Traffic Stop Data

New Brighton residents regularly tell us that neighborhood speeding is a concern to them.  Therefore, our police officers focus on traffic safety enforcement, especially at locations throughout New Brighton that historically have high-volumes of motor vehicle crashes.  

In early 2017, the New Brighton Department of Public Safety (NBDPS) joined with other Ramsey County law enforcement agencies to begin voluntarily collecting traffic stop data.  New Brighton initiated this effort to increase transparency and provide more context to the limited amount of information than was previously captured.  Minnesota law does not require the collection of this information.  Starting in January 2017, New Brighton officers began recording the following data on every traffic stop:

• Perceived race of the driver
• Gender of the driver
• Whether the driver was searched
• Whether the vehicle was searched
• The reason for the traffic stop (moving violation, equipment violation, investigative, or the result of a 911 call

NBDPS provides the below summary graphics of our data collection pertaining to perceived race of the driver and reason for the traffic stop, along with two data sets containing demographic information from our community, including 2010 US Census Data and enrollment information from Irondale High School by year.  More information about the City of New Brighton and demographics are available on the City’s website: newbrightonmn.gov/about

Several important questions are not answered by this data collection effort:

1. Demographic information of drivers who reside in the City of New Brighton.
2. Demographic information of drivers who reside elsewhere but travel through New Brighton.
3. Demographic information of drivers who either commit a moving violation and/or have an equipment deficiency on their vehicle; this report lists only those who were stopped by police.