a public database containing more than a decade of information on more than 6 million traffic stops conducted by the New Jersey State Police.
..... Much of the data had been released intermittently over the years, as is required by state law. But this is the first time the numbers have been compiled on a single site, in download-able form, for perusal by researchers, the media and members of the public, according to a statement from Attorney General Gurbir Grewal.
..... Grewal called the database one of the nation's most comprehensive sources for traffic stop information. And he said it will serve as a powerful tool to promote transparency.
..... "This new dashboard will give stakeholders an unprecedented look at how and why the State police conduct traffic stops," Grewal said.
..... The website includes data from January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2020, the statement said. The attorney general's office has organized it by a variety of metrics, such as the driver's race, and the set includes information about why troops pulled over a given car.
..... It also delves into what the trooper did after the initial stop, such as issuing summonses or warnings, making arrests, searching the car, using force, frisking and calling for canines, the statement said.
..... But there are limits to how detailed a picture the data can paint.
..... Despite tracking traffic stops by race, users won't have a clear idea if troopers are stopping drivers of color at disproportionate rates because the state hasn't studied motorists' racial makeup in two decades.
..... The attorney general's office is committed to developing a modern benchmark to lend the data more context, said spokesperson Steven Barnes.
..... The dashboard shows that during the past decade, troopers stopped white drivers 61% of the time compared to 19% for Black drivers.
..... But once they pulled them over, troopers were more likely to search frisk use force or arrest the black drivers, the dashboard shows.
..... In 2020, troopers stopped close to three times as many white drivers as Black drivers, according to the data. But while Black motorists' cars were searched 5,426 times, white drivers were only searched 4,232 times.
..... That same year, police arrested 5,425 Black drivers during traffic stops, compared to 4, 224 white drivers.
..... The data also shows that Black drivers were more likely to have outstanding warrants against them, and troopers are required to arrest those individuals, according to the data explanation on the dashboard.
..... The website also notes that outside factors - such as a mass retirement of State Troopers in 2013, the emergency response to Superstorm Sandy in 2012 and New Jersey's COVID-19 induced stay-at-home orders in 2020 - heavily influenced the number of traffic stops during those years.
..... "The dashboard will be a window through which the public can view the data that we utilize to enhance and improve our training," Colonial Patrick Callahan, the state Police superintendent,s aid in the statement. "We welcome the opportunity to engage in meaningful dialogue about how we conduct traffic stops."
.... this is the second large chunk of data Grewal has chosen to release during his tenure as attorney general, which ends July 16 [2021] when he departs for a job at the federal securities and Exchange Commission.
.... In April, [2021] Grewal's office launched a detailed website that catalogs every use of force by every officer in the Garden State. That database, which the state will continually update as police submit reports, includes the officer's name; the age, race, and gender of the person against whom force was used; whether that person stained injuries and what type; what kind of force the officer sued and what circumstances led to the confrontation.
.... Grewal has also sought to impose other measures that he says will boost police transparency, such as publicly naming New jersey officers punished for major misconduct. As part of that, Grewal tried to release the names of about 500 State Troopers subject to major discipline during the past tow decades.
.... In June, [2021] the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that although the attorney general could name the officers going forward, his request to identify officers from the past must go through a special proceeding led by a trial court judge.
..... It remains unresolved.
..... Founded in 1921, the state Police has a long and troubled history of discrimination and racial profiling on the roads it patrols.
..... The agency was first placed under a federal consent decree in 1975 after a Department of Justice lawsuit charged troopers with "engaging in a pattern and practice of discrimination based upon race, sex, and national origin in all aspects of employment," according to a 1999 report from the New Jersey Legislative Black and Latino Caucuses.
..... The decree stayed in placed for 17 ears.
..... But six years after it ended, two troopers fired into a van carrying four young basketball players headed to an out-of-state tryout - three Black, one Hispanic none of them armed. The nearly fatal mistake led to another consent decree in 1999 that reshaped the way the department conducted traffic stops, documented troopers' actions and reviewed them later.
..... That decree ended in 2009, Grewal says the State police are finally on the right track.
..... "I want to be clear - they are trending in the right direction," Grewal said in May, [2021] about a month after the agency celebrated its official centennial.
..... Callahan has also credited the consent decree's mandates with rebuilding and modernizing the department - in retrospect, it was one of the best things to ever happen, he said.
..... "It was tough to go through,: Callahan said two months ago. "At the time, it's the federal government coming in and saying, 'You're doing [these things] wrong,; And who wants to be flagged as having issues? But i think it set us apart in many ways and made us better,"

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