Traffic stops continue to rise in CT. Report shows what police look for most.

Newly released data from the CTData Collaborative shows that the numbers of traffic stops in Connecticut continues to trend upward.

The 358,000 stops in 2023 represent a 14% increase from 2022 and is also the fourth straight year that the total traffic stops increased. The 2023 numbers remain 30% lower than the pre-COVID-19 pandemic numbers of 513,000 but have increased since the drop during the pandemic when there were 242,000 stops in 2020, 275,000 in 2021 and 314,000 in 2022.

The 2024 numbers are expected to be released later this year.

Every police department in Connecticut is required to collect and provide data about each traffic stop conducted by their department, including traffic stops, the reason for the stop, demographics of the driver, the outcome of the stop and other information.

The Connecticut Racial Profiling Prohibition Project was adopted in 2018 and states that “The Alvin W. Penn Racial Profiling Traffic Stop Law enacted by the Connecticut General Assembly in 1999 required state and local police to collect traffic stops data and report the data to the state.

The 2011 federal investigation into the East Haven Police Department brought this issue to the forefront in Connecticut again and led to the Connecticut General Assembly updating the Profiling Legislation in 2012.

Reducing racial and ethnic disparities in traffic stops, while enhancing enforcement efforts to improve road safety, are among the goals of the CTData Collaborative.

According to the report, the communities with the highest percentage increase in traffic stops in 2023, compared with 2019, are Avon (167%), Weston (147%), Southington (91%), Suffield (90%), East Hartford (82%), Wethersfield (78%), Granby (48%), Farmington (35%), Canton (30%) and New Haven (28%).

The study found that 63% of traffic stops were male in 2023 and 58% of the stops were white drivers. Black and Hispanic drivers accounted for 19% each.

Ken Barone, a project manager with the Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy at the University of Connecticut who has managed the Connecticut Racial Profiling Prohibition Project since 2012 said his group is in the process of analyzing both 2023 and 2024.

UConn’s Institute for Municipal and Regional Policy partnered with CTData Collaborative about 10 years ago to make these statistics available to the public with not only summary data but also more specific town-by-town numbers.

Barone said one of the key takeaways from the CTData Collaborative report is that traffic enforcement continuing to increase.

“We are seeing progress in 2022 and 2023 and in 2024,” Barone said. “These numbers aren’t released yet, but they aren’t secret. But in 2024, the numbers increased another 15%.” Barone said the “new normal” is between 380,000 and 425,000 stops.

Barone said the report shows some disparities in searches are occurring across racial groups.

“That is an initial indicator, but more analysis needs to be done before we know what leads to that,” Barone said. “We are in the act of doing a more sophisticated analysis that not only looks at the rate at searches occurring across racial groups but also look at the hit rate — the rate that police are finding contraband.

“Theoretically, if you are searching drivers of a 20% higher rate one group compared to another you should be finding contraband of a similarly higher rate to justify those rates,” he added. “Those are the things that are going to come out in June.”

The report showed 5,817 vehicles were searched in 2023, which was 1.6% of all stops statewide. White drivers’ vehicles were searched less than 1% of stops and had the highest contraband discovery rate of 27%. Black drivers and Hispanic drivers experienced the highest search rates at nearly 3%, but contraband was found in only 20% and 16% of those searches, respectively.

The highest percentage of vehicle searches during traffic stops took place in Waterbury (18%) followed by West Haven (11%), Bridgeport (10%), Willimantic (9%), Norwich (7%), Shelton (7%), New Britain (6%) and Hartford (5%).

According to the 2023 report, Black and Hispanic drivers “are less likely to be stopped for safety-related reasons and more likely to be stopped for administrative or equipment violations compared to other racial and ethnic groups. While this pattern has been persistent in Connecticut, there have been measurable improvements over time.”

Barone said the 2022 analysis showed a decrease in statewide disparity and said the question his organization is trying to answer is if the 2023 and 2024 analysis shows a continued decrease in statewide disparities.

“The 2023 data looked pretty normal,” Barone said. “Nothing at a high level stands out. The biggest indicator we were looking for was the pattern of enforcement — it’s up. What’s the trend in infractions? Down. That’s something we are monitoring.”

Barone said what he is troubled by is the growing numbers of roadway fatalities in the state.

“The question is what role enforcement plays in all of that. The good news is police seem to be responding to the rise in roadway fatalities by doing more enforcement,” Barone said. “The question in the type of enforcement is always a matter of what do you need to do to change behavior.

“Meaning if you stop someone if they are speeding, do you think you will change their behavior with a warning?” he said. “You issue a warning. But if you think maybe you aren’t going to change behavior you have to use more of a punitive tool, which is an infraction.”

Barone said warnings have gone up substantially since 2020, as police are more likely to issue a warning rather than a ticket. The 2023 numbers show 62% of stops led to verbal or written warnings, 31% to infractions and 4% to misdemeanor summons.

“These are the things we are keeping an eye on,” Barone said. “Like, could that be impacting driving behavior? Are drivers driving faster now because they feel like they are less at risk of getting a ticket and say get a warning instead?

“The type of enforcement is a good indicator,” he added. “The area of enforcement that we see is safety-related. Meaning the traffic stops that police are focused on are more likely to be for speeding, cell phones, traffic lights and stop sign violations, things we know contribute more to people dying on the road or getting injured. We’ve seen a trend in the last several years, a decline in more equipment and administrative offenses and a small increase in speed offenses.”

Barone sees that trend as a good sign. Five or six years ago, Barone said, administrative infractions were almost half of the traffic stops and in recent years those numbers are closer to 30-35%.

“The goal of enforcement is to change people’s behavior,” Barone said. “If you determine they are not driving safely, what is it that you need to do to change their behavior so that they drive safely. I can understand the police sentiment over the last five years not wanting to leave people with a hefty fine which could be compounding if you have financial stress at home.”

“But I don’t think we can ignore the rising number of roadway fatalities,” he added. “We are probably at a point where we have to reevaluate whether that needs to shift and we need to increase the number of tickets.”

The report showed that 74% of traffic stops were safety-related, 11% were administrative and 10% were equipment-related.

Of the safety stops in 2023, 35% were speed related, 11% were stop sign violations and 8% involved traffic signal violations and moving violations. Equipment-related stops included defective lights (6% of all traffic stops) and display of plates (2%). The most common reason for administrative stops was registration (8%).

On the topic of disparities, Barone said over the last 10 years the numbers show when police use the traffic laws to focus on violations that are killing people like speeding, following too closely, running stop signs or red lights there is little disparity in the data.

“In this case, you are not only getting the benefit of making the roads safer, but you also have the added benefit of not contributing to the disparity,” Barone said. “When you go into a neighborhood and saturate it with police to try to solve a gun problem and stop a lot of cars and search them, that tends to be a much lower return on investment. It doesn’t contribute substantially to improving roadway safety and it doesn’t necessarily contribute to crime reduction.

“Our message for a while to police has been to just go out there and get back to basics with good traffic enforcement. I would like to see another 15% increase in enforcement in 2025. If we can get back up to 450,000 or 480,000 stops, that’s a really good sign,” Barone added.