NYU’s Policing Project finds Nashville traffic stops ineffective for reducing crime
Report offers steps to address racial disparities, improve community-police relations
NOV. 19, 2018 – Today, the Policing Project, in partnership with the Stanford Computational Policy Lab, released its assessment of the use of traffic stops by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) as a crime fighting strategy in Nashville. Our thorough assessment of using traffic stops to address crime is the first study of its kind in the nation.
Our assessment finds there are indeed notable racial disparities in traffic stops in the city. These disparities are higher for traffic stops around non-moving violations, such as broken taillights or expired tags.
MNPD explains these racial disparities in traffic stops on the grounds that officers go where the crime is, and that in Nashville, high-crime neighborhoods tend to have larger minority populations. Our assessment bears this out. However, even controlling for crime, unexplained racial disparity in traffic stops still remains.
Our report further concludes that traffic stops are not an effective strategy for reducing crime. In particular, the MNPD’s practice of making large numbers of stops in high crime neighborhoods does not appear to have any effect on crime.
We make a number of recommendations, including that MNPD:
Reduce the number of traffic stops
Acknowledge black residents have been disproportionately affected by MNPD’s stop practices
Monitor racial disparities on an ongoing basis
Redeploy officer resources toward more effective crime-fighting tools
Consider adopting a Neighborhood Policing strategy
Post its department policies online
Conduct a review of certain key policies such as use of force
Conduct a review of training around use of force, traffic stops, and procedural justice
Adopt a body camera policy with attention to transparency regarding the release of footage
In addition, we suggest that Nashville engage in a public process of strategic planning around public safety, bringing together the voices of the community and MNPD officials in doing so.
The Policing Project was invited by the Nashville Mayor’s Office to advise in the development of strategies to address racial disparities and improve community-police relations in the city. As part of this work, the Policing Project spoke with dozens of Nashville residents about their experiences with policing. MNPD provided the necessary data, and has from the beginning shown a strong commitment to re-evaluating its traffic stop strategies and developing alternatives that can achieve public safety with fewer social costs.
The full report is available at policingproject.org/nashville-traffic-stops. For more information and interviews please contact press@policingproject.org or (212) 992-6950.
The Policing Project at New York University School of Law is a nonprofit organization that partners with communities and their police to promote public safety through transparency, equity, and democratic engagement. For more information, please visit policingproject.org.
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