NYPD Vehicle Stops Data

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.

Key Findings

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 increase in the number of traffic stops from 2023 to 2024 was greatest in Queens (+35 percent) and Brooklyn (+30 percent) and was the smallest in Manhattan (+10 percent). Though the number of arrests increased by at least 45 percent in each borough from 2023 to 2024, the increase in arrests was greatest in Brooklyn, where arrests nearly doubled from 5,446 in 2023 to 10,395 in 2024.

Traffic stops make up a significant and increasing portion of the NYPD’s policing work. In 2024, approximately 15 percent of all arrests started with a traffic stop, up from approximately 11 percent in 2023 and 10 percent in 2022.

Summing Up the Data

Every year, the NYPD stops more than one million New Yorkers. The NYPD stopped 2,211,216 drivers from 2022 to 2024, leading to a variety of outcomes including 1,785,347 summonses (“tickets”) and tens of thousands of arrests, vehicle searches, and vehicle seizures. See the table below for a summary of traffic stop outcomes. Note that multiple outcomes can occur at the same time. For instance, a single driver may be stopped, searched, and arrested. In addition, two summons may be issued or two arrests can be made during a single stop.

Approximately 89 percent of vehicles stopped were passenger vehicles (cars and SUVs), four percent were motorcycles, three percent were trucks or buses, one percent were taxis or limousines, and over one percent were bicycles.

Racial Composition of Drivers

A driver’s race appears to play a critical role in who is stopped in New York City. Black drivers make up the largest proportion of people stopped by the NYPD (32 percent), followed by Latinx drivers (30 percent), white drivers (23 percent), and Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) drivers (13 percent). Black and Latinx drivers are disproportionately stopped, accounting for 32 percent and 30 percent of traffic stops, respectively, while Black drivers are 22 percent of the driving population and Latinx drivers are 23 percent. White people are vastly underrepresented in traffic stops, accounting for 23 percent of traffic stops, yet making up 38 percent of the driving population.

Where People Are Stopped

A New York driver’s chances of being stopped depends on where they’re driving. The NYPD made 30 percent of recorded traffic stops in Brooklyn (666,959), 24 percent in Queens (523,851), 21 percent in Manhattan (471,074), 17 percent in the Bronx (379,695), and eight percent in Staten Island (169,637). Traffic stops disproportionately occurred in Brooklyn and the Bronx compared to its share of New York City car commuters. Fewer stops occurred in Queens and Manhattan than one would expect given the number of drivers who live there.

Who Gets Arrested After a Stop

Approximately 67,500 arrests were made as a result of a traffic stop. Black and Latinx drivers were arrested during traffic stops in five percent and four percent of stops, respectively, much higher rates than white drivers, who were arrested in about one percent of stops. This means nearly 90 percent (57,195 of 65,554) people arrested where their race was recorded were Black or Latinx. Roughly one in twenty traffic stops in the Bronx led to an arrest (18,081), a much higher rate than other boroughs.

Who Gets Searched and Where Searches Happen

Black and Latinx drivers were searched at much greater rates than drivers from other racial groups. Black drivers were searched at a rate roughly ten times greater than white drivers. Latinx drivers were searched at a rate roughly six times greater than white drivers.

The NYPD conducted searches at relatively high rates in the Bronx and central Brooklyn, predominantly Black and Brown neighborhoods. Searches are very rarely conducted in south Brooklyn, Lower Manhattan, Staten Island, and parts of Queens. Roughly one in twenty-four traffic stops in the Bronx led to a vehicle search (16,508), a much higher rate than other boroughs. Five of 78 precincts had a search rate of over six percent, meaning that over six percent of stops led to a vehicle being searched: Brownsville, Ocean Hill (PCT 73), University Heights, Morris Heights (PCT 46), Morrisania, Crotona Park East (PCT 42), East New York, Starret City (PCT 75), and St. Albans, Springfield Gardens (PCT 113). See map below for more details:

Vehicle Seizures

When the NYPD takes temporary possession of a vehicle, that constitutes a “seizure.” The NYPD can seize a vehicle for a number of different reasons—including in the context of an arrest for “safekeeping,” or as evidence of a suspected crime, or even because they intend to take permanent possession of it through civil forfeiture.² Depending on the context, it can be difficult or impossible to get it back. Accordingly to our data, vehicle seizures occurred in roughly one percent of stops citywide. The rate of vehicle seizures in a handful of precincts is significantly higher than others. The NYPD seized a vehicle in roughly three percent of traffic stops in Midtown (PCT 18), University Heights, Morris Heights, Fordham (PCT 46), Hunts Point (PCT 41), Concourse, Highbridge (PCT 44), Elmhurst, South Corona (PCT 110), and Jackson Heights (PCT 115), three of which are in the Bronx, two in Queens, and one in Manhattan.

When Stops Turn Violent

The NYPD reported use-of-force in 1,555 traffic stops. Approximately 87 percent of drivers subject to such cases were Black or Latinx. Of 1,483 stops where the NYPD reported use-of-force and the race of the driver was available, 799 drivers were Black, 532 were Latinx, 82 were white, and 60 were AAPI.

Twenty-nine percent of use-of-force incidents (453 of 1,555) took place in the Bronx, even though only 14 percent of stops took place in the borough. Eighty percent of NYPD precincts (63 of 78) reported less than thirty use-of-force incidents each. But six precincts reported fifty or more use-of-force incidents each.

Checkpoint Stops

Nearly eight percent of vehicle stops (174,724) originated at an NYPD checkpoint. Checkpoint stops in Brooklyn and Staten Island accounted for a greater percentage of total stops than in the other three boroughs, 10 percent and 9 percent, respectively.

Checkpoint stops accounted for 11 percent of stops (28,326) where the driver was AAPI and 8 percent of stops (50,489) where the driver was Black. By comparison, about seven percent of stops (30,269) where the driver was white occurred at a checkpoint.

Stops by Age and Gender

Nearly sixty percent of all drivers stopped were between the ages of 20 and 39People aged 50 or older accounted for only 21 percent of drivers stopped.

A vast majority of drivers stopped by the NYPD were men (83 percent of traffic stops with a recorded gender).

About the Data

The NYLCU’s analysis is based on the NYPD’s quarterly vehicle stop data, which are published by the NYPD every three months (available here). The data includes all vehicle stops made by the NYPD and the resulting enforcement or action taken, including summonses (tickets), arrests, vehicle searches, etc. The data are broken down by race, gender, age, and precinct where the vehicle stop took place.

The NYPD traffic stop dataset is missing various information at times, so the following measures were taken to account for the missing information:

• The race of the driver is missing in 204,469 (nine percent) of NYPD stop records. Records where race is unknown are excluded from the analysis when discussing racial disparities.
• The age of the driver is missing in 120,551 (five percent) of NYPD stop records. Records where age is unknown is excluded from the analysis when discussing age disparities.
• The gender of the driver is missing in 15,845 (one percent) of NYPD stop records. Records where gender is unknown are excluded from the analysis when discussing gender disparities.

A Note on Estimating NYC Drivers

It is impossible to know who is driving on a given day in New York City, and therefore, who may be subject to an NYPD traffic stop. The proxy used in this project is the number of New York City car commuters. The population statistics were compiled using the 2019-2023 US Census Bureau American Community Survey, table S0804. An estimated 1,071,936 New York City residents commute by car. Of car commuters, 38 percent are white, 22 percent are Black, 23 percent are Latinx, and 14 percent are AAPI.

Footnotes

<sup>1. The New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services reports that, in 2024, there were 210,914 adult arrests in NYC compared to 183,505 in 2023 and 154,615 in 2022: https://www.criminaljustice.ny.gov/crimnet/ojsa/tableau_Adult_Arrest_County.html
2. Civil forfeiture is a legal process wherein police seize property of people suspected of committing a crime.</sup>