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NEW BRIGHTON DEPARTMENT OF <br />PUBLIC SAFETY <br />Memorandum <br /> <br />To: Public Safety Commissioners <br />From: Tony Paetznick, Director of Public Safety <br />Subject: 2020 Traffic Stop Data Collection Review <br />Date: February 4, 2021 <br /> <br />In addition to the annual review that occurred for the 2019 traffic stop data at the February <br />2020 Public Safety Commission meeting, following feedback from the City’s LISTEN initiative <br />and upon direction of Council to further analyze the issue, Commissioners reviewed the data <br />and additional materials at both the September and December meetings of last year. <br /> <br />One of the outcomes from those conversations was a request for greater analysis of the data <br />available to the department. On the attached pages of this memo, Commissioners will first find <br />comparative data from the four consecutive years of the agency’s traffic stop data collection <br />initiative (2017-2020), followed by 2020 specific data showing comparisons of both the reason <br />for the traffic stops and searches of vehicles & persons contrasted by the categories of race. <br />Also included are several pages of graphical representations of the data that will be further <br />discussed at the Monday, February 8th Commission meeting. Finally, the City’s GIS Specialist <br />has again created two maps showing the frequency locations for both traffic stops and motor <br />vehicle crashes in the City of New Brighton during 2020. <br /> <br />As a reminder, the New Brighton Department of Public Safety (NBDPS) joined with other <br />Ramsey County law enforcement agencies in 2017 to begin voluntarily collecting traffic stop <br />data. New Brighton initiated this effort to increase transparency and provide more context to <br />the limited amount of information than was previously captured. Minnesota law does not <br />require the collection of this information. Starting in January 2017, New Brighton officers <br />began recording the following data on every traffic stop: <br /> Perceived race of the driver <br /> Gender of the driver <br /> Whether the driver was searched <br /> Whether the vehicle was searched <br /> The reason for the traffic stop (moving violation, equipment violation, investigative, or <br />the result of a 911 call) <br /> <br />