Reassessing the Association Between Traffic Stops and Calling the Police for Help

Abstract

Research indicates that experiencing a traffic stop has a negative impact on citizens’ willingness to call the police for help; however, these studies rely on outdated data collected over ten years ago. We used data from the 2020 Police-Public Contact Survey, the most recent version of the survey, to reassess the association between traffic stops and two types of citizen initiated contacts with the police: reporting a crime emergency and seeking non-emergency assistance. Bivariate analyses indicated significant associations between experiencing a traffic stop and willingness to call the police. Specifically, compared to people who were not stopped by the police, people who were stopped were less likely to report a crime emergency and less likely to contact the police for non-emergency assistance.