Across the country, traffic stop data is gathered when law enforcement officers make vehicle stops to be analyzed later in an effort to determine if there is evidence suggesting the biased treatment of persons by race or ethnicity.  In several states these data are gathered by state statute and analyzed by a state entity, such as the attorney general’s office or human rights commission.  In other cases, these data are gathered and analyzed by individual law enforcement agencies in an effort to be transparent, or in reaction to outside accusations of racial profiling.

But are these data being collected and analyzed in a correct manner?  Are these analyses following established best practices for social scientific research in general, and racial profiling research specifically?  Is your state or agency collecting and analyzing data in a fair and impartial manner?  What are the repercussions for your agency and community if traffic stop data is collected or analyzed inaccurately?

This webinar will be an open and honest discussion about the current state of traffic stop data analysis.  Chief Harry Dolan (ret.) and Richard Johnson, Ph.D., will discuss their respective experiences with traffic data collection projects and the current state of traffic stop data collection in law enforcement. During his 32-year law enforcement career, Chief Dolan gained extensive experience with overseeing the collection, analysis, and presentation of traffic stop data to the communities he served.  Dr. Johnson previously served as a trooper with the Indiana State Police and has 20 years of experience conducting social science research on policing. He has engaged in traffic stop data analyses projects for law enforcement agencies, and assisted law enforcement agencies in building their own in-house analysis capabilities.

In this webinar, these two experts will discuss their experiences with traffic stop data and answer questions from webinar attendees regarding this topic.  These topics will include:     

• What is traffic stop data and why is it collected?
• What are the wrong ways to use and analyze traffic stop data, and what are the outcomes of improper analyses?
• What are the right ways to analyze these data, and who says these are the “right ways”?
• Does it make any difference if we gather and analyze these data or not? Does it change minds?
• What about agencies in the states that gather and analyze data at the state level?
• What can a police leader do to educate the community and elected officials about this issue?