Summary Of Duluth Police Department’s 2022 Stop Data Report, Offering Gender + Race Details
While the individual bits of data have always been public information, they've never been collected and released in a form that's accessible to most people. The Duluth Police Department has released their first-ever comprehensive Stop Data Report - covering the 2022 calendar year.
City leaders and department heads hope that the release of the report will provide additional transparency - something that's perhaps more important than ever.
The compilation report includes demographic breakdowns of the 5,944 stop data entries collected over the twelve month period. The Duluth Police Department will use that data, along with recommendations from the Racial Bias Audit, to help them "improve [their] practices and services to [the] community".
Duluth Police Chief Mike Ceynowa explains that the collection and review process is an important step:
"As a police department, it is important for us to be transparent with our community in order to build trust. This report is one piece of information that helps to reinforce our commitment to that work. Traffic and subject stops are an integral part of keeping our community safe and how these stops are conducted matter to those who live, work, and visit our city."
Information included in the report comes from so-called 'Stop Data Reporting' - which is entered by the officers during a traffic stop, subject stop, or suspicious activity. Officers are required to complete the form that has multiple mandatory fields - including the subject's race and gender.
As a regular reader of municipally-released information, I can tell you that the report is short compared to other government-issued collateral pieces - clocking in at only twelve pages. However, the information shared is concise and informative. While the full report is available for anyone to consume, here's an overview of some of the highlights, reflecting data on the 5,944 Stop Data entries:
- 39% were female
- 99.6% were "self-initiated"
- 61% were for moving violations
- 36% were for equipment violations
- 3% were for suspicious activity
Looking at the total 5,944 "stops", they resulted in 4,686 warnings, 808 citations, 207 arrests, and 243 "no actions" taken
Here's a look at the "known or perceived race" of those "stops":
- 4,830 were White (81.3%)
- 667 were Black (11.2%)
- 241 were American Indian or Alaska Native (4.1%)
- 94 were Hispanic (1.6%)
- 85 were Asian (1.4%)
- 27 were Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific (0.4%)
The Duluth Police Department plans on posting future Stop Data information on their website on a quarterly basis - in addition to the annual collective report.