April 24, 2025 Story by: Editor
NYPD officers stop over one million New Yorkers in vehicles every year and these stops are likely the largest category of police-civilian interaction. One reason for the enormous number of vehicle stops is that courts have ruled police officers generally have the authority to stop any vehicle as long as they can claim a traffic or vehicle infraction.
This standard is so low – especially since it is difficult to drive without violating one of the numerous traffic laws – that it makes it difficult to challenge stops that are made for impermissible reasons, including racial profiling.
Until recently, the NYPD revealed little about the outcome of traffic stops and who the department was pulling over. Now data obtained by the NYCLU after a lawsuit against the NYPD reveals troubling information about how the NYPD polices New York City drivers.
The data shows that NYPD officers are more likely to stop, arrest, search, and use force against Black and Latinx drivers. There are also geographic disparities that show drivers in certain boroughs and particular neighborhoods are more likely to face NYPD scrutiny.
According to an original analysis of NYPD traffic stop data from a three year period, 2022 to 2024, the NYCLU found the following:
The NYPD made more than two million traffic stops. The NYPD issued about 1.8 million tickets as a result of traffic stops, made around 68,000 arrests, searched a vehicle close to 57,000 times, and seized approximately 26,000 times.
Black and Latinx drivers are disproportionately stopped, accounting for 32 percent and 30 percent of traffic stops, respectively, while they represent approximately 22 percent and 23 percent of the driving population, respectively. White people are vastly underrepresented in traffic stops, accounting for 23 percent of traffic stops, yet making up 38 percent of the driving population.
Vehicle searches and seizures, arrests, and use-of-force resulting from traffic stops all increased by more than 50 percent from 2023 to 2024.
Traffic stops increased by approximately 25 percent from 2023 to 2024.
Nearly 90 percent of people arrested during a traffic stop were Black or Latinx.
Black drivers were searched at a rate roughly ten times greater than the rate that white drivers were. Latinx drivers were searched at a rate roughly six times greater than the rate that white drivers were.
Traffic stops, vehicle searches, and resulting arrests increased at an alarming rate in 2024
Traffic stops, vehicle searches and seizures, arrests, and reported uses-of-force all increased dramatically in 2024. The NYPD made 855,750 traffic stops in 2024, a 25 percent increase from the number made in 2023 (682,346). Searches of vehicles, meanwhile, surged. The NYPD searched 83 percent more vehicles and seized 70 percent more vehicles in 2024 than they did in 2023. The NYPD made 62 percent more arrests and reported use-of-force in 53 percent more instances compared to the previous year.
The full report can be found below:
Source: ACLU of New York
